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Update: This is a reflection on my first three years as a founding designer at GoodNotes. While some parts may feel dated, the journey led to great success—GoodNotes grew to 19 million monthly active users and was named Apple’s iPad App of the Year in 2022.

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BackGround

In 2017, I joined GoodNotes, a top-ranked note-taking app on the App Store. As the first designer hired, I found a product already featured by Apple, driven by excellent writing experience and customer loyalty.

Apple TVads back in 2017： How to magically convert handwritten notes to text then share them with iOS 11

GoodNotes transforms the iPad and Apple Pencil into a powerful digital writing tool. Whether you're an architect sketching floorplans, a student taking lecture notes, a teacher grading assignments, or a musician composing sheet music, GoodNotes meets your writing needs. It offers the convenience of paperless notes with the added benefits of searchability and secure storage.

Scope of the Project

The scope of this project is to completely redesign GoodNotes from the ground up, focusing on improving the user experience, modernizing the product’s architecture, and addressing major usability pain points. The redesign covers:

• Transition from Version 4 to Version 5, motivated by technical debt and the need for scalable, collaborative features.
• Improved file management, search functions, and a streamlined toolbar to boost efficiency.
• Enhanced discoverability so features are easier for new users to find.