We need your help on a brand new App…

Announcing Cardflow Beta!

We love index cards. We use them a lot.

They are a versatile and surprisingly powerful tool for all kinds of tasks. From brainstorming to drafting storyboards, to planning entire projects, they have a place in every workflow.

We wanted to build an App for the iPad that captures the ease and flexibility of paper index cards.

We call it Cardflow.

The idea is simple: There's a large virtual table where you can place any number of cards. You can write, draw, or type on the cards - jot down a quick idea, sketch a diagram, or type out detailed notes. Then rearrange the cards depending on your workflow.

Tools that Match your Thinking

Index cards seem pretty mundane, but there are good reasons to use them as inspiration for next-generation digital tools.

First, they have been battle-tested and refined over many, many years. There's a reason index cards are a particular size and shape. They're small enough to capture a single concept, yet big enough to jot down more detailed notes, or draw a legible diagram.

Each card is perfect for representing a beat in a story, a single work item, or sketching a single scene in a storyboard.

When used with a large surface like a table or cork-board, they are an ideal tool for planning out projects large and small.

But the primary beauty of an index card is in its flexibility. You can put anything you want on them, and mix and match different types of content to match the ideas you have in your head.

Digital tools are great in their own way, but something many of them have missed is this primary flexibility of expression. Few of them are able to capture the “flow" experience of pen and paper.

Sometimes you want to type up notes, but you may want to add a quick sketch, or switch to writing in longhand. You also want to be able to easily rearrange things around as ideas evolve. To go from a jumble of ideas to a more structured outline or table.

Index cards are a perfect metaphor for a new kind of digital authoring tool that you can effortlessly tailor to match your particular way of thinking or working.

We've been using Cardflow in our own brainstorming and design sessions and it has proven to be quite a hit! I hope you'll find it useful in your own workflow as well.

Get the Beta Right Now!

We're excited to ship Cardflow later this year, but you can download the Beta today. Just fill in this short form to receive a download link via Testflight.

Looking forward to hearing what you guys think!

Update: Cardflow has now been released to the App Store, which concludes the Beta program. Thanks everyone for participating! Now go download Cardflow!

Related: Cardflow.