Before starting to sketch or wireframe, I downloaded all the free iOS apps for the major productivity players, and assessed what they succeeded at and what could be better.
Evernote
Regarding the Flexibility vs Usability Tradeoff (the basic concept that the more features a product or service has the more difficult it is to use), Evernote definitely favours a larger feature base at the expense of simplicity, and at times intuitiveness. Mitigations are present, such as an algorithm that recognises your location, the date and time and any events nearby or in your calendar and auto-writes a subject header to save time or help force better archiving. The app I will design will spare advanced features in favour of aesthetics (a USP of the product) and high levels of usability.
Notes
Apple's stock Notes app on iOS slightly favours simplicity, but the visual design is overwhelmingly subtle and nonchalant (it is of course representative of a static piece of paper) - Nota should have much more visual 'movement' to incite task completion and activity.
Google Keep
Google Keep has a simple and intuitive interface, but the visuals accompanying it are garish and subjectively unattractive. Though Nota must use colour in order to achieve the secondary goal of injecting colour and vibrancy to my portfolio, it must look more polished and intentional.
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