I was reflecting upon the manner in which I have come to govern the modes within my software Pink!—a contrivance wherein one may shift between the acts of drawing and erasing. These twin modes are fashioned such that each transforms the entire visual realm in which it operates. The drawing mode unfolds upon a living sheet of roseate paper, alive with a lustrous, glittering ink; yet the instant one alters the mode to erasing, the world itself changes hue—the paper turns to a somber blue-grey, the ink to white, and any element upon the verge of deletion glows in crimson, encased within a boundary of angular severity, styled as though from the barrel of a gun, imparting a palpable sense of peril. Should that warning not suffice, a grand proclamation—“Erase Mode”—animates at the summit of the screen, ensuring it cannot escape the eye. This, I find, is not merely beautiful, but a most articulate expression that one has entered the domain of erasure.

The second matter of design concerns the manner by which the mode is changed: through a double tap upon the trackpad—or a right click when employing a mouse. This bears significance, for even upon physical paper one must reverse the pen to reach its eraser, or worse, exchange it entirely. In a common computing system, such alteration demands a click upon a toolbar, as in Photoshop. Yet in Pink!, the transformation is executed without the faintest rupture of attention; the hand never strays from the trackpad, nor ventures elsewhere within the confines of the screen. It occurs amidst the very act of drawing itself.

All this has been contrived with deliberate care, that Pink! might function in the simplest, most unencumbered fashion. Though I possess a wide acquaintance with the theories of media and the doctrines of interface design, and though the wisdom of the great minds who have walked before me has assuredly shaped my thought, this particular conception sprang from instinct alone. I designed what felt most natural to me. Indeed, one may observe that many of the finest works of interface design were wrought by those unversed in theory, guided instead by that same unspoken instinct—for to them also, it simply felt natural.