A design app designed for all

Including everyone in the creative blueprint

In our ongoing focus on accessibility-based design and in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (May 19), we highlight apps that make designing for all a top priority. Sketchable, a comprehensive drawing app, exemplifies this ideal in its vision to ensure everyone with a passion for art can create with ease.  

Floridian brothers Miles and Ryan Harris are one year apart and seemingly joined at the hip when it comes to the evolution of their family business, Silicon Benders. Having grown up in a home that showcased digital art, their shared appreciation of gaming graphics software seamlessly morphed into the world of programming. After competing on the track as athletes to sharing the stage of their college graduation, they wanted to use their newfound coding expertise to create something empowering—for everyone.

In comes Sketchable. Your go-to digital sketchpad.

The Harris Brothers’ design strategy centered on being a “modern pen and touch first” application. Sketchable focuses on being an all-inclusive app that is heavily integrated with hardware and considerate of all inputs (i.e., stylus, touch, dial, voice, and mouse + keyboard).

The app’s mission? Equally energize all artists with choice.

Using input devices such as the Surface Dial, the Silicon Benders team’s eyes were opened even further to the possibilities. Soon after, they received feedback from one of their Sketchable artisans, which pointed out the ever-growing variety of addressable use cases.

Due to the physical limitations of a rare autoimmune disease, the artist looked for ways to improve her artistic process. Pairing the powerful app with the latest technologies and applying a more intimate understanding of user needs, Miles and Ryan sought to further heighten the creative processes and techniques of users.

“It was paramount that all of her energy be focused on the stylus meeting the canvas, not pressing buttons or digging through menus,” said Ryan, who described this as their “accessibility epiphany.”

Developing for accessibility-based scenarios became a natural progression within their founding design principle. For instance, the duo went on to incorporate microphone and voice recognition support. With this inclusion, users could simply say “color red,” forgoing the need to interact with a color picker while never removing the stylus from the canvas. This feature worked so well that they added a voice command for every keyboard shortcut.

Sketchable also allows users to break the canvas into a grid, which gives users a slight nudge if they cross gridlines. According to Miles, “this allows them to maintain the proper scale and proportion of their image, while providing feedback based on their stylus’s position on the digital canvas.”

“We absorb all the feedback we receive from Creatives,” added Ryan, who—along with Miles—continues to welcome artist commentary. “Ultimately, we want them all to interact with Sketchable in their own way. Every artist has a preferred creative process, so by offering as many deeply integrated inputs possible, the app allows them to use the methods and techniques that lead to their best ‘flow state.’”

The Silicon Benders team continues to find ways to incorporate different tools and options that every one of their Sketchable artisans can tap into, producing their own special creations. The Harris Brothers have programmed the app to help artists reach their fullest potential while discovering their untapped, imaginative superpowers.

Put simply. “We wanted to make Sketchable powerful for everyone by designing for all inputs,” Miles explained. “For instance, if the person is a novice who prefers to use voice, then they can customize the experience for their own style. We set out to create a true modern app that adheres to all form factors.”

“We strive to keep creators focused on their creations,” said Ryan. “Honestly, it’s just fun to see what people make” as he referenced everything from architectural drawings to tattoo designs to game development on Sketchable.

Miles went on to add that they simply want “to help empower the world to do better.”

As the Sketchable app continues to evolve, the Miles and Ryan maintain that their top priority is to keep the app as broad and as open as possible—leaving no artist behind.