Inspire yourself with Dribbblr for iPad

Posted by Ben Briggs on January 25th, 2011
iPad App - Designed for iPad

If you’re a designer, creative person or just like viewing the latest projects that people are working on, Dribbble is for you. It’s a community created by Dan Cederholm for designers, developers, artists and other people that show off their work in small, cropped "shots"; and its free to sign up, start browsing and following creative people from around the globe.

Dribbblr is the perfect companion to the site; developed by Tapmates, it makes use of Dribbble's API to offer up an extremely well-crafted experience that's tailored for the iPad's display. Shots are shown four to a page in landscape mode, and two to a page in portrait mode; these are full-size images so it's easy to navigate through. You can use the app to browse through everyone's work even if you're not a member of Dribbble, but signing up for the service will allow you to browse shots from people that you follow.

It should be noted that the Dribbble API is still in beta form, so any app that uses the API can only read data from Dribbble's server. That means that commenting, uploading, liking a shot and following other users isn't currently possible. This is why the developers have bundled a browser with the app, so that the website is only a tap away.

So why download this one, anyway? Well, for one, it’s free (paying $2.99 will remove the unobtrusive advertising), but two it’s also a strong application both in design and usability; comments slide in with a barely audible click, the title bar has a lot of personality with the handwritten typography, and the main loading indicator is a bouncing basketball, tying into the Dribbble theme. It's the perfect "coffee table app"; like a virtual magazine that updates itself whenever new shots are posted to the website. Dribbblr will also inspire without an Internet connection with a nice collection of wallpapers for the iPad and so is a great one to get, especially if you're itching to show off your device.