Behind the App: BrushPilot – Jay Hilgert (Bittbox)

Want to know how to make your App a smashing success?  Fuel Your Apps recently sat down with Jay Hilgert (Bittbox), to get some insight into his experiences bringing BrushPilot (the photoshop plugin mac app) to the masses. Below is the interview:

Where did the idea of Brush Pilot come from?

Well, I really wanted an app Like Brush Pilot, and after being frustrated trying the clunky java versions around and not having any luck finding anything suitable, I decided to take matters into my own hands. It was a risk, but I was certain that there were other people like me out there who could really use an app like Brush Pilot.

At what point did you decide ok, this is going to become a reality?

After I found a developer, we had some conversations about how long it would take and how much it would cost, and I decided that the benefits outweighed the risks, so I set things in motion and never looked back.

How did you take the first few plunges into the app? Sketch out the app? Hire a developer? Do it yourself?

Well, I started in Photoshop and went back and forth with my developer with how the app should look while he started the backend development. We made a few UI changes as we figured out which features we could include and after that, we started testing away.

Where did your pricing come from? Affordability? Enough to cover your overhead? etc.

I wanted it to be affordable. I know people have been waiting on this app for a long time and I wanted it to be affordable enough for anyone to enjoy it. Plus, I didn’t want to over-price it for version 1. There are still a ton of improvements we can make to Brush Pilot before it becomes a $20 app. I wouldn’t feel right charging more than $15 at this point in the app’s life.

What were the key features you wanted to capture in Brush Pilot?

Lightning fast previews was my top priority, and I have to say, my developer did a great job on that. The speed of Brush Pilot wouldn’t be possible without Spotlight technology, and I’ve had some complaints about relying on Spotlight, but let’s face it, Brush Pilot is up to 50x faster than ABR Viewer (open source Java app). I even tested it with 5.5 Gigs of brushes on an external HD and it only to 5-10 seconds to populate the file list. I’m very happy with the speed, and how lightweight the app turned out to be. Another thing I concentrated on, was the file system. I thought it was important for users to distinguish which of their brushes were installed, and which ones were not. This way you know what’s going to show up in you list of brushes when you fire up Photoshop. Also, the ability to install and delete was essential in order to truly be a useful app. I thought to myself “It’s nice to be able to preview the brushes, but if I have to open finder and move the files manually, it would just be a pain.” That’s just a few of the big ones we concentrated on.

How have you been marketing the app? (soft release? Your blog? twitter ads etc)

I started out with posting about it on my blog BittBox.com, then proceeded to Twitter, email, etc. I just recently got an affiliate program working, so if anyone has a Photoshop related website and wants to earn 20%, you can always drop me a line at brushpilot [at] gmail [dot] com.

What is something you took away from the process that people making new apps like you did would gain insight from?

It always takes longer than you think. I guess you could say the same about web design, but making an app, there are so many little things that can easily be overlooked. Test, Test, Test. Even in the early stages, send it out to people you can trust to test because everyone uses their computer differently and they might find a bug in 5 seconds that you haven’t found in 3 weeks. Also, keep an eye on Apple coming out with “Resolution Independent” UI for their software. From now on, to be on the safe side, I would do all my UI design in vector format.

Have you been bitten by the app bug or are you already thinking of something else to design?

I’m going to try and perfect Brush Pilot before I start thinking about anything else. There are still plenty of enhancements I’d like to see in version 2: Drag and Drop is a must. Renaming files, Shift + Select for installing/Deleting, full size PNG export, just to name a few.

Did you design the logo for Brush Pilot and how did you come up with the name? Has it always been called this or has it changed?

No, actually I hired a company that specializes in icon design, and they are very affordable. www.artua.com I’m a graphic designer, but icon design is a different animal, so I decided to leave it to the pros.

About Jay Hilgert (Bittbox)

He graduated from Oklahoma State University in 2005, with a BFA in Graphic Design and ended up getting a job at a small design firm in St. Louis. While in St. Louis, He started BittBox.com and after a while, ended up quitting my job to blog full time. Jay moved back to Oklahoma City where he currently runs BittBox, design fonts, and now is in the software business, so you can imagine, he spends most of his time emailing people theses days :)

Want to connect more with Jay?

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