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Bible iPhone App Has ‘Reduced Friction’ For Less Than Two Dollars

By Maryam Louise
Published on: 14:09 PST, Mar 22, 2015

A copy of a “reduced friction” Bible can be downloaded on your iPhone for $1.99 — thanks to app developer Kory Westerhold. The Bible has been known to cause friction over the centuries. But the maker of this new Bible app explains in an exclusive interview with Fast Company Design that this is not the kind of Bible friction he is referring to.

Cult of Mac reviewed the NeuBible app and went as far as calling it one of their “Awesome Apps of the Week.”

They said about the new Bible app, “Can reading the Bible be sexy? There’s a new app from an ex-Apple designer that argues it can. We’ve also got the snakiness weather app you ever did see, the long-awaited return of an App Store reject, and other indie goodies you don’t want to miss. [sic]”

Popular Mechanics was also delighted by the new Bible app and stated, “The good book is getting the high-end app treatment… It’s the Bible optimized for mobile, designed simply and elegantly… The simple, unadorned text with modern design stands in contrast to other clunky, less functional Bible apps. [sic]”

They also indicated that more versions of the Bible would be included in the future. Currently there were four translations, including the World English Bible, American Standard Version, King James Version, and New American Standard Version.

Who is the inventor of the new Bible app? The bio for his Twitter account @iamKory states, “Making , Product design at, Partner at , Previously design at Apple — DOWN WITH NOISE.”

His interview about the new Bible app with Fast Company Design recalls a turning point that led to the creation of the Bible app.

Kory Westerhold was working at Apple and Senior Vice President Eddy Cue was telling employees, “There are millions of things around us that cause friction; you just have to be mindful of those things, and look for those things.”

Westerhold thought to himself at that moment that the friction Eddy Cue discussed was the Bible. Westerhold went on to explain in the Fast Company Design interview that he soon joined up with Aaron Martin, who works as a design director for Yahoo. Their main goal for creating the new Bible app was to “get rid of everything between you and scripture.”

This implies that making a Bible app have reduced friction means that is easy to use — and does not have adornment in the slightest. This includes not using cursive script and no design flaws — in an effort to define “beautiful utility.” The new Bible app designers concluded with, “Our lack of features is an intentional feature.”

If you want to see a preview of the new Bible app, Fast Company has a sample on their website. In the near future, versions of this Bible app will be available for iPad and Android smartphone users. NeuBible’s iPhone app can be downloaded here.

[All images via the referenced links.]

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