Quick feedback:

TiredReader

Just started using it (switching from Milanote) and it looks very promising, but there are some things that are holding ti back I think.

Probably the top 2 things I use in Milanote that Thinker is lacking is boards and notes under images. Having canvases (or boards, whatever) within canvases (with icons) is the best way from comic artists like me to work imo. Also I need to put notes under images without it being a separate note. Technically I could just make a separate note and then group the note and image together, but that's just quite inconvenient when it should be a one-button sort of deal.

Also main critique is it's not very intuitive, like there are a lot of pretty icons, but I have no idea what any of the buttons do. I've been trying to create a writing document in my canvas for a while btu I simply cannot find the button. Make it so when you hover over an icon for a couple seconds, it says what the name of it is.

(Edit: In the Thinker preview there is a button to add a writing document, at the bottom all the way to the left, but it is not present Thinker Cloud.)

Other random notes...

On the side bar it says "S" "M" "L" "XL" which confused me heavily, until I realized it is the thickness of lines/shapes. Just make this a drag bar instead, and label it "Width" so it's easier for people to know the random T-shirt size lineup is actually regarding line thickness. Same situation with the other rows, I still don't know what the little square row is about. Like when making text, why the T-shirt sizes and not pixel size or drag bar? And if not wanting to make it pixel size, why not just call it "Title" "Subheading" "Body" etc?

While minimalism is good, Thinker takes it a bit too far regarding not labelling anything. I think it's very good for people who just want to have a visual board of things, but for intense and complicated projects that include both art, writing, and video, it isn't really a Milanote alternative at this point. To be fair, I think it's absolutely suitable for more simple projects or brainstorming.

TiredReader

TiredReader Realized this post sounds a bit rude, I'm just tired :p But I actually really like Thinker and will be using it for simpler projects!!

Also ugh disregard a decent amount of this I realized that a lot of this was from me using the notepad thinking it should have document features, when it's actually fine as is.

arjunacharya10

Hey!

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback. I'll do my best to address these points in the most effective way possible, and don't worry—I appreciate the honesty! 🙂

Icon Hover Tooltip: This is a great suggestion! I'll work on adding this feature for better clarity and usability.
Writing Notes Document: The writing notes document in the offline version was removed because the Text element now directly provides the same functionality. I decided to simplify the design by eliminating the box in favor of a more streamlined experience.
Draggable Text Size (T-shirt Size): I love how you creatively referred to this as "T-shirt size"! The key point here is that the focus on the whiteboard isn't so much about pixel-perfect accuracy but about visibility. You can always select and drag the text to adjust the size to your preference.
The shape's borders and background options (solid, dotted, striped, etc., the other two rows of Icons ) are more about customizing the appearance and are not something someone frequently use - its more of a good to have. It’s a quick, exploratory feature that users will likely pick up in a few minutes of using the app.
Notes Under Image: Excellent point about image captions. I’m working on this feature, and it will allow users to easily add captions below images for more context.
Simpler Projects/Canvas in Canvas: I respectfully disagree here. While the "Canvas in Canvas" feature might seem useful for certain use cases, it’s actually quite niche and can be confusing for many users. Once you start nesting too many layers, it’s easy to lose track of where you are. Unlike Milanote, which doesn’t provide a clear visual hierarchy of layers, our approach keeps things cleaner. For example, if you want to build a branching narrative, a simple Page Indicator on the canvas allows you to understand which page to switch to, without unnecessary depth or confusion. You will easily know how many pages are there in total.

The Team Wall has a Canvas in Canvas concept but again its only one layer - The Wall component becomes the Team's "Huddle Point" and then the canvas branches of to Sub domains that each sub group the the team tackles

Hope you try out Thinker more and keep giving your feedback. The beta is planned for rapid make-break and quick feedback and I really appreciate your time on this!

arjunacharya10

I have added tooltop for the main toolbar along with the shortcuts that you can use to select them! Try it out

TiredReader

arjunacharya10 Yes, thank you for the clarification on the features! Looking forward to future updates.

arjunacharya10

TiredReader thank you!! All updates will be made in the community page

TiredReader

arjunacharya10

Here's a video of some more feature requests and feedback, take and disregard whatever you want. If any of my feedback is simply because I've missed something, please let me know because I am very much looking forward to using Thinker if certain things are cleared up/added

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OKlYvhtkaU9MbTjUrryB04wvbLEt9U5S/view?usp=sharing

arjunacharya10

TiredReader This is actually some amazing feedback. I didn’t expect the notes to have such an impact—but thinking about it now, it totally makes sense! I’m definitely going to add that back in… or maybe even build a better version of it.

Also, multiple documents within the canvas—yep, 100% agree, this feels like a must-have. There’s a bit of a hacky workaround on the Team page right now, but I’ve been thinking about this too, and your feedback really validates that direction.

Here’s how I’m planning to prioritize the changes:

Notepad within the document
Multiple documents on canvas
Notes under image / Image caption
Easier project access (There’s a dropdown next to “My Projects” that currently only lists teams—I’ll update that to show projects too)
Rename project on double-tap

As for canvas inside canvas—I’m going to park that idea for now. Needs a bit more thought before diving in.

But honestly, I’m super grateful you took the time to share such detailed feedback—and make a screen recording! That means a lot. I’ll keep you posted as I roll out updates 🙂

Cheers!

arjunacharya10

Quick Update, The notepad on canvas feature is live: Please check it out.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PUnGsaOFFrdmC14IDoKdAV5VrYl4VzAl/view?usp=sharing

Let me know if this is good, and I will incorporate it into the team collaboration document as well!

TiredReader

arjunacharya10

I really like it, but there's a handful of bugs:

You should make it possible to resize the Mini Note (height/width)
When you want to select a sentence, it often just drags the whole note
When you drag text, it duplicates the text rather than just moving it
Tendency to swap background to black when text is dragged, and CTRL-Z does not revert it back.

Short video example: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AjpMi9oSmyW_UieBIo-AtLf6bMEO5h3-/view?usp=sharing

arjunacharya10

TiredReader ahh! Okay thanls for highlighting this! Let me work on this

arjunacharya10

I have fixed the above bugs! Things should run smoothly now

arjunacharya10

Embedded documents updated. Please do give it a try!: https://drive.google.com/file/d/13Bb_ei0Foa3-cfsgCHcJaWA3R1eFcSw6/view?usp=sharing

TiredReader

Sorry for the late feedback was busy. Also I recommend 2x speeding this video since as I am sick, I was speaking quite slowly. I appreciate how quick you are with responses!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UCZ5zmUO_NIRD8gJufJgVFJiiJGx4349/view?usp=sharing

arjunacharya10

TiredReader Heyy! Please find the updates below:

🐞 Bugs and UX Issues

🪲 Functional Bugs

Dragging text duplicates instead of moving it - ✅
- When dragging a paragraph, it copies instead of removing the original.
Cannot multi-select text across bullets - ❌
- Only allows editing one bullet at a time, making it difficult to batch style (e.g., change all colors).
Mini-notes can't be moved- ✅
- Once placed, mini-notes are immovable unless resized to "push" them elsewhere.
Site flickers and refreshes randomly - ❌ Might be browser specific
- Unexpected flickering/refreshing occurs even without user input, disrupting actions.
Double-clicking a document doesn't open it - ✅
- Requires clicking a tiny arrow instead of just double-clicking the icon.
Documents can be deleted mid-use and aren't recoverable - Created a dedicated delete button ✅
- Deleting a document and pressing Ctrl+Z doesn't bring it back — it's gone permanently.
Documents spawn off-screen - ✅
- New documents are placed far from the center, making them hard to find.
Renaming a document resets its color - ✅
- Changing the name reverts the document color back to blue.
Embedded videos do not load - ❌ Unable to reproduce, Will recheck
- Embedded videos fail to display in the document view.
Text color resets to blue on new lines - ✅
- Pressing Enter resets the color to blue, even if another color is set.
Dragging media into documents drops them in mini-notes - ✅ Please check the video in the previous comment for how to drag
- Media sometimes lands in mini-notes and becomes stuck there.
No scrollbar or document position indicator - ✅
- There’s no visual cue for scroll position in long documents.

✨ Feature Requests / UX Improvements

Text color should persist after Enter - ✅
- Typed text should stay in the selected color until manually changed.
Photo captions in mini-notes - Coming soon
- Ability to caption images outside documents (e.g., in mini-notes).
Center new documents on creation - ✅
- New docs should appear in the middle of the screen to avoid confusion.
Add extra bottom padding in documents - ❌ Might be browser specific, please check video in comment
- Need space at the bottom to insert blocks without having to press Enter multiple times.
Undo (Ctrl+Z) should recover deleted documents - The document deletion is handled as a double step confirmation
- Deleted docs should be restored with undo, not lost.
Separate styling for titles and body - Independent styles per block
- Ctrl+A currently selects and changes both title and body — should allow independent styling.

arjunacharya10

Hey!! Hope you get well soon. Thank you for the detailed review and sorry there are such pesky bugs still, ill polish them off soon haha. Please check this video - it explains some of the issues you pointed out as well:

https://www.loom.com/share/9a8ee5c8d1344e67a87848cf168c45a7?sid=69570377-be7a-4769-a961-44748e4b08b5

Will keep you posted when I fix the bugs

arjunacharya10

Hey! I have fixed the document being created at random places bug - now it appears at the center of the screen. I haven't sat on the other improvements (including the pending ones from earlier) yet since i was revamping the u but will sit on it soon!

What do you think of the new UI?

TiredReader

arjunacharya10

Thank you for fixing some of the stuff! I've been on vacation. I'm going to start migrating my stuff onto thinker to fully push it's limits rather than just light testing, since I think it's in a good enough state to do so. I will come back soon with future requests.

Also, I will move this convo to the "bugs" discussion