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{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{short description|American software developer|bot=PearBOT 5}}{{Infobox person
{{Copy edit|date=August 2022}}
|spouse name = JeanLoren WhiteheadBrichter▼
 
| image = Loren Brichter.jpeg
{{Infobox scientist
|name caption = Loren Brichter in 2012
|image birth_date = {{Birth date =and age|1984|11|15}}
|caption birth_place = [[Manhattan, =New York]]
|birth_date nationality = {{birth[[United date and age|1984|11States|15}}American]]
|birth_place alma_mater = [[Manhattan, NewTufts YorkUniversity]]
|death_date occupation = [[Software developer]]
| known_for = [[Tweetie]],<br />[[Pullpull-to-Refreshrefresh]],<br /> ''[[Letterpress (video game)|Letterpress]]''▼
|death_place =
|citizenship spouse = [[UnitedJean States]]Whitehead
|nationality mother = [[UnitedChristina States|American]]Sidoti
|ethnicity father = Gabor Brichter
|fields = [[Computer science]],<br />[[human-computer interaction]],<br />[[user interface design]]
|workplaces =
|alma_mater = [[Tufts University]]
|doctoral_advisor =
|academic_advisors =
|doctoral_students =
|notable_students =
▲|known_for = [[Tweetie]],<br />[[Pull-to-Refresh]],<br /> [[Letterpress (video game)|Letterpress]]
|author_abbrev_bot =
|author_abbrev_zoo =
|influences =
|influenced =
|awards =
▲|spouse = Jean Whitehead
|signature =
|footnotes =
}}
 
'''Loren Brichter''' (born November 15, 1984) is an American software developer who is best known for creating [[Tweetie]] and the [[pull-to-refresh]] interaction. techniqueAfter atebits, his self-founded company, was bought by [[Twitter, Inc.]] in 2010, he developed a [[word game]] for [[iOS]] called ''[[Letterpress (video game)|Letterpress]]''.
 
==PersonalEarly life and influenceeducation==
Loren Brichter was born in [[Manhattan|Manhattan, New York]], on November 15, 1984. He is a son of contractor Gabor Brichter and real estate entrepreneur,restauranteur restaurateur, and designer Christina Sidoti.<ref name="Fame">{{cite web|last1=Ritchie|first1=Rene|title=Hall of fame: Loren Brichter and Tweetie|url=http://www.imore.com/hall-fame-loren-brichter-and-tweetie|website=iMore|date=June 5 June, 2013|publisher=iMore|accessdate=28April April28, 2016}}</ref> BrichterMichael was first introduced to programming byTempel, his middle school teacher, Michaelintroduced Tempel,Brichter to programming with [[Logo (programming language)|Logo]].<ref name="Interview">{{cite interview |last= Brichter |first= Loren |subject-linktitle=Email Interview with Loren Brichter |interviewerdate=April Samantha Lee21, Sijia2016 Zhang|interviewer1=Samantha &Lee Jenna Choo|titleinterviewer2=Sijia EmailZhang Interview with Loren Brichter|dateinterviewer3=Jenna April 21, 2016Choo}}</ref> HeBrichter thenwas explored furtherinterested in high school, got into [[Cocoa (API)|Cocoa]] programming,during high school<ref name="Transcript">{{cite web|last1=Ritchie|first1=Rene|title=Loren Brichter talks Apple, OpenGL, Tweetie, Letterpress, and the future of interface|url=http://www.imore.com/loren-brichter-talks-opengl-tweetie-letterpress-and-future-interface|website=iMore|date=November 14 November, 2012|publisher=iMore|accessdate=April 28 April, 2016}}</ref> and picked uplearned [[C (programming language)|C]], [[Objective-C]], as well as [[Web development|web programming]] with the help offrom his teacher, Chris Lehmann.<ref name="Interview" /> Together with Jean Whitehead, they have three children.<ref name="Interview" />
 
Brichter attended [[Tufts University]], where he initially intendedintending to study [[Computer Science]]. He then switched majorshis twice,major firstfrom to [[Computer Engineering]], then to [[Electrical Engineering]]. Heand graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. He was offered free masters by the university, which he declined so that he could start his career. Prior to his graduation, he had considered dropping out early due to a different job offeroffering from Apple byat the beginning of his senior year. However, his family and his girlfriend, Jean Whitehead, convinced him to reject it so that he could graduate. Later on,{{When|date=January 2024}} he then got a new offer to work on the then secret [[iPhone]] and [[iPad]] project, which he accepted and worked on after he graduated.<ref name="Interview" />▼
===Tufts University===
▲Brichter attended Tufts University where he initially intended to study [[Computer Science]]. He then switched majors twice, first to [[Computer Engineering]], then to [[Electrical Engineering]]. He graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. He was offered free masters by the university, which he declined so that he could start his career. Prior to his graduation, he had considered dropping out early due to a different job offer from Apple by the beginning of his senior year. However, his family and his girlfriend convinced him to reject it so that he could graduate. Later on, he then got a new offer to work on the then secret iPhone and iPad project, which he accepted and worked on after he graduated.<ref name="Interview" />
 
==Career timeline==
From 2006 to 2007, Brichter worked at Apple as part of a five-person team<ref>{{cite news|last1=E. Lessin|first1=Jessica|title=High Priest of App Design, at Home in Philly|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324392804578358730990873670|accessdate=April 28, 2016|publisher=Wall Street Journal|date=March 17, 2013}}</ref> responsible for making the iPhone's [[graphics hardware]] and software communicate. He left the company after iPhone 1.0 was complete. From 2007 to 2010, Brichter founded his own company, Atebits, in 2007, and released a small drawing app for Mac known as Scribbles.<ref name="Scribbles">{{cite web|last1=Appleyard|first1=David|title=Scribbles: Simple, Intuitive Drawing for Mac|url=http://mac.appstorm.net/general/scribbles-simple-intuitive-drawing-for-mac/|website=appstorm|accessdate=April 28, 2016}}</ref> Brichter then released his second app, [[Tweetie]], in 2008, where the [[pull-to-refresh]] interaction technique was invented. In the same year, Brichter also co-founded a company Borange.<ref>{{cite web|title=Borange|url=http://www.borange.com/|website=Borange|accessdate=April 28, 2016}}</ref> In 2009, he was the recipient of the Apple Designer of Year award. From 2010 to 2011, Brichter worked for [[Twitter, Inc.|Twitter]], at which point he would sell Tweetie and his company.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kincaid|first1=Jason|title=Twitter Acquires Tweetie|url=https://techcrunch.com/2010/04/09/twitter-acquires-tweetie/|website=Tech Crunch|date=April 10, 2010 |accessdate=April 28, 2016}}</ref> Upon leaving Twitter in November 2011,<ref name="Fame" /> Brichter refounded Atebits, a different company which utilizes the same name as his startup from before. Atebits then released a word game app [[Letterpress (video game)|''Letterpress'']] in 2012, which was later sold to Solebon in early 2016. One of the reasons for the app's name was that the whole game operates with letters being pressed by a player's finger.<ref name=":0">{{Cite interview |last=Brichter |first=Loren |interviewer=Federico Viticci |title=A Conversation With Loren Brichter |url=https://www.macstories.net/msinterviews/a-conversation-with-loren-brichter/ |date=October 24, 2012}}</ref> After his time on Twitter, Brichter was asked by Mike Matas, an ex-colleague at Apple, to help with [[Facebook Paper]], an app Facebook was developing,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hamburger|first1=Ellis|title=This just in: Paper is the best Facebook app ever|url=https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/3/5373488/facebook-paper-app-review|website=The Verge|date=February 3, 2014|accessdate=April 28, 2016}}</ref> which later released in 2014. Although Paper did not incorporate the pull-to-refresh gesture that Brichter invented, the duo created new gestures and ideas for the project. Brichter's current plans include advising a few companies and spending most of his time working on his own projects.<ref name="Interview" />
''2006 - 2007:'' Worked at Apple as part of a five-person team<ref>{{cite news|last1=E. Lessin|first1=Jessica|title=High Priest of App Design, at Home in Philly|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324392804578358730990873670|accessdate=28 April 2016|publisher=Wall Street Journal|date=March 17, 2013}}</ref> responsible for making the iPhone's graphics hardware and software communicate. He left the company after iPhone 1.0 was complete.
 
=== Atebits ===
''2007 - 2010:'' Founded his own company, ate bits in 2007, and released a small drawing app for Mac - Scribbles.<ref name="Scribbles">{{cite web|last1=Appleyard|first1=David|title=Scribbles: Simple, Intuitive Drawing for Mac|url=http://mac.appstorm.net/general/scribbles-simple-intuitive-drawing-for-mac/|website=appstorm|accessdate=28 April 2016}}</ref> Brichter then released his second app [[Tweetie]] in 2008, where the [[Pull-to-Refresh]] interaction technique was born. In the same year, Brichter also co-founded a company Borange.
atebitsAtebits was first founded individually by Loren in 2007 after he left Apple., Itlater wasbeing sold to Twitter in 2010. In 2012, following Brichter's departure from Twitter, he started a new company, again usingwith the nameexact atebits.same The goal of the company is to create great apps for Apple devices suchname as iPhone, iPad, and Macbefore. {{Citation needed|date=December 2016}}▼
<ref>{{cite web|title=Borange|url=http://www.borange.com/|website=Borange|accessdate=28 April 2016}}</ref> 2009 recipient Apple Designer of Year award.
 
atebitsAtebits' first app was Scribbles,<ref name="Scribbles" /> released in 2007. It is a basic drawing app for the Mac, inspired by [[MacPaint]].<ref name="Transcript" /> Scribbles offers some more advanced features than other basic drawing applications like MacPaint and [[Microsoft Paint]]. For instance, it allows for drawing on multiple layers in one image. Scribbles also useuses a hybrid vector rendering engine. As a result, resizing, scaling, zooming, and exporting images at high resolution can all be done with no reduction in quality. The app also allows users to share their illustrations with one another through integration with the Scribbles Gallery. Scribbles was Brichter's first attempt at building a custom UI framework.<ref name="Transcript" /> In 2008, Atebits released Tweetie, a Twitter app for iOS. Tweetie for Mac followed in 2009.▼
''2010 - 2011:'' Brichter worked for Twitter during this time after he sold Tweetie along with his whole company in 2010.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Kincaid|first1=Jason|title=Twitter Acquires Tweetie|url=https://techcrunch.com/2010/04/09/twitter-acquires-tweetie/|website=Tech Crunch|accessdate=28 April 2016}}</ref>
 
After Brichter re-founded the company, Atebits released [[Letterpress (video game)|''Letterpress'']] in 2012. ''Letterpress'' is a multiplayer word game that connects players using Apple's social gaming network, [[Game Center]]. He started ''Letterpress'' once he left [[Twitter, Inc.]] in November 2011.<ref name="Transcript" /> When Brichter first created the game, his wife was his first beta tester,<ref name=":0" /> and the rules of the game evolved from beta tests. In early 2016, ''Letterpress'' was sold to Solebon.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hall |first=Zac |date=July 20, 2016 |title=Letterpress word game lands on the Mac as Skype drops support for older OS X versions |url=https://9to5mac.com/2016/07/20/letterpress-word-game-mac-skype-legacy-os-x-support/ |access-date=December 9, 2023 |website=9to5Mac}}</ref>
''2011 - now:'' Upon leaving Twitter in November 2011,<ref name="Fame" /> Brichter refounded atebits, which is a whole different company utilizing the same name as his startup from before. The company then released a word game app [[Letterpress (video game)|Letterpress]] in 2012, which was later sold to Solebon in early 2016. After his time in Twitter, Brichter was also asked by Mike Matas, an ex-colleague at Apple, to help with the [[Facebook Paper|Paper app]] that Facebook was developing.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hamburger|first1=Ellis|title=This just in: Paper is the best Facebook app ever|url=https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/3/5373488/facebook-paper-app-review|website=The Verge|date=3 February 2014|accessdate=28 April 2016}}</ref> The app was released in 2014. Although Paper did not incorporate the Pull-to-Refresh gesture that Brichter invented, the duo have created new gestures and ideas for the project. Brichter's current plans include advising a few companies, and spending most of his time working on his own projects.<ref name="Interview" />
 
==atebits= Tweetie ===
[[Tweetie]] was launched in 2008, and it was created to fill the absence of an in-house Twitter app for the Apple iPhone platform. Later on, in April 2009, Brichter also released Tweetie for Mac. Tweetie for both platforms was acquired by Twitter a year later.▼
▲atebits was first founded individually by Loren in 2007 after he left Apple. It was sold to Twitter in 2010. In 2012, following Brichter's departure from Twitter, he started a new company, again using the name atebits. The goal of the company is to create great apps for Apple devices such as iPhone, iPad, and Mac. {{Citation needed|date=December 2016}}
 
=== Borange ===▼
The company's name is a play on technical words in computer science. "Ate" sounds like "eight," which is the number of [[bit]]s in a [[byte]]. And "byte" sounds like "bite," which, like "ate," is related to eating.
In 2008, Brichter founded Borange with Mason Lee and Martin Turon, while he was living in [[Berkeley, California]].<ref name="Interview" /> The company has created two apps, the first being Borange, a social availability app, that enables users to keep track of their friends’ activities through a social timeline view on their mobile device. By allowing users to privately share their recent availability and location with people from their address book, Borange aims to improve the experience of users in arranging mutually convenient times to meet on short notice. The second app, Textie, is a free messaging app across mobile devices. Both apps under Borange were released before push notifications or iMessage were introduced, creating a need for them in the market.▼
 
== Personal life ==
▲atebits' first app was Scribbles,<ref name="Scribbles" /> released in 2007. It is a basic drawing app for the Mac, inspired by [[MacPaint]].<ref name="Transcript" /> Scribbles offers some more advanced features than other basic drawing applications like MacPaint and [[Microsoft Paint]]. For instance, it allows for drawing on multiple layers in one image. Scribbles also use a hybrid vector rendering engine. As a result, resizing, scaling, zooming, and exporting images at high resolution can all be done with no reduction in quality. The app also allows users to share their illustrations with one another through integration with the Scribbles Gallery. Scribbles was Brichter's first attempt at building a custom UI framework.<ref name="Transcript" />
Brichter is married to Jean Whitehead, and together, they have three children.<ref name="Interview" />
 
==Interaction Techniquestechniques==▼
In 2008, atebits released Tweetie, a Twitter app for iOS. Tweetie for Mac followed in 2009. Tweetie's use of innovative user interface interactions such as Pull-to-Refresh garnered increased recognition of Brichter by the design community.
 
===Pull-to-Refreshrefresh===▼
After Brichter re-founded the company, atebits released [[Letterpress (video game)|Letterpress]] in 2012. Letterpress is a multiplayer word game that connects players using Apple's social gaming network, [[Game Center]]. Although Letterpress is one of Brichter's more recent creations,<ref name="Transcript" /> it has already been in his old to-do list for a while, which he only managed to get to work on after he left Twitter. One of the reasons for the app's name was that the whole game operates with letters being pressed by a player's finger. When Brichter first created the game, his wife was his first beta tester,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Viticci|first1=Federico|title=A Conversation With Loren Brichter|url=https://www.macstories.net/msinterviews/a-conversation-with-loren-brichter/|website=MacStories|accessdate=28 April 2016}}</ref> and the rules of the game evolved from beta tests. In early 2016, Letterpress was sold to Solebon.
Brichter is the creator of the Pull[[pull-to-Refreshrefresh]] gesture that first came out on Tweetie 2.0 for iPhone.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Koetsier |first=John |date=May 21, 2013 |title=Twitter granted pull-to-refresh patent that everyone already uses (and sort of gives it away) |url=https://venturebeat.com/social/twitter-granted-pull-to-refresh-patent-that-everyone-already-uses-and-sort-of-gives-it-away/ |access-date=January 17, 2024 |work=[[VentureBeat]]}}</ref> The gesture allows a user to pull vertically downwards on a touchscreen before releasing, to allow the page to refresh as opposed to former methods of pressing a refresh button. This gesture has since then been adopted by many apps on mobile devices, such as Mail in iOS.▼
 
==Tweetie==
▲[[Tweetie]] was launched in 2008 and it was created to fill the absence of an in-house Twitter app for the Apple iPhone platform. Later on, in April 2009, Brichter also released Tweetie for Mac. Tweetie for both platforms was acquired by Twitter a year later.
 
▲==Borange==
▲In 2008, Brichter founded Borange with Mason Lee and Martin Turon, while he was living in Berkeley.<ref name="Interview" /> The company has created two apps, the first being Borange, a social availability app, that enables users to keep track of their friends’ activities through a social timeline view on their mobile device. By allowing users to privately share their recent availability and location with people from their address book, Borange aims to improve the experience of users in arranging mutually convenient times to meet on short notice. The second app, Textie, is a free messaging app across mobile devices. Both apps under Borange were released before push notifications or iMessage were introduced, creating a need for them in the market.
 
▲==Interaction Techniques==
 
▲===Pull-to-Refresh===
▲Brichter is the creator of the Pull-to-Refresh gesture that first came out on Tweetie 2.0 for iPhone. The gesture allows a user to pull vertically downwards on a touchscreen before releasing, to allow the page to refresh as opposed to former methods of pressing a refresh button. This gesture has since then been adopted by many apps on mobile devices, such as Mail in iOS.
 
===Cell Swipe===
Cell Swipe was also created by Brichter and released in Tweetie. The gesture involves swiping a cell off the screen to reveal a set of hidden icons and features.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bunton|first1=Cam|title=Don't know who Loren Brichter is? You should!|url=http://www.todaysiphone.com/2013/03/dont-know-who-loren-brichter-is-you-should/|website=Today's iPhone|accessdate=28 April 28, 2016}}</ref> An example would be the cells in [[Tweetbot]], where swiping them reveals options to retweet, reply and so on.
 
===Sliding Panelspanels===
The idea of sliding panels first emerged in Brichter's creation of Twitter for iPad where the panels would be horizontally stacked and swiped in by gesture. The panels of data that are swiped in created layers of tweets, people, and information that allow a user to browse increasingly more information <ref name="Fame" /> while keeping their last state and path back. This feature is also currently adopted by other apps such as the mobile [[Facebook]] and [[Spotify]] apps.
 
===Vertical Listlist Iconsicons===
Other than gestures, Brichter has also introduced avertical familiarlist UI design patternicons that first came out in Tweetie for Mac 1.0. This design is a vertical list of icons by a border of the screen that displays the different tabs that users may navigate through in the app. This pattern has since been employed by some Mac apps such as [[Slack (software)|Slack]] and Tweetbot.
==References==
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[[Category:1984 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]▼
[[Category:American computer programmers]]
[[Category:Tufts University School of Engineering alumni]]
▲[[Category:Living people]]
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