It's that time of year again: The birds are chirping. Flowers are blooming. And your co-workers are frantically pinching and tapping their phones to see if their bracket has been busted by the latest upset.

In March, the NCAA Tournament is big business. Pools are plentiful, and everyone needs to know exactly where they stand at all times. Our iPhones may be great to check scores and match-ups, but the tiny screen isn't exactly ideal for viewing a 64-team bracket. 

Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost of Studio Neat saw this as more than a minor inconvenience. It was a problem, and they set out to solve it.

"Frankly, we were fed up with the current crop of filling-in-bracket tools and wanted to make something better," Provost said. "March Madness is such a fun time of the year, and competing in pools with friends and family is a blast, but it's dampened by tools that are frustrating to use. Plus, we thought it was just an interesting design problem to solve and would be a fun project to do -- a bit of a change of pace from what we've worked on previously."

Perhaps, but Studio Neat strives to make "small, simple and elegant" products -- look no further than the Glif iPhone tripod -- and Simple Bracket touches all the bases. To simplify things, they deconstructed the unwieldy bracket into a single list that "compresses" as the rounds advance. Swiping through the rounds and scrolling through the four regions is a such a joy, it's a shame Simple Bracket is only really useful for a couple of weeks (though Provost said Studio Neat is "considering" opening the app for customization).

But while Simple Bracket might seem effortless while using it, all that refinement took a tremendous amount of time and effort. Studio Neat has pretty much been working on Simple Bracket since the Connecticut Huskies were national champions. (That's 2011, for all you non-sports fans.)

"We were toying with the idea of a while," Provost said, "but once we stumbled upon the UI concept of the collapsable bracket, we knew we were on to something. It's been an incredibly long process of refinement, and even though the app appears simple in use, it is probably one of the more complex projects we have undertaken."

And that's with a very specific starting point. Simple Bracket may seem like a complete reinvention of the bracket, but in actuality, Provost and Gerhardt merely simplified the way we interact with it, all while working within the very strict parameters defined by Apple and the NCAA. But those limitations let their creativity take over.

"Constraints are liberating. What we liked about Simple Bracket is the problem we were solving initially was very specific -- how to fit and navigate the full tournament bracket on a tiny screen. I actually love designing for mobile because it's so constrained and has so many limitations. It focuses the design process."

That focus is evident in its ingenious interface, but it also can be felt in its understated design, with muted textures, crisp fonts and subtle splashes of team colors. Provost told me it was inspired by old ticket stubs and game programs from the '50s and '60s, and the careful attention to detail is evident throughout.

"We hired one of our good friends, Caroline Oh, to do the bulk of the visual design. We wanted something that was simple and retro, yet still felt fresh and new. Perhaps a contradiction, but I think she pulled it off."

What started as a Kickstarter is now available for $0.99 in the App Store, just in time to add a little style and class to your office pool.

Find Michael Simon on Twitter or App.net @morlium.