Pixel Posts

The way we interact with apps is changing, so should the way they are designed.

The current state of apps and the advent of Apple Intelligence makes it important to have an action centered design approach to designing apps. The phone is only a part of a much larger ecosystem.

product design

Make • Show • Learn

The iterative design processes behind LookUp's product design and features.

prototype

Prototype: A World Clock Sticker

An NFC sticker that tells you world time.

lookup

Designing apps iteratively

Look is 10 years old. A detailed story on the design process of the app

UI

Redesigning LookUp’s word of the day for VisionOS

A case study on how LookUp's Word of the Day cards were redesigned for Vision Pro

design

Redesigning macOS Settings app

Almost a year in, I am still struggling with the macOS Ventura Settings redesign. It’s not just the form design, it’s also the readability of the layout, the lack of visual cues in so many places and the confusing grouping. Overall, the Settings app seems like a bit

design

Some thoughts on the Humane device demo

I was going through Humane’s Ted Talk video snippets, and while most of it was a demo whose merits can only be judged once people spend time with it, some points stood out to me. The most compelling parts are when its use as an interface for artificial intelligence“

apple

M2 Pro Macs have been announced

Apple's M2 Pro Video Announcement If I am being really honest, this really just needed to be a press release. All I learnt from the video was: Mac Mini has been updated to get M2 and M2 ProMacBook Pro has M2 Pro and M2 Max, and a better battery life.

Emerging Technology

Some thoughts on the rumoured “Reality Pro”

VR is a subset of AR.

UI

Navigation in streaming services is a mess.

Streaming Service Navigation relies on showing a lot of options at once, but what if it were simpler?

UI

Redesigning the macOS Ventura Form Layout

macOS Ventura introduces a new design to display forms. The design looks like this: As you can see with this design, it's got a couple of glaring of issues when used in wide width situation: There's too much space between the title and value. This makes reading the values veery

iPhone 14 Pro’s Black Stainless Steel

Apple seem to have updated the way they coat the stainless steel on iPhone. Especially for the Space Gray models, which they now call Space Black again. Previously, Apple used DLC (Diamond Like Coating) to coat their Watches and iPhone, but they stopped it in 2020. Based on a comment

ui design

Design Concept: Menu Bar and Multitasking for iPadOS

Imaging what a menu bar for iPadOS would look like When we look at apps like Illustrator, or Affinity Designer or even Procreate on the iPad. They are powerful utility apps that some how struggle with providing a simple, easy to use and understand navigation for their actions. Actions are

ipad

Designed for iPad

Over the last few years, the iPad has transformed significantly from being a large touch screen device to a device that supports multiple inputs and can be used in a variety of situations. It’s changed the way people interact with their apps. A good iPad app experience is not

ui design

Always on display on the Apple Watch Series 5

For anyone who has used the Apple Watch Series 5, the always on display is something that’s literally hard to miss. It’s an essential feature that Apple’s done well. The watch faces elegantly fade into their dimmer versions. Not only reducing the alpha values, but also

Introducing Bondi

It started with a twitter thread about how people didn’t like the latest Photoshop icon, as it was a rounded rectangle compared to the square of the illustrator. I’ve always hated the aesthetic, but my latest experience with designing a macOS icon for my Catalyst app was so

pixelquiz

Pixel Quiz January 2019

Q1. Designed by Travis Kochel, X uses the OpenType font features to create a useful utility out of a type-face. For example: Typing 50 using the X font ren- ders it into a semi circle. The reason behind creating X was to make it easier to edit a particular visualelement

apps

The Laziness of the Home Tab

If you use apps and websites like I do, you’ve probably seen a “Home” tab on many them. It’s usually meant to tell the user that it’s the first screen in a number of screens. It’s where you start your navigational journey. I’ve been thinking

typography

Variable Fonts

Variable Fonts This is a really cool resource to play around with Variable Fonts. Not only can you adjust the font weight and width, but you can also adjust the ascenders, descenders, x-height and other more advanced settings in some of these fonts. To me the difference between Variable Fonts

pixelquiz

Pixel Quiz July 2018

Q1.When you plug your phone into a car stereo, the phone starts playing music alphabetically, this usually means that there’s one song that you’ll hear whether you want to or not. Many songs starting with the letter A have probably been ruined thanks to this quirk, but

automation

Getting Started with iOS Automation

Vidit Bhargava I’ve been using the workflow app since it came out back in 2014, and over the years, I’ve been able to amass a few nifty workflows that help me increase my productivity. With Shortcuts (a successor to Workflow, which was acquired by Apple about an year

marzipan

What I want Marzipan apps to be

I’ve been observing the Marzipan* apps on Mojave for a couple of days now and there’s something that’s been nagging me.  Design paradigms on iOS are very different from that on macOS. On iOS there’s a lot of direct manipulation involved, and so it makes sense

hardware

Oppo’s Find X ditches the notch for pop-up cameras

Oppo’s Find X ditches the notch for pop-up cameras A unique design choice. I’m trying to wrap my head around the idea a little bit. It seems as though, On one hand, I’m not a fan of a dynamic chin being added to the phone, but on

markdown

Why I prefer Markdown over Word Processing Software

Last month I completed my undergraduate engineering studies, with the submission of my Bachelors of Engineering Project, the Project was supposed to be accompanied with a 50 page report of how the project was made and what methodologies were followed. I wrote my entire draft on an iPad app called

hardware

How does Over the Air Charging work (Truly Wireless Charging)

Vidit Bhargava With the number of smart gadgets increasing by the day, Charging them has become a hassle. You need to charge your phones, your computers, watches, et all. at regular time intervals. And the number of wires can be staggering. One solution to this problem is Wireless Charging. Well,