Note
Big Anticipation for Big Sur
I hope you've had a solid week and are going into the weekend with time to relax!
There's been a lot of anticipation online for the release of macOS Big Sur sometime before the end of the year. I am looking forward to breaking down many examples of UI improvements to Big Sur in the coming weeks after that release, whenever it comes. Same goes for iOS 14.2 which has had some interesting updates while it's been in beta.
Happy Friday!
News
Reply with a screenshot of your favorite widget!
Next week I am going to include a small round-up of beautiful widgets. If you have a favorite on your homescreen, take a screenshot (feel free to crop down to just the widget for your own homescreen privacy) and send it in! I'll include a few short comments too!
New Standards
Reaching New Heights
A single, simple line with text under it is all the Measure app needed to become a viral hit this week. Here is one of those really exciting examples where designers need to apply their skills in a situation where it's not quite an interactive interface and not quite a static display. This is a visual element that stays just above the person being measured and moves around in the physical space of the scene with them. Maybe that's what makes this kind of a stunning example because it is pretty "flat" for being so real. Right? It's a single white line and a nicely set SF font without even a shadow or anything like that. Finally, I think there is a lot to be inspired by from the fact that the designers of this experience went with a single horizontal line above somebody — this feels natural and may even remind you of the tradition some families practice of marking kids' heights in a doorway as they grow up. Way more charming than maybe the first thing someone would think of doing here: a vertical line with brackets on either end fully running somebody's height.
Spotted
Beautiful to a High Degree
Beautiful typography and spacing on Google’s new Nest Thermostat. Hardware products like this largely commit to their visual design from their launch and don't change their interface throughout their life cycle, so I think they represent substantial checkpoints in era of design. You can look at them and see how they went for something timeless and beautiful. The large, light, centered "70" blends with other font weights that we use these days.
Many of the idioms we rely on in touch screens or in handheld devices lose relevance when you shift to hardware. What looks tappable? Should things even look tappable? I think this beautiful little update to the Nest is a good reminder for us to think outside of the patterns we may have become experts on for iOS. One day we won’t just be designing for the touchscreens in our pockets or the trackpads and keyboards on our desks...
We Are Making Some Renovations Around the House
An inspiring new aesthetic coming in the system wallpapers in macOS Big Sur.
Concepts
See the Dots, Feel the Dots, Connect the Dots
Andrew Hart shares several AR designs and discusses virtual paths, scaling objects as you get closer, and more. The same way that the Apple Watch arrived to the public packed with new design notions and interactions that defined the optimism and invention that went into the experience, augmented reality is going to have to arrive in a similar way. Many little charming and easy details will stick with people and make them feel like they have everything they'll need to enjoy the new technology. Here, in this tweet, you can go behind-the-scenes with somebody exploring this area in search of those gems.