Happy New Year!
Are we allowed to still say that?

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but the transition from 2023 to 2024 feels different. Better even.

Or... do I mean, even better.
Or... maybe it’s, even = better.

Anyways, I hope you all had a happy and safe holiday! I’m really looking forward to writing more this year, both for myself and for this lovely little newsletter that you’re reading now.

Quick Look

In kicking off the new year, I took a moment to reflect and write out a few things that I wanted to do more of or less of in 2024. For the tangible, quantitive things on my “more” list (reading, writing, exercising, etc.) I wanted to find a lightweight way to keep track of my progress.

Enter (Not Boring) Habits.

!Habits is an app from Andy Works (Andy Allen), who I’ve long been a fan of. He has a series of Not Boring apps, that includes a calculator, timer, weather app, habit tracker builder (which I’ll expand on below), and a new(ish) focus app, appropriately named Vibes. Each one of these live up to the Not Boring name, as they’re full of details that break the mold of what you’d expect from other apps. Especially from apps in the Utility category.

Honestly, each one deserves a moment in the spotlight, but in keeping with the “new year, new me” theme, I’ll focus this issue’s Quick Look on !Habits.

Let’s dive in.

From the initial launch of the app you’re greeted with this lovely boot up animation/montage that highlights each of the Not Boring apps. With the haptics and sound design it almost feels like you just launched a game instead of a habit tracker. It's warm and fun, and does a great job of setting the foundation for what to expect in the app.

I do have one little gripe here though. Right after this reel plays you're presented with a paywall that sort of shakes you out of the experience you were just in. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for app creators promoting their in-app purchases, but for a first time user, it felt akin to being asked to leave a review before I’ve even used the darn thing. With that being said, this is a pretty minor/petty speed-bump that didn’t stop me from continuing to explore.

After this, you’re guided through a brief walkthrough that outlines the features of the app alongside some of the science on building habits that stick. I typically skip over these in favor of just figuring it out on my own, but this one felt calm and engaging and actually got me to pause and read what was on each screen.

From here you’re asked to create your first habit. Another small nit here is that I wish the keyboard used the dark theme to blend in better with the rest of the screen.

After creating a habit, you select a schedule for notifications, or you can opt to skip this all together. Then the “fun” really starts to happen. You’re now presented with a circle in the center of the screen that is just waiting for you to press and hold. As soon as you do the animation you saw in the walkthrough kicks off, along with a flurry of haptic pulses, all resolving with a delightful “Congrats! You did it!” sound. So satisfying!

The experience doesn’t stop there though as a gold tip of the mountain descends from the heavens (off-screen) and an encouraging message appears. Again, so satisfying!

Overall, I think !Habits is a great example of what app design can (and arguably should) be. You take a simple idea and improve up on it through well thought-out design, sound, and animation. Something that should be boring, like a habit tracker, suddenly becomes, well… not boring.

Oh yeah I almost forgot. The last little detail I wanted to call out is the amazing use of sound design throughout the app (and all of the Not Boring apps for that matter). As a sound designer, myself, I really feel like sound is still under utilized in app/web design, and can really elevate an app’s experience. For example, as you swipe through the three menus the sound changes depending on which direction you’re scrolling. This is one of those details that not everyone notices right away, but really brings a simple experience like swiping to the next level.

Speaking of swiping…

Spotlight

Clear is back!

That’s it. That’s all I have to say!

I can remember downloading the original one and being absolutely amazed by its bright colors, playful sounds, and the overall simplicity of the gesture driven experience. You have to remember that this was back in the early days of the App Store, where faux-leather, drop shadows, and textures were all we knew. I mean this was even before Apple’s well received iOS7 had launched. 😜

Back then, I had just left Apple Retail and got my first “corporate” job at an App Development Agency here in Southern California. This was my first true intro into the world of UI design and app development. Clear, at least for me, was an inspiration. It was one of those apps that got me to open up Photoshop and Xcode (and then crash my computer) and start tinkering with things on my lunch break. Eventually all that tinkering led me to finding out about a new app called Sketch that was in beta, which made web and app design so much easier. This then led me to starting a Sketch community, and years later would lead me to working at Figma.

All that to say, It’s amazing the impact that good (and bad) design can have on someone, and it’s amazing to see Clear return to the scene. Who knows, maybe there’s a kid out there, downloading Clear today, and thinking to themselves, “maybe I could make something like this!”

The Clipboard

• Apple Vision Pro is launching on February 2nd! Anyone have a spare $3500 they want to pass my way. 😉

• R.I.P. InVision has officially shut down. David Hoang wrote a great piece on it’s legacy.

• Clear is back, and now there’s a new physical keyboard for the iPhone. What is happening and who do I call to bring back Mailbox?

• A fun chaos button concept built in SwiftUI from Vijay Verma! Just needs sound!

That's it for now. As always thanks for reading. If there's an app you'd like to see covered in a future issue just let me know in the comments or via email.

Here's to 2024! Cheers!

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Hey there!

Wow! I can't believe it's been over... checks calendar… 11 months since you last heard from me!!! 😮😱😬

I promise I had every intention of writing this second issue of Pinch to Zoom much, much sooner than now, but, well, as you might expect, having a kid is hard work. With the late nights, early mornings, and the overall unpredictability that comes with each day, finding spare time to write has proven to be much more difficult than I had ever imagined. It’s been quite the adventure into fatherhood, but I honestly wouldn’t change a thing!

With all that being said, I'm back, and ready to “pull to refresh” Pinch to Zoom again. While this won’t come with a promise of a new issue every week, I am hoping to have something land in your inbox at least once a month.

As a refresher (or if you missed the first issue), Pinch to Zoom is all about exploring the design, experience, interactions, and details of your favorite apps. To help give myself a little more focus, I’ll primarily be covering iOS, iPadOS, and macOS apps, as that’s what I know best. However, if there’s a web app or something else you’d like to see here, just let me know.

Each issue has three sections:

1. Quick Look
A not so super deep dive into the design details of a specific app

2. Spotlight
A space to highlight an indie app and its creator(s)

3. The Clipboard
A handful of links that I think are interesting and worth sharing

So… without further adieu, let’s jump into the second issue of Pinch to Zoom!

Quick Look

iOS 17 has been out for a couple of months now, and since its release, I've been trying to explore all that it has to offer. I've long been a loyal fan and user of Apple's native apps such as Safari, Notes, Mail, Maps, etc. However, there's a whole world of little details hidden behind the apps that have never made it to my Home Screen.

As I've been doing all of this, I've started to notice a few areas where Apple is pushing the boundaries a bit when it comes to the design and interaction of what I think of as the "default" iOS experience. These experiences feel fresh (almost in a strange way), especially when compared to the standard list views, action sheets, and toggles sprinkled throughout the rest of the OS. However, they still feel very Apple to me, and maybe even nod at what the future of iOS could look and feel like.

For example, I’m sure most have already seen the wonderful animation that occurs when you share your contact with someone via NameDrop.1

I mean, come on! 😍

Or the new Action button settings that was introduced with the new iPhone 15 Pro.2

Or even the new, and slightly controversial, update to Messages with the new insert menu that replaced the app drawer above the keyboard.

To me all of these examples show that Apple is experimenting and having fun along the way! And honestly, I'm here for all of it.

Another example I came across is found in the Health app. I have to admit, outside of setting my details and occasionally looking at my sleep or activity data, the Health app goes mostly untouched. In the latest update though, there’s a new section around mental health and logging your emotions, that caught my eye.

If you head to your Health app, tap on Browse, and then on Mental Wellbeing, you’ll see a new section called State of Mind. From here you get a pretty standard screen with a card view, followed by a list of some helpful articles all around caring for your mental health. However, even with the card view, Apple introduces a nice animation as you scroll through the carousel.

In the video above, you can see how the cards scale down as the next card comes into view. Overall, this creates a nice depth effect, giving the feeling that the cards are placed on an ellipse rather than just a flat line. I don't think this exists in any other Apple app, but let me know in the comments if I'm wrong.

Moving on, once you tap on Log and then choose Emotion or Mood this is where Apple introduces something beautiful and quite delightful.

Here your attention is instantly drawn to the center of the screen via this colorful, translucent, pulsing, orb shape thing. Below it there's a label, a large slider, and a Next button. As you drag the slider the shape changes from a circle in the middle, to a pentagram/star on the far right, and an octagon/flower on the far left. Simultaneously, the color of the shape along with the background, and the button all adjust too.

One thing that makes this experience extra delightful is how the shape morphs in sync with the speed at which you drag the slider. The video doesn't really capture this but it all feels super fluid, almost like when you move your hand underwater and how that affects the waves on the surface.

Speaking of waves, another detail to highlight here is how the waves that pulse from the center of the shape all have some variability to them. This is really noticeable when the slider is set all the way to the left on Very Unpleasant. You can see how they rotate slightly in a sort of random pattern.

I found this whole experience to not only be beautiful to look at, but also a true joy to use. I mean, it actually got me using the feature, and I'm now logging my mood on a semi-regular basis!

Overall, I'm still exploring all the ins-and-outs of iOS, but I hope to see more designed experiences like this from Apple in the future. Also, would love to hear from you on what your favorite details are in iOS. Let me know below!

Spotlight

This past month, my wife and I have been trying to get a better hold of our finances. Part of this process has included downloading and trying all of the different budgeting and financial health apps out there. One that stood out to me on iOS was Dime.

Dime is a budget and expense tracker created by Rafael Soh. It feels right at home with the rest of Apple's native apps and it's full of great copy, helpful haptics, nice interactions, and thoughtful details.

For example after you set up your categories you're guided to add you first expense via a subtle effect on the plus button.

Even erasing your data comes with a great experience.

There's a bunch more I could highlight here, but to keep this short I'll just end with a recommendation to download Dime and check it out for yourself!

Download Dime on the App Store here.

The Clipboard

1. A 🌶️ take from Brian Lovin on the current state of Landing Page design. Thoughts?

2. Reddit just launched a new rebrand. I think I like it, but I'm still upset with them killing off Apollo that I'm not sure how I feel.

3. How To Make Videos Like a PRO! I've never really dabbled with video, but wow did this make me want to start!

4. In case you missed it, Inter (all of our favorite typeface) got a nice update. Awesome work Rasmus!

5. Even though Small Business Saturday has passed, this list that Jeff from Ugmonk put together has a ton of great gift ideas.

Thanks for reading! Again I promise you’ll be hearing from me before the end of the year and not 11 months from now. 😜

Cheers!

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First off, let's get this out of the way. I really don't know what I'm doing here. 😄

This is my first newsletter, and I'm starting it for the simple reason of wanting to write more this year. 

Whether it's jotting down my thoughts in a journal, or creating a guide or blog post for Figma, I've always enjoyed the process of writing. However, the hard part, as it is for many things (exercise, sleep, reading, etc.), has always been finding and keeping a regular rhythm of writing. 

This year, I want to change that!

What is this?

The whole idea around Pinch to Zoom is to explore the design, experience, interactions, animations, and more, of your favorite apps. I say, "your" intentionally here, as I don't want this newsletter to only focus on the apps that I have in my Dock or on my Home Screen. Instead, I want to discover and learn about the ones that you find inspiring, well-designed, and delightful to use. 

The hope (in the long run at least) is that this newsletter becomes a source of inspiration and discovery, for both the designer looking to improve their craft, and the user looking for a new or better app to do x, y, or z. If there's a specific app you'd like to see covered in a future issue, please let me know. You can drop a comment here on Substack, or reach out on Mastodon or Twitter.

Quick Look, Spotlight, and the Clipboard

Inspired by three of my favorite and most used features on macOS, Quick Look, Spotlight, and the Clipboard will be three sections within Pinch to Zoom that I plan on regularly featuring.

Quick Look will be a space to take, well... a quick look at a specific app. The idea here isn't to dive too deep, but to rather highlight a few nice design details or interesting interactions. I may end up covering different areas of the same app over multiple weeks. Eventually, the hope would be to combine these (Quick Looks) into a larger feature or review. I'm definitely making this up as I go though, so all of this may end up changing. 😉

For Spotlights, I want to use this section to highlight an indie app and its creator(s). I've always been a fan of small, independent apps, and hope that this newsletter can be used to help support them and their efforts. I doubt this section will go into too much detail, but again we'll see. 

The last section I'd like to feature in each newsletter is a handful of links that I've found interesting, and have copied and pasted into my notes (a.k.a. The Clipboard). I'll try to keep these design and app related, but I'm sure a few other interesting discoveries will find their way in there too!

A special thanks

I sincerely want to thank you for subscribing. I can't believe over 750 of you showed an interest in this little project of mine, all without any content or context. As I said before, I'm not 100% sure what this is going to look like, or how frequent I'll be sending these out, but I'm excited to have you here with me on this journey! 

Now on to the first issue…

Issue 001

Quick Look

For the first Quick Look, we're going to be taking a look at the newly updated Netflix app for iOS. Originally, I was going to start with something else, but after seeing this tweet from Janum, I couldn't help but cover it for Pinch to Zoom's first issue!

Let's zoom in.

First up is this lovely little animation when launching or switching profiles. It follows this curved path along the right side of the screen, reducing in size, and then scales back up with a slight bounce at the end. They definitely didn't have to add this in, but it's a fun, and delightful way to transition into the main experience. I love it!

Next is the new navigation bar animation. When you start to scroll, the category pills fade away and the featured card begins to blur behind the bar. There's a nice animation on the category pills as well, where they scale from the center of the screen as they start to hide upon scrolling. This creates a smooth, fluid motion, and it feels like they get tucked away rather than just disappearing.

There is one small little visual bug here where the navigation bar's bottom border flashes a solid black line as you scroll slowly back and forth. I doubt this would be noticed though during regular use of the app.

The next detail worth highlighting are these category pills. You won't really be able to experience this from the GIF below, but the first thing I noticed was the haptic feedback when tapping on each element. Their selected state has both a fill and a drop shadow which helps them sit a little higher, making it clear which one you have selected. There's also a slight bounce as the pills slide in and out, which makes these elements feel super “tappable”.

I also love how the featured cards pop up and down as you switch between Movies and TV Shows. On their own, each of these details are pretty subtle, but all together, they really elevate the experience. In actual use, I found myself enjoying navigating through these sections and exploring the different categories.

And the last detail is this nice parallax effect, complete with a modeled screen glare, that's controlled by the accelerometer of your phone. Is parallax back? 😉 I did find this a bit jumpy at times, but that could have been a side effect of recording my phone through my computer.

All in all, there are a ton of great details throughout this app, and while I don't watch a ton of movies or TV shows on my phone, the experience the team created here is truly delightful!

Spotlight

Disclaimer: I'm highlighting this app because I either personally use it, or found something about it interesting. This is not an ad or sponsorship section, and I don't currently plan on monetizing or including referral links. If in the future that changes, I'll make sure it's clearly stated. Thanks! :)

As I mentioned above, the Spotlight section is meant to highlight an indie app and its creator. So, for this first one, I want to bring some attention to Crouton, a recipe organizer, and meal planning app for iOS.

I stumbled upon Crouton last year, and since then, it's become a super helpful tool for both my wife and I. Created by Devin, Crouton is full of delightful features, making it easy to scan and save recipes, create meal plans, and export a shopping list to the Reminders app.

One of my favorite features is this little reference tooltip that provides context on the ingredient or allows you to start a timer.

Whether you're scanning a recipe from a cookbook, or copying one from the web, Crouton does a great job at making the whole process easier and more streamlined. I highly recommend giving it a try!

• Website

• App Store link

• Twitter (Crouton)

• Twitter (Devin)

The Clipboard

• Some 🔥 interactions in this preview of Family

• Another great tweet from Janum with an idea for Pinch-to-PiP (picture in picture)

• A great breakdown of some details with Bolt's new branding and website

• Lasso, a new window management app for macOS. Haven't tried this yet, but looks like a good potential app to cover in the future!

Thanks again for taking the time to read through the first issue of Pinch to Zoom. I hope you found it interesting. If you did, please consider sharing or subscribing (if you haven't already).

Cheers!

Welcome to Pinch to Zoom, a newsletter exploring the design, interactions, and experiences of your favorite apps. Not 100% sure what this is going to look like, but I'm hoping to share everything from delightful design details and interactions, to tips-n-tricks and guides. I'll primarily be focusing on  apps to start but may also sprinkle in a few web apps every now and then. Hoping to get everything up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime! Also if you’d like to see a specific app covered here, let me know! ☻

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