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Under the Radar

151: Little Touches

 

00:00:00   Welcome to Under the Radar, a show about independent iOS app

00:00:03   development.

00:00:04   I'm Marco Arment.

00:00:05   And I'm David Smith.

00:00:06   Under the Radar is never longer than 30 minutes,

00:00:08   so let's get started.

00:00:10   Today, we want to talk through little details

00:00:14   that we add into our applications that

00:00:17   are, in many ways, invisible, at least at first pass.

00:00:22   But I think they're the kind of details

00:00:24   that you can add to an app that, in aggregate,

00:00:27   dramatically improve the feel of using it.

00:00:33   And we have a whole bunch of examples for what

00:00:35   these are like and the way to think about them.

00:00:37   But I feel like so often, when you're solving a problem,

00:00:41   there's the big problem that you're trying to solve.

00:00:43   You're trying to count steps.

00:00:44   You're trying to play podcasts.

00:00:46   You're trying to track sleep, whatever it is.

00:00:48   There's this big problem you're trying to solve.

00:00:50   And there's the big chunk of work

00:00:52   that is just trying to solve that problem.

00:00:56   And then there's the more aesthetic, big D design aspects

00:01:00   of that, because you can solve the problem in a variety of ways

00:01:03   and the way you present that to the user.

00:01:04   And there's a bunch of choices you

00:01:06   have to make that are how you will communicate that function

00:01:09   and utility to the user.

00:01:12   And then there's these teeny little bits,

00:01:15   these little bits of code, little touches, little things

00:01:19   that we can do to our app that I feel like have--

00:01:23   at least for myself-- I enjoy making

00:01:25   these far more than most of these little things.

00:01:28   It's not Easter eggs in the traditional sense,

00:01:30   where it's something like some secret thing

00:01:32   that if you tap four times in the corner

00:01:35   and then tap on the other corner, something happens.

00:01:37   It's not that kind of thing.

00:01:38   But it's a little detail that is subtle but effective

00:01:44   and makes sense for what you're doing,

00:01:48   but is something that users might not necessarily notice.

00:01:51   And the one that I wanted to start off talking about,

00:01:52   and I think we can get into, but just

00:01:54   a good grounding example for this,

00:01:56   is in Overcast in the last update,

00:01:58   I noticed that you changed the sleep timer icon from an alarm

00:02:03   clock that was just static to an alarm clock that

00:02:06   shows the actual time.

00:02:09   And it's one of those very subtle things

00:02:10   because it's not like there's a second hand that's

00:02:14   sweeping around.

00:02:15   But the hour and minute hand are always

00:02:16   pointing to the correct time.

00:02:17   And I believe when you start the sleep timer,

00:02:19   it also shows-- it shades in the period of time

00:02:22   that the sleep timer's going to be active, I think.

00:02:24   Right, exactly.

00:02:25   Yeah, but that kind of a detail where

00:02:27   there's no reason necessarily for the sleep timer

00:02:30   to be a dynamic icon.

00:02:32   But the fact that it is just dramatically increases

00:02:35   the-- it's like that little touch.

00:02:36   And as soon as someone notices it,

00:02:38   I think it endears them to your app in a way that

00:02:40   is just kind of cool.

00:02:43   I mean, it's sort of in the same way that in iOS,

00:02:45   the calendar icon for years has always

00:02:49   changed to show the current date rather than a default date.

00:02:54   Because I think otherwise, what, it shows the 14th

00:02:58   before it's launching?

00:02:59   I think anyway.

00:03:01   I think it was the 14th.

00:03:02   There's all those kind of fun special dates and times.

00:03:04   But anyway, it shows you the current date.

00:03:06   It doesn't need to.

00:03:07   And if you look at the clock icon in iOS right now,

00:03:09   it actually is a live clock with a second hand spinning around,

00:03:12   which is kind of silly.

00:03:13   But in grounding it back to Overcast,

00:03:15   there's a little thing that you added to the app

00:03:17   just because it's kind of fun.

00:03:19   Like it isn't strictly utility, but I

00:03:21   think once soon as you notice it,

00:03:23   it just like puts a smile on your face.

00:03:24   And any time you can put a smile on your user's face,

00:03:27   you're doing something right.

00:03:29   I would describe these as almost like indulgences

00:03:33   for the developer, but that they form delights for the user.

00:03:37   Most users won't actually notice any kind of little delight

00:03:41   you put in the app.

00:03:42   They might notice the sum of them all,

00:03:44   and they might feel like this is a high quality app as a result.

00:03:47   But any individual one, they might not notice.

00:03:50   Usually the individual ones, the main value of them

00:03:53   is to you as the developer.

00:03:56   You feel like you're doing something fun for yourself.

00:03:59   Like it's partly like a craftspersonship kind of thing.

00:04:04   It's partly just the satisfaction

00:04:06   of doing something cool.

00:04:08   And that's why-- and because they

00:04:10   tend to take more time to do than they're worth necessarily,

00:04:13   like in the market value of your app,

00:04:15   or in a pure dollars for time kind of valuation,

00:04:19   that's why I consider them kind of indulgences

00:04:21   for the developer.

00:04:22   You do them because they make you happy, and they're cool,

00:04:26   but they're not necessary, and they're not strictly

00:04:29   the best use of your time.

00:04:30   But that doesn't mean you shouldn't do them.

00:04:33   Because even though any one individual little delight

00:04:37   or little touch or little nicety might not

00:04:40   have great market value, when you have many of them

00:04:44   in the app, or when the whole app feels delightful

00:04:47   and feels very highly polished, that

00:04:49   does raise the perceived value of your app.

00:04:52   And it raises how people feel when they're using your app.

00:04:57   It makes people happier to use it

00:04:58   and happier to recommend this.

00:05:00   Like an extreme example is Carrot Weather,

00:05:02   where it's full of very rich, detailed, strong personality,

00:05:07   and everything is alive in that app in all sorts of ways,

00:05:12   from copy to graphics.

00:05:14   There's all sorts of stuff going on there.

00:05:16   And when people recommend Carrot Weather,

00:05:19   they love Carrot Weather.

00:05:21   And part of it is because it is actually highly functional

00:05:23   and has a lot of great functionality.

00:05:25   But also, a big part of it is all that polish,

00:05:28   all the flourish, all the indulgences

00:05:30   that its developer took to really make

00:05:33   it a rich, developed experience instead of just bare bones

00:05:38   stuff.

00:05:40   And one of the things I miss most about Apple's past

00:05:47   is that in the Jobs and Forstall era,

00:05:52   Apple did a lot of this with their own apps.

00:05:54   And we all remember it as like skeuomorphism.

00:05:57   And we all look back and laugh and see how

00:06:00   that's kind of out of style now.

00:06:02   But the reality is it goes a lot deeper than that.

00:06:05   It not only was like the skeuomorphic design of,

00:06:09   oh, look, the podcast player looks like an eight-track reel

00:06:12   to reel or a reel to reel tape player.

00:06:15   It got extremes like that.

00:06:17   But it was also, at the time, it was really nice.

00:06:20   You would use these apps, and you

00:06:22   would smile at the crazy look they had.

00:06:25   Because back then, it wasn't so crazy.

00:06:27   It just looked really cool.

00:06:29   And they would make you happy.

00:06:32   It appeared as though these things had a lot of work put

00:06:34   into them.

00:06:35   And they did.

00:06:36   They would have amazing animations.

00:06:38   Remember the first time you saw the page turn

00:06:41   animation on an iPad?

00:06:42   Sure, yeah.

00:06:44   These amazing animations.

00:06:47   Or even just the genie shrinking into the Mac doc.

00:06:52   There's all sorts of animations and graphical tweaks and just

00:06:57   stylistic choices that Apple made

00:06:59   in that era that made the entire system just delightful to use.

00:07:05   And they don't do that so much anymore.

00:07:07   Or they maybe try to do it in different ways.

00:07:09   I think the current way that they do it

00:07:11   is a lot less humane and a lot less fun.

00:07:15   But they used to do it in these wonderful, fun ways.

00:07:18   And it shaped how people view their products.

00:07:22   It made people love them for ways

00:07:24   that they couldn't always necessarily describe,

00:07:27   but that they felt.

00:07:28   And so we can take cues from that when we design our apps.

00:07:32   We can do things that make people love our apps more

00:07:36   and that give people those little feelings of delight

00:07:38   and that overall just make our apps look more polished.

00:07:42   And so going back to the sleep timer icon example in Overcast,

00:07:45   first of all, thank you for bringing that up

00:07:47   and for promoting it so heavily.

00:07:48   And it is the kind of thing that I did

00:07:50   that almost no one notices.

00:07:51   And I actually did it a long time ago.

00:07:53   I did it for the original landscape orientation

00:07:55   of Overcast.

00:07:57   And because the playback button, it

00:08:01   was playback and effects panels.

00:08:03   And it looked weird when I had those as text.

00:08:05   So when you rotated the screen, it

00:08:06   became this column of icons on one side.

00:08:08   And the icon for the sleep timer was just like this.

00:08:11   It was a live clock that would show you

00:08:12   like a pie graph version of how long the timer was set for.

00:08:16   And no one ever rotated it.

00:08:18   And then the few people who did weren't using the sleep timer,

00:08:20   so no one ever noticed.

00:08:21   But anyway, the reason I did that icon

00:08:26   is a combination of I wanted to do something fun.

00:08:30   I wanted to indulge myself in making

00:08:32   this over the top fun dynamic icon,

00:08:35   even though most people would never notice it.

00:08:37   But also, it did serve an important function.

00:08:41   It did actually, by showing the current time,

00:08:45   by showing this little pie graph wedge

00:08:47   to show when the timer was set until,

00:08:50   it actually helped people visualize and know

00:08:53   how the timer was set, and how long it would last,

00:08:56   and what time it would end.

00:08:57   It communicated all those things in a simple little icon.

00:09:01   And so it was delightful.

00:09:02   And that's why I did it.

00:09:05   But it also served a purpose.

00:09:07   And I feel like if you can find ways in your app

00:09:10   to do that, to have that blend of niceness,

00:09:13   but that also serves a purpose, it

00:09:16   becomes not only much more justifiable from the time

00:09:19   perspective of investing time into it,

00:09:21   but it also makes it nicer to use.

00:09:25   You're communicating something with it.

00:09:26   You're clarifying something with it.

00:09:28   Whatever it is that makes it more useful,

00:09:30   that makes your app, not only does it

00:09:33   make your customers happier, but it makes the app better,

00:09:36   and it makes it more clear, and it makes it more communicative

00:09:39   at the same time.

00:09:40   And another one that comes to mind with that is another,

00:09:43   I think I first saw it in iOS.

00:09:45   I think it was pulling down Control Center, Notification

00:09:47   Center, where you would have a little chevron,

00:09:49   like the little two line arrow without the tail.

00:09:54   And as you moved your finger up and down,

00:09:58   to dismiss it, the chevron's pointing up.

00:10:00   And so, but then at a certain point,

00:10:02   it would switch to-- it would turn into a line,

00:10:04   and then it would turn into a down facing thing.

00:10:06   If you have an Apple Watch, and you open Control Center,

00:10:08   you can see the same effect in there now.

00:10:12   And it's one of those things where it's really

00:10:14   subtle animation.

00:10:16   It's just two lines, and they're either pointing up, they're

00:10:20   flat, or they're pointing down.

00:10:22   But by making it interactive, and by making it,

00:10:24   it isn't just-- it's in one state at the bottom,

00:10:27   and it's in another state when it's at the top.

00:10:29   It changes in between.

00:10:30   It makes it kind of fun to play with.

00:10:32   And I know it was just one of these things that, kind of

00:10:34   like a fidget toy, I have sometimes just--

00:10:36   like my Apple Watch, I'll sit there,

00:10:37   and I'll make the little thing dance.

00:10:39   I don't know.

00:10:40   It's just kind of a fun little effect.

00:10:41   But it does communicate something, to your point,

00:10:43   that you were just making.

00:10:45   It isn't just a glitzy animation added to the app for no purpose

00:10:49   or no benefit.

00:10:50   What it is communicating is it's like,

00:10:52   if you swipe in this direction right now, it'll close.

00:10:55   And if you swipe in this way, then it'll move the other way.

00:10:58   You're communicating something.

00:11:00   There's a similar thing, I know, in Overcaster,

00:11:03   if you bring up and down the now playing controls,

00:11:07   the little arrow with the chevron on it for yours,

00:11:09   rather than going to a line in the middle,

00:11:11   yours flips around.

00:11:12   But it's interactive.

00:11:13   It's not something that is-- you could just as easily have

00:11:16   the static version of that, where at 50%,

00:11:19   it flips from pointing up to pointing down.

00:11:22   But by making it interactive, there's

00:11:24   that little bit of fun, that little bit of interactivity

00:11:29   that I think adds a lot to the experience,

00:11:31   because it is entirely unnecessary,

00:11:35   but it just makes it feel polished.

00:11:37   And I think we keep-- I think in many ways,

00:11:39   the more I think about these things, as we've

00:11:41   been talking about it, it's like what

00:11:42   I love about these kinds of touches

00:11:44   and why I look for them in apps that I use, I think,

00:11:47   is it demonstrates that the app-- it assures me

00:11:53   that there's a level of quality and consideration that

00:11:56   has gone into the thing that I'm using,

00:11:58   that if they're able to get-- if they have time at the end

00:12:01   to work on this stuff, there's a very good chance

00:12:03   they've also taken care of weird edge case syncing bugs

00:12:07   and lots of other kind of quality or thoughtfulness

00:12:10   issues that may come up, that it isn't something

00:12:12   that's very slapdash.

00:12:13   It isn't something that they've just put together

00:12:15   and they hope that this works.

00:12:17   Like if you've gotten to the point

00:12:19   where you're polishing and refining and adding

00:12:21   silly touches and little nuances to the app,

00:12:25   you've really got the basics pretty much pat.

00:12:27   I mean, otherwise, I suppose it's just a design exercise,

00:12:30   and it's overly designed but doesn't actually work.

00:12:32   But I think as soon as you get the sense that it works

00:12:35   and it has these, it's a great quality marker.

00:12:38   And I think coming to your point about the earlier-- there

00:12:42   was that more whimsical Apple period,

00:12:45   I feel like there was a period of time

00:12:47   where I think that was part of the thing where if Apple's

00:12:50   taking care of all of this, then the fundamentals

00:12:52   have to be well taken care of.

00:12:54   Like if they've gotten-- they've worked their way down

00:12:57   the to-do list to the point that this

00:12:59   is what they're working on, like these tiny little details that

00:13:03   aren't functional but are delightful and communicative

00:13:07   or useful in some way, they're not essential.

00:13:10   Like we are in a great place if that's where we are down

00:13:13   in the to-do list.

00:13:14   Yeah, it's funny.

00:13:15   It's almost like when you go into a luxury retailer,

00:13:19   whether it's like a high-end car dealership or like a jewelry

00:13:21   store, one of the things that they do

00:13:24   is they usually will offer you something to drink.

00:13:26   Do you want a bottle of water?

00:13:28   Do you want some coffee?

00:13:29   And it's like-- and they don't need to charge you for that.

00:13:31   Because they're doing so well because they charge so much

00:13:34   money for their product, they have such high profits,

00:13:36   that they can spare the water.

00:13:39   They can spare the coffee.

00:13:40   And it makes you happy, right?

00:13:41   And it's kind of the opposite of like desperation or stinginess.

00:13:46   And by showing that they are doing fine,

00:13:51   that they can afford to give you free water even if you're not

00:13:53   going to buy anything, that is an attractive quality that

00:13:56   makes their-- it makes them seem established and stable

00:13:59   and they know what they're doing and high quality and luxurious,

00:14:03   right?

00:14:03   So we can do that kind of stuff with our apps.

00:14:06   If our apps-- as you said, if you've taken the time

00:14:10   to really polish some stuff that, quote, "doesn't matter"

00:14:13   or that doesn't matter very much, that does show--

00:14:16   whether it's true or not, you could still

00:14:17   have the most horrible sinking bugs in the world.

00:14:20   Whether it's true or not, it projects the image

00:14:23   that you're doing great, that you have so much free time

00:14:26   because your app is just already so good that now you

00:14:28   can focus on stuff like that.

00:14:29   And that is-- whether it's true or not,

00:14:32   that is a very strong marketing image to project.

00:14:36   And it's pretty positive.

00:14:38   Yeah, I think it's a powerful tool maybe even to say there

00:14:40   it's like it is marketing in the sense that-- like you said,

00:14:44   whether or not it's true, it is something that you can do

00:14:48   and that's very much within our control as a developer.

00:14:51   It's something that we have access to that can increase

00:14:54   the perceived luxury or quality of our apps.

00:14:57   That is fun to do, which is a nice perk that I enjoy doing

00:15:02   these things.

00:15:02   I very rarely-- these aren't the kind of things

00:15:05   that are drudgery.

00:15:05   These are fun little details that I enjoy.

00:15:09   Definitely.

00:15:09   But the nice thing is it does.

00:15:11   I think it increases that perceived luxury or perceived

00:15:14   quality of your app.

00:15:15   And that is-- it's very difficult to build that up

00:15:20   in a lot of other ways.

00:15:21   But it certainly is a lot easier to just put together

00:15:24   a little bit of animation code or a little bit of some vector

00:15:29   drawing that communicates something like that.

00:15:32   And maybe not everyone notices it.

00:15:33   Maybe it's not quite as in your face as would you

00:15:35   like a glass of water or a glass of champagne

00:15:37   or whatever it is like when you walk through the door.

00:15:40   And I think there is an element of that that you're kind of--

00:15:43   it is that level of polish.

00:15:45   It's the-- if you look on the underside of something

00:15:49   and you get the sense of how well it was put together,

00:15:52   is it the-- when I'm putting together IKEA furniture

00:15:55   or something, and you look at the back of it

00:15:57   and you look at the front of it, the back of IKEA furniture

00:16:00   doesn't look good.

00:16:01   It looks plain, and it's fine.

00:16:03   It's perfectly functional.

00:16:05   But it doesn't look great.

00:16:06   Whereas if you look at the back of a piece of really nicely put

00:16:09   together furniture, the back looks just as good

00:16:14   as the front.

00:16:14   And those kind of little cues I think are such nice little--

00:16:19   all these little subtle indications

00:16:21   that something is going to be worthwhile, or at least

00:16:23   is projecting that feeling.

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00:18:06   So I wanted to go into maybe some more concrete examples

00:18:08   and maybe some lessons we can teach

00:18:11   to be more general about where you can

00:18:14   add these kind of flourishes.

00:18:16   For me, some of the ones I've done on Overcast

00:18:18   while I make this show entirely about promoting Overcast,

00:18:22   one of the ones I did was the Downloads icon.

00:18:25   If a download has failed--

00:18:27   It turns into a sad face.

00:18:28   Yeah, yeah, like where it would normally

00:18:30   show the little number badge, it shows a little frowny face.

00:18:32   I love that.

00:18:33   People love this.

00:18:34   I've never thought of the amount of feedback I get on that.

00:18:36   People absolutely love it.

00:18:38   I never expected that.

00:18:39   What I needed to do was I wanted to communicate a failure

00:18:42   state in the icon, because the icon shows download status.

00:18:45   So it normally would show a number

00:18:46   about how many downloads are pending.

00:18:48   And I wanted to somehow indicate if there's

00:18:50   no more downloads pending, but some of them have failed,

00:18:53   you should know about that.

00:18:54   Because otherwise, if you see a blank,

00:18:56   you think everything is OK.

00:18:58   And so I just put a little frowny face on the icon instead.

00:19:00   People absolutely love it.

00:19:02   Instead of having like an exclamation point

00:19:04   or like an error symbol or popping up a dialog box,

00:19:08   making this little frowny face, it's cute and it's small,

00:19:10   but it's also totally communicative.

00:19:12   No one is confused about what that means.

00:19:14   As soon as people see that, they usually smile

00:19:16   and they tap the button.

00:19:18   And it's great.

00:19:19   So it's, again, combining usefulness with personality.

00:19:24   Similarly, I show volume peak meters during playback

00:19:31   inside the bars of the pause button.

00:19:32   And this has evolved over time.

00:19:33   It used to be more complicated.

00:19:35   But the reason I show volume bars

00:19:38   is to communicate that your audio is playing.

00:19:40   It's a really useful bit of feedback.

00:19:42   And if you hit play and you hear nothing,

00:19:46   then you wonder what's wrong.

00:19:47   And you can look at the bars and you

00:19:49   can see if the bars are moving, but you're not

00:19:51   hearing anything, chances are it's

00:19:53   like the volume being set wrong on your output

00:19:55   device or something.

00:19:56   And so you can do something about that.

00:19:58   Whereas if you hit play and you see blank bars,

00:20:01   you know that you're listening to something silent.

00:20:03   So it's communicating value there.

00:20:06   But it is also designed in a way that

00:20:10   makes people smile, that looks nice, and it works well.

00:20:14   And that's, again, that's the best happy medium

00:20:16   you can get with this kind of stuff.

00:20:18   Yeah.

00:20:18   And I think-- I'm trying to give some examples that I've

00:20:21   done too, where I feel like so often, it's

00:20:23   like there's the hit the user over the head way

00:20:27   to communicate something.

00:20:29   You could easily just pop up an alert view

00:20:31   and say, downloads have failed, bad news bears, things are sad.

00:20:37   But instead, you just do this little subtle--

00:20:40   you're communicating the same thing to the user,

00:20:43   but you're doing it in a way that

00:20:44   is much more friendly, much more engaging, much more pleasant.

00:20:48   And it's like I'm thinking of-- in Perimeter++,

00:20:51   it usually shows the last seven days worth of data

00:20:55   is the main view.

00:20:57   In terms of I scale the bars so that you

00:20:59   see seven of them at a time.

00:21:00   So you get a week.

00:21:02   And I realized if you didn't know that the rest of the data

00:21:09   is sitting off to the left, like in this incredibly long scroll

00:21:13   view to the side, you might just think it only ever shows

00:21:17   the current seven days.

00:21:18   And that's a perfectly reasonable thing,

00:21:20   I suppose, for the app.

00:21:21   But it's a little unfortunate.

00:21:22   And so in the app, the first time

00:21:25   you have more than seven days worth of data,

00:21:27   and if you've never scrolled the scroll view,

00:21:30   I make it wiggle ever so slightly

00:21:33   to show that there is one more-- to show the right third

00:21:37   of that left-- of the next bar over.

00:21:39   And then it pops back.

00:21:40   And it does that every now and then.

00:21:42   Not very often, but just lets you

00:21:43   know that there's something there.

00:21:45   And as soon as you scroll, or if you've ever scrolled,

00:21:48   it never does it again.

00:21:49   It's not this thing that's constantly trying to bother you

00:21:51   or hold your attention.

00:21:53   Because it is kind of disruptive to have the scroll view--

00:21:56   have the view move slightly to the side.

00:21:58   But I find it just communicates this idea.

00:22:01   And probably most users never need to know it.

00:22:04   But if someone did, and they were just

00:22:06   confused as to where the rest of the data is,

00:22:08   or even that that's a feature of the app,

00:22:10   that your history is available to the side,

00:22:12   it communicates that.

00:22:14   Or similarly, I know for-- in a lot of UIs that I've done,

00:22:18   there's often this sense of in the transition to a view--

00:22:22   so like an example in Pedometer++,

00:22:24   if you tap on the badges view to see the badges,

00:22:28   in the actual transition-- so while the view is being

00:22:32   presented, the animation for that is happening.

00:22:35   I have the badges flip over from their reverse side

00:22:39   to the front side.

00:22:40   And I do this so that to give some sense that if you

00:22:43   tap on the badge, and it'll rotate over,

00:22:46   and there's information about the badge on the back.

00:22:48   Either what the badge is, or how many times you've achieved it,

00:22:50   when the last time you achieved it, that kind of thing.

00:22:53   And I feel like I don't need to have some kind of walk-through

00:22:57   thing the first time you launch the app that says, you know,

00:23:00   you can tap this, and raise everything out,

00:23:02   and has you tap it, and flip it over,

00:23:04   and teaches the user to do that.

00:23:07   Because by showing them that there is something on the back,

00:23:10   ever so slightly, it's this very subtle effect,

00:23:12   and it doesn't take extra time.

00:23:14   It's built into the present modal animation.

00:23:18   It just shows you that there is something there,

00:23:21   and hopefully makes your user curious

00:23:23   as to, you know, how do I get that?

00:23:25   The most obvious thing is almost certainly going to be to tap it.

00:23:27   And when they tap it, it works.

00:23:29   Great.

00:23:30   So I feel like those kinds of details, where

00:23:32   it's like you're trying to communicate something,

00:23:34   and if you can find a more subtle or fun way

00:23:36   to communicate it.

00:23:37   Like it's just such a great little detail,

00:23:39   where it's like a win-win.

00:23:40   That it's more fun, it's a bit more whimsical,

00:23:43   and it communicates something in a way that is, honestly,

00:23:46   sometimes probably even clearer, because it's

00:23:48   communicated in context, rather than being communicated out

00:23:52   of context.

00:23:53   Yeah, I also love how you have a little sparkle on the badge

00:23:57   section icon, when you have new badges.

00:24:00   So instead of just showing like a number one in a circle,

00:24:03   like the ribbon sparkles.

00:24:05   And it just invites you, oh, that's showing me something.

00:24:08   It's active.

00:24:09   It invites you to tap on it.

00:24:10   It totally communicates clearly, like, oh, here,

00:24:13   I got to tap that.

00:24:14   Something's going on there.

00:24:15   Something's new there.

00:24:16   You tap it, and you see your new badges.

00:24:18   And again, it's like a nice little-- first of all,

00:24:20   it's just a nice looking animation.

00:24:21   But also, it's like a nice little touch that

00:24:23   makes this app feel polished.

00:24:26   One thing I also like doing is Micro Copy.

00:24:30   I have this all over Overcast.

00:24:31   But this is just like very small text that is usually not

00:24:36   the primary label on something, but maybe

00:24:39   is like a comment on it, or a clarification,

00:24:40   or a description of it.

00:24:42   And Micro Copy can vary from just like a description

00:24:45   below a setting cell, which I use all the time,

00:24:47   or something like a little line of text

00:24:50   below a title in a dialogue box.

00:24:51   Like when you add a podcast, there's

00:24:55   a little sub label under the Add Podcast Title

00:24:57   label in that screen that says, or just one episode,

00:25:00   no pressure.

00:25:02   And people love this, because it's a place

00:25:05   that you can add personality, but it also clarifies things.

00:25:08   Again, it's just like what we've been talking about.

00:25:10   You can add personality and niceness and make people smile,

00:25:13   but it also communicates some important value.

00:25:17   Like when you first start a new Overcast account,

00:25:22   and you have a blank collection you have no podcast

00:25:24   subscribed to, there's a big button in the center

00:25:26   of the screen that says Add a Podcast,

00:25:27   and below it a little label that says,

00:25:29   otherwise this won't be very useful.

00:25:31   And that's, again, fun bit of personality.

00:25:33   People love it.

00:25:33   But also, it tells people like, you know what?

00:25:35   You should probably do this first.

00:25:38   Until you do this, this app won't work, basically.

00:25:41   This won't do anything.

00:25:42   And I love too, that switches from that message

00:25:46   to you've played everything with an add button

00:25:49   once you've played everything in Overcast.

00:25:51   Right, exactly.

00:25:52   Yeah, because that way it still tells you,

00:25:55   there's nothing for you to do, but here's something

00:25:58   you could, there's nothing for you to do

00:25:59   with your current state.

00:26:00   You've completed it.

00:26:01   But here's a way you can keep using the app.

00:26:03   Add more podcasts, right?

00:26:05   And you can use this to both encourage people

00:26:09   to do what you want them to do, and also, again,

00:26:11   to help them to maybe clear up confusion,

00:26:13   and to make them feel good about your app

00:26:15   and its personality or its polish.

00:26:17   You know, another similar thing is like,

00:26:18   I use emoji here and there in some of the copy

00:26:21   and some of the labels of the app.

00:26:23   I use emoji kind of sparingly.

00:26:24   And I use a little cloud emoji to communicate

00:26:27   that an episode is not downloaded, that it will stream.

00:26:30   And I use a little heart emoji in some of the labels

00:26:32   that are about the premium subscription

00:26:34   and thanking people for subscribing.

00:26:36   And it just adds, it's like salt.

00:26:39   Like, you don't want to use a lot of it,

00:26:41   but you want a little bit.

00:26:42   And a little bit of it goes a long way

00:26:44   and can really make your app just show personality

00:26:47   and delight people in small ways.

00:26:50   - Yeah, and I think copy is probably the best,

00:26:53   probably the easiest place for most developers

00:26:55   to start off with this kind of thing.

00:26:57   Like, if you're thinking about your own app

00:26:59   and you're like, what could I do

00:27:00   to kind of add these little details?

00:27:01   It's like, copy is something

00:27:03   that isn't technically difficult.

00:27:04   It's not something that takes a lot of work

00:27:07   to build a complicated animation,

00:27:08   which are awesome and do that too.

00:27:11   But it's something that, if you're just thoughtful

00:27:14   and rather than it just saying,

00:27:17   it's like, you can probably get too cutesy with it,

00:27:21   and that can be problematic in its own way.

00:27:22   But the reality is there's a very large distance

00:27:26   between completely plain and boring,

00:27:28   straightforward copy and too cutesy,

00:27:31   where it gets a little too much or it gets confusing

00:27:33   because you're being too whimsical in it.

00:27:35   And it's like, it's sort of like the release notes

00:27:39   where you can have release notes that are like,

00:27:41   they're written in the form of,

00:27:42   they're written in iambic pentameter

00:27:44   as though it was an epic tale.

00:27:46   And like, what has changed?

00:27:48   I don't know what has changed in these release notes

00:27:51   because it's too far versus you can also have the one

00:27:54   that's just like, here is a bulleted list

00:27:56   of the features that have changed.

00:27:57   It's like, thank you.

00:27:59   I try to do mine as like, I'm writing a letter

00:28:02   to the developer or to my user being like,

00:28:04   hey, this is what I've been working on.

00:28:06   This is why I've been doing it.

00:28:07   Here's the things I changed, thanks.

00:28:09   And then I sign it, like, thanks.

00:28:10   I hope you enjoy it, Dave.

00:28:12   I put my name at the end of it.

00:28:12   It's like, I'm writing you a letter.

00:28:13   Like, I find that that's a good way

00:28:15   to kind of structure that copy

00:28:17   in hopefully a slightly more engaging way.

00:28:20   You know, the copy is I think a great example

00:28:22   of something that's so easy to do

00:28:24   but can still have a really nice impact.

00:28:26   - Well, and that kind of thing helps you too.

00:28:28   Like, when people see that, they see,

00:28:29   oh, this is an app made by one person.

00:28:31   And that, and by you showing your humanity in your copy

00:28:36   and in your description and update descriptions

00:28:39   and everything, that might make them respond

00:28:41   a little bit better in reviews maybe.

00:28:42   It might make them less harsh.

00:28:44   Like, if they don't think they're talking

00:28:44   to a big company who doesn't care about them,

00:28:46   if they know they're talking to just one person,

00:28:48   that makes them a lot more polite a lot of the time, right?

00:28:52   - Yeah, I mean, it's the same way.

00:28:52   Like, I've changed, for a while back,

00:28:54   I changed my, like, sort of contact or support button.

00:28:57   Like, that just, you know, opens an email form.

00:29:00   It's, they now say either email me or email us,

00:29:03   depending on the app and sort of whether it makes sense.

00:29:06   But like, I made it personal, that like,

00:29:09   it's something, like, you're emailing a person.

00:29:11   It's not just like, it's not get support,

00:29:14   which is this sort of, this vague, general kind of thing.

00:29:16   It's like, no, it's like email us or email me.

00:29:18   Like, talk to me.

00:29:19   Like, it's a very much more natural, engaging,

00:29:21   personal thing, and I think it makes a big difference

00:29:24   in terms of the way, you know, if you're gonna,

00:29:25   you've pushed a button that says something,

00:29:27   that, you know, says email me, like,

00:29:29   you're, know you're talking to a person.

00:29:31   It's a, you know, it's an individual rather than a,

00:29:34   just this kind of collective, vague corporate communication.

00:29:38   - Thanks for listening, everybody.

00:29:40   Talk to you next week.

00:29:41   Bye.

00:29:41   Bye