Popup Menus — Comments About This Relic of iOS 3 — Could There Be A Better Design? (#apple #wwdc21 #ipadOS15 #ios15)

Consider the previous screenshot showing the popup menu when selecting a word in a document. This menu hasn’t been touched since iOS 3, if I remember correctly. Tomorrow, as we are about to get a peek at iPadOS 15 and iOS 15, I’m wondering if there are better ways to display such a menu. Consider a few design problems and possible improvements.

This menu doesn’t scale well; it isn’t exactly elegant. In some situations, we have to scroll through its options which is not always obvious and is tricky to do with the finger without selecting the option at touch and scroll time. Also, this design involves too much finder travel to my taste; I would prefer a more condensed version. The design is flat and doesn’t allow for hierarchical grouping of options which could help is situations where many options are available. The design is flat and is not as distinctive as it could be. Adding some depth, contour line would help.

Do you have any suggestions on how Apple could improve on this?

It’s always fun to re-watch a previous Apple Event. Just did the Spring Loaded one and used CleanShot to capture the best moments creating a library of 260 shots, all stored in Synology Photos, ready to be used, just in case. Tech is fun.

The iMac vs a Simple Monitor

The Thunderbolt display is now a vintage product for Apple. When I look at this beautiful monitor, I’m thinking about the recently introduced redesigned iMac. Many people would have preferred to see the iMac chin disappear. We should know better and see this is a distinctive design attribute of the iMac which make it look different than from a simple monitor. It’s an important visual differentiation factor in my opinion. The iMac is not a simple monitor.

Count me OUT then - Twitter Blue #twitterblue

Here is why I won’t subscribe anytime soon (another reason on top of many, btw):

But what is interesting is one thing that you won’t get with Twitter Blue: an ad-free experience. Advertising is still the biggest chunk of Twitter’s revenue, and they’re not going to replace that with direct subscriptions anytime soon. Source: Twitter Blue subscription launches in Australia, Canada – Six Colors

Paying to be a beta-tester and give feedback? Can you imagine paying to get beta releases of Apple’s OSes? No way.

Better reading experience of Twitter Threads, via Twitter Blue, will encourage people to write more threads on Twitter instead of publishing a blog post. I’m not sure that I like the trend here.

Another solid update to Craft!

Another solid update to Craft released today. This time, Calendar view was added for those who would like to take daily notes or write meeting notes as this update integrates with Apple’s calendars.

If you pay attention to the Craft’s update page, you’ll see Craft rapidly evolving over time. Who knows what’s next for this essential tool in my blogger and writer workflow.

Oh, and Craft has made it to the Apple Design Awards finalist! Congrats to them!