Note
Welcome back!
Hello and welcome back to another issue of UI Designer Weekly!
If it’s your first time—my name is Sahand and I’m a UI designer that was hoping to find something like this. I’m always finding interesting new designs in newly-released products that keep me up-to-date on the latest interface ideas.
My hope is to collect these beautiful, informative, and thought-provoking examples of design, no matter how subtle, and share them with you so they help you see something new and give you ideas you can mix into your work.
Happy to have you here!
P.S. If you have any feedback or requests, I'd love to hear from you on Twitter!
New Standards
Home Is Where the Apps Are
A beautiful moment from Split View on iPadOS 15. Your first app waits off to the side while you choose a second app from the Home Screen. This is perhaps a great example that if we can use something that people have already learned to do something new, it can work out well. And, as a bonus, this moment is so friendly—tapping the app that’s waiting off to the side simply cancels Split View and brings that app back.
Tap-to-Go
Multitasking in iPadOS 15 presents buttons in a consistent bubble at the top of the screen. People no longer need to use gestures to put apps into the different modes of multitasking (full screen, half screen, and Slide Over). Now, everything works through simple taps. Maybe enabling this more advanced usage of the iPad through interactions as simple as taps (especially on buttons that are plainly in sight) will really help more people use iPad multitasking.
Maps Markers Made Many
Neighborhoods highlighted in the new Maps on iOS 15, featuring a two-line-limited display of each neighborhood’s name with a new, condensed typeface. This font works great here because it allows for so many more letters to fit into the same small space. You might have noticed too that monospaced fonts, like SF Mono, generally take up more space than their counterparts, like SF Pro. It’s essential to pick the right font for your use case, and this is a great reminder of when condensed (or “narrow”) fonts work well.
Line Them Up, Make Them Easy
FaceTime on iPadOS 15 and it’s new row of circle buttons. This is a great example of making multiple features easier to learn by making their interactions the same. Instead of Share Screen having it’s own section somewhere else, or it’s own way of displaying status, it’s consistency with the mute button and the camera button makes it more approachable. Perhaps, the people we design for could get more out of our apps if we continue to bring the more advanced features into simpler presentations and interactions, so they don’t need to learn anything new to do something completely new.
Headlines in Color are More Fun
Display features on the page for iPad Mini. In color, with a slight gradient, these details stand out and are exciting. This is perhaps a reminder that we can emphasize feelings, ideas, and more simply with our use of color throughout a design.