I recently completed the high-fidelity designs for the Obvious MVP (minimally viable product). Most of my time was on finalizing abstract features like timers, multiple journals, and tags. I also had to embrace challenges native to Apple OSes such as window sizes and dark mode support. As such, I made a point of limiting the design to native components and styles as much as possible.

Let’s start with the Journal.

Journal

The biggest change I made was adding support for color-coded journals and tags. I planned to add this feature down the road, but it was making me nervous. After a few quick tests, I realized that deferring this feature would be a problem for users; it would be a huge hassle to have to go back and sort/tag all of their old entries.

Another challenge was thinking through how column navigation would work. I believe most of this is resolved in Swift for static iOS and iPad screens. I’m not confident Apple made it work elegantly for macOS windows.

Timer

The biggest change I made was adding support for color-coded journals and tags. I planned to add this feature down the road, but it was making me nervous. After a few quick tests, I realized that deferring this feature would be a problem for users; it would be a huge hassle to have to go back and sort/tag all of their old entries.

Another challenge was thinking through how column navigation would work. I believe most of this is resolved in Swift for static iOS and iPad screens. I’m not confident Apple made it work elegantly for macOS windows.

Dark mode support

Limiting myself to native styles was beneficial and challenging. On one hand, native styles & colors automatically have dark mode support. On the other hand, I had to spend a lot of time selecting colors that contrasted well in both modes, especially background colors.

Sheets, sheets, sheets

Finally, I have to mention sheets because they show up throughout the app. Sheets are essentially hidden action panes that pop up when you need to add or change something. They were a new component/concept for me, so it was interesting to play with them.