My initial reaction to hearing about the United States versus Apple:

I’d boil down the DoJ lawsuit as “Apple works hard to ensure their product has good and people like it” and apparently that is illegal? I totally agree with the App Store complaint. These other things are… yeesh.

Later I read Manton Reece’s thoughts, which more or less aligns with mine. The App Store is an absolute cluster of corrosive incentives for Apple which limits hurts businesses¹ and stifles innovation.

Jason Snell has a great piece at Six Colors. In a nutshell:

Lock-in will be on trial. Many of the DoJ arguments come down to this: Every feature that Apple builds that makes it harder to switch to an Android phone is fundamentally anticompetitive. … the DoJ envisions a competitive smartphone market … in which there’s as little friction as possible when jumping between platforms.

As he mentions, the CarPlay and Apple TV+ arguments are asinine. This part, however, got me worried about what precedent this case could set:

Is it illegal for Apple to use its power to improve the user experience? What about when it cuts itself in for some sweet Services revenue along the way?

I design for a big corporation so I’m part of the Big Scary Tech this bill is targeting (therefore my perspective is biased). As I read more on the topic, my mind keeps wandering back to this doomsday of question: is Design — the art of making things with value, with quality, with utility — ultimately under attack?

While I disagree with some ideas in this lawsuit, I’m fascinated to see what happens.

Apple could stand to loosen up a bit, without losing much. Let apps run outside the App Store. Let people use the smartwatch of their choice. Let users use their godawful bank as an alternative wallet to Apple Pay. What we’ll all learn together is that the total package, the design of this ecosystem, is what customers pay for and want.

In other words: if Apple has to compete, I’m confident they’ll win.

My UX career started with an internship at Cazoodle (a now-defunct, as far as I can tell) startup in the University of Illinois Research Park. After a year or so I got the opportunity to intern at the John Deere Innovation Center in Champaign, where I worked on mobile apps and had a blast. I owe a lot to my then (and now) boss for how my career has unfolded so far.

In 2017 I left John Deere to join a startup and followed that path for 5 years (a story for another time). I’ve been back at John Deere for about a year-and-a-half and it’s amazing how a company with such a long history has adapted and modernized in a few short years.

Yesterday a colleague shared a corporate video about what it’s like working at John Deere. I think it rings true and echoes the reasons I returned to the company and love my job. Hopefully I don’t come off as a corporate shill, but I do sincerely think it’s a great place to build a career and make an impact.

I’m incredibly lucky.

Wes Davis at The Verge wrote about accessories that attempt to make the Magic Mouse more ergonomic. I bought one of these on a whim back in November with the expectation it could address a few issues with Apple’s Magic Mouse:

1. Increase the bulk of the mouse to help my hand rest more comfortably.
2. Easier charging thanks to wireless charging.

Comfort

On the whole I would say these accessories do make Magic Mouse more comfortable when mousing around or when resting your hand while reading. You’ll need to remind yourself to let your hand relax more but all-around you do get a more “hand-friendly” object.

Scrolling is where things fall apart. It may shock you to learn that we scroll a lot when using computers. When using two-finger scrolling with Magic Mouse your fingers are pitched and need to move more than a standard scroll-wheel. The shoe doesn’t make this interaction less comfortable, but it does not improve it. Despite its derisive design, I’m not sure how Apple could have made two-finger scrolling more comfortable.

Wireless Charging

Adding wireless charging to Magic Mouse is nicer than spearing the turtle with a lightning cable. I could quickly attach the mouse to a MagSafe puck when getting up for lunch meaning the battery would always be topped up.

One downside is that is causes a tiny electrical hum when charging. It took me a while to notice it at first but then it was impossible to not notice (see also: the arrow in the FedEx logo).

Another quirk is that you can’t use Magic Mouse while it’s charging. The mouse shuts off w because it assumes it’s upside-down with a cable jutting out. I imagined using a Qi mouse pad for endless battery life but this is not possible.

The last kicker is that I switch between a work and personal MacBook daily which requires removing the boot and pairing directly by Lightning each time I switch computers. I’d guess most people don’t have this problem, but I thought I’d mention it.

Verdict

These boots helped me realized the Magic Mouse itself no longer for me. Between poor multi-device support and discomfort, I decided to dig out an old Logitech mouse which solves both problems: good ergonomics by default and automatically pairing (its USB-A dongle stays plugged into my Thunderbolt dock).

I haven’t been able to try Apple Vision Pro yet, but the Mac screen-sharing feature reminded me of the “Design for Spatial Interactions” session from WWDC 2021. It’s fascinating that Apple has been using this “spatial” term for a few years now.

Like all Apple Design videos, it’s excellent. They talk about the precision locating UI for AirTag and the interactions behind handoff for HomePod mini. Putting your iPhone near your HomePod will move audio from iPhone to HomePod. It’s pretty magical. In both cases they’re talking about how physical — or spatial — actions can convey user intent, something traditionally conveyed with taps or buttons.

This is relevant for Vision Pro’s Mac screen-sharing feature. It’s triggered by looking at your Mac. There are some other clever features like the autocomplete bar that floats above your physical Bluetooth keyboard but this just look at it gesture seems under-utilized in visionOS 1.0 and could be extended much further.

For example: you’re watching a movie in Vision Pro and your spouse arrives home. What if you could look at your AirPlay-enabled TV and it could start playback on that screen, letting you share that experience in reality.

Or similarly, say you’re listening to music on Vision Pro. Look at a HomePod to handoff the audio. (There are dozens of HomePod owners who could benefit from something like this.) Similarly what if the audio seamlessly followed you as you moved from room to room — without blasting on every speaker in the house.

Maybe looking at a HomePod could cause a flurry of your favorite albums to flutter above. With a look you could start playing music. Eliminating the need to recall and verbalize a lengthy album title and artist, bringing that familiar feeling of the family record player.

Or would it be possible to use your iPhone’s keyboard for Vision Pro just by looking at your phone? (This could work similar to the Apple TV input handoff.) The typing experience on visionOS without a physical keyboard is severely lacking so this could be a game-changer.

(As an extension of this, what if you could AirPlay your iPhone into Vision Pro? This could be a sweet solution for getting offline videos for travel situations if native apps from big players like YouTube and Netflix never show up.)

Or what if someone wants to show you a photo on their phone while you’re wearing the headset like a sociopath? Maybe they could cast it into your headset to enjoy a beautiful panorama from a recent trip.

These are just a few examples that come to mind. I think there is a huge opportunity to rethink how we interact with digital things in a physical way. By all accounts Apple Vision Pro and visionOS are very 1.0 and I’m excited to see where this takes us over the next decade.

The other weekend my wife and I watched the excellent Killers of the Flower Moon on Apple TV+. We opted to skip the theatrical and digital purchase windows despite loving the book and Apple’s caginess around when exactly the film would debut on the streaming service.

Right off the bat the movie’s soundtrack by the late Robbie Robertson set the tone¹ and pace. We were hooked. A few minutes in, however, we started noticing blocky pixels — the video stream oscillating between vivid 4K and 240p pixelated mush from minute to minute.

It was just how Marty intended.²

I naively thought pausing would give it a chance to buffer and it’d be smooth sailing. As the stuttering continued I restarted the Apple TV, force quit the TV app, ran a speed test³ and yet the issue persisted. Then the stream completely failed and a panic set upon the room. Life happens pretty fast. You never know the next time you’ll have the time and disposition to watch a three hour movie. It was now or never.

I wondered if the problem was with streaming the movie so I opened the TV app on my iPhone, found the movie, and hit download. A minute later the download completed and I used AirPlay to put it on the TV. The rest of the movie went without a hitch⁴ and we enjoyed the riveting and heartbreaking story of the Osage killings.

It was less than ideal needing two Apple devices to watch an Apple-produced movie. This is because Apple TV+ in the TV app on the Apple TV hardware does not support downloading video. For inexplicable reasons this overpriced hockey puck comes in 2 storage tiers but you can’t actually store anything on it.

That said I can see why Apple might not want to implement this feature:

• Unlike an iPhone you’re unlikely to take an Apple TV with you on an airplane and need to load up on movies before takeoff.
• Then there’s the messiness of managing and removing downloaded media.
• I fear Apple is allergic of buttons.

Whether you have a slower than average network at home, intermittent server outages, or taking an Apple TV to a hotel or Airbnb TV with crappy Wi-Fi, there are scenarios that could make this feature worthwhile.

The most straightforward solution is offering a download button on the episode or movie detail view — just like on iOS and the Mac. (Maybe a long press on the Play button could expose a menu with this option.)

Another idea is treating download as a fallback to streaming. Maybe the OS could notice streaming quality is low and prompt the user with something like, “Download movie? This can take a few moments but should play without interruption afterwards.” Playback could resume from the same spot using the local file and get automatically offloaded 24 hours later.

I know offline downloading is not a glamorous feature but little touches like this could make the Apple TV a bit more forgiving in the real world.

I saw several lovely posts celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Mac today. The 30th gave us the wonderful Mac Font and somehow feels like yesterday. A lot has changed in the world and my life since then, but one thing has been a constant:

I’ve always felt at home with the Mac.

I have a scattering of memories with the Mac throughout my life. I recall playing with vintage Macs in the school library in kindergarten or first-grade (circa 1996). I was blown away by the iMac G4 and it’s the reason I went into design. It showed how products can delight. I spent countless hours after school using my grandma’s iMac G5 to do homework play games.

But it wasn’t until I had my own Mac that I fell in love. After a couple summers working for the high school alumni newsletter (produced with G3, G4, and G5 Power Macs) I saved up and bought a 12” iBook G4. Bonus: it came with a silver iPod mini. I curated a music collection and customized every aspect of it with Candybar. After running through multiple (and expensive) power cables and batteries, I made a massive jump to a white Intel MacBook.

I used the hell out of that Mac. I learned Illustrator, Final Cut Pro, Garageband, Photoshop, and so many other tools that let me explore being creative. It was my portal to the internet and chatting with friends on Adium. It’s where I amassed an astounding amount of legally obtained music and movies that shaped my taste.

The Mac fits my brain in a way where I can create and work effortlessly. It’s always had a flourishing community of developers building utilities to extend platform. The flexibility and openness of the Mac is what makes it so special.¹ From PowerPC to Intel then Intel to Apple Silicon I’ve seen huge leaps in what Mac are capable of. The Mac Goes On and I’ve enjoyed witnessing the evolution from Tiger to Sonoma.

Here’s to 40 more.

Today I learned about Chesterton’s Fence thanks to Merlin Mann’s Wisdom Project:¹

Learn about Chesterton’s Fence. Then, actively resist altering a given situation before you understand the reasons why it’s remained unchanged for so long.

This piqued my interest and I read² a post by Shane Parrish which summarizes G. K. Chesterton’s 1929 idea:

Do not remove a fence unless you know why it was put up in the first place.

One example is from Steve Blank’s The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas Are No Longer Free about a startup CFO killing free snacks without understanding the knock-on effects. It’s a great anecdote.

Parrish’s post concludes (original emphasis):

It reminds us that we don’t always know better than those who made decisions before us, and we can’t see all the nuances to a situation until we’re intimate with it. Unless we know why someone made a decision, we can’t safely change it or conclude that they were wrong.

The first step before modifying an aspect of a system is to understand it. Observe it in full. Note how it interconnects with other aspects, including ones that might not be linked to you personally. Learn how it works, and then propose your change.

I’m sure you can apply this lesson to your life one way or another (otherwise it wouldn’t be in the Wisdom Project) but it resonated with me as a designer and someone who works in software.

You might have seen a portfolio piece from a UX designer who proclaimed, “I fixed Twitter!”³ with a beautiful reimagining of the interface. These projects can be a great way for designers to learn and explore their own taste but please be humble. You don’t have a full picture of the priorities and constraints the design team was under nor the problem they were asked to solve.

While the expression “Chesteron’s Fence” was new to me, the idea was not. I received it as advice and it changed my approach when I started my job at Agrible back in 2017. I was the first design lead at the startup and they had been making software for a few years. My instinct was to move fast and make changes but instead I spent my first few weeks listening to the team and learning the product before suggesting any process or design changes.

It’s a skill I try to practice when any new project comes my way. Stay open-minded and don’t think about your decisions in a vacuum.

This past week I was lucky enough to visit the renowned John Deere Headquarters in Moline, IL. The buildings were designed by Eero Saarinen (known for his work on the St. Louis Arch) and landscaped by Hideo Sasaki. My timing could not have been better with the weather and I was able to experience the area in all its winter glory.

As you approach you see the massive structure perched on a hill with a road that winds around a pond. It’s an impressive sight that makes you think: damn, this must be a big company. (This trip in particular evoked the snowy cliffside temple from Nolan’s Batman Begins.)

Nighttime

There are several incredibly long hallways to get from the parking lot to the office spaces. Walking throughout the structure gave me Severance vibes, which coincidentally was filmed at another Saarinen creation: Bell Works.

Garden

Aside from its zen garden, pond, modular grid system, and mid-century design, the standout feature, to me, is the atrium filled with plants and basked in sunlight.

Leaving headquarters involves driving slowly through a hilly wooded area. There are moments where you can see the building but by-and-large you’re enveloped by trees. I couldn’t help but notice the physical transition going from work to life. You’re forced to drive through nature and leave behind the corporate edifice. As someone who works fully-remote, there was something nice about that.

I’m positive the designers intended all these beautiful and inspiring moments. It delivers.

Preamble

My goal is to collect the stories and art I experienced in 2023 with a sprinkle of personal updates. Reflecting on the year was a fun process and I hope to turn this into an annual tradition.

Tech Stories

There were a lot of disastrous tech stories this year but 23andMe’s data breach has a special spot in my heart. When I think about the implications for how this data could be misused (off the dome: planting false evidence at a crime scene, the inevitability of nonconsensual cloning), I have a hard time racking my brain for data that’s more sensitive. Stories like this should remind us to be more thoughtful of what we put online. Based on what I see on LinkedIn (a “professional” network), society has ways to go.

Other stories that spring to mind are GM’s bone-headed decision to drop CarPlay and the spectacular bungled effort to fire Sam Altman. The world came this close to Microsoft hiring every employee from OpenAI.¹

Speaking of close calls: Adobe almost acquired Figma. I’m bummed for the Figma employees (who missed out on a big windfall) but this is probably for the best.

We saw the collapse of Twitter, which was bound to happen, but did anyone think it’d deteriorate this quickly? In its wake we saw the meteoric launch of Threads and Mastodon’s slow-and-steady growth. I hope smaller services like Micro.blog are getting their day in the sun. In 2024 and beyond I’m ready for a weirder internet.

It’s for these reasons I’m starting a blog.² After years of posting to Twitter and Instagram, it’s time to have a proper home on the web. I’ve settled on:

• Short, frequent posts on Mastodon
• Long, infrequent posts here (subscribe via RSS)

The Year of Development

I prefer Yearly Themes over resolutions and while I didn’t plan a theme for 2023, reflecting on the past year helped a theme emerge retroactively: the Year of Development.

After the initial excitement of the Vision Pro unveiling at WWDC I spent many summer nights and weekends learning SwiftUI and SwiftData. In September I launched my first app, MapKeep.

I noodled around with an app for Merlin Mann’s Wisdom Project and a packing/shopping list app based on Myke Hurley’s request in Upgrade 489). These projects are on-hold for now.

Weebly hosted my personal site for 10 years but I grew tired of its outdated editor and godawful blogging tools. I used this as an excuse to learn HTML/CSS and rebuilt my site from scratch. At the end of December the site was rebuilt again using Eleventy.

Travel

I visited Des Moines, IA, for a week every quarter for “in-person week” at work. My brother happened to live there which meant we could get dinner downtown or watch an episode of The Sopranos at his apartment. Those days are behind us now that he’s moved to Chicago. It reminds me to always take advantage of opportunities to see family.

I went to Florida to visit sugar cane growers in February. The area was recovering from Hurricane Ian and the destruction was awful. Fort Myers Beach was on a boil order. The hotel was underwater days before I checked-in. I spent a few hours walking the beach and marveled at collapsed hotels, restaurants, and homes.

In May we went to Michigan for a high-school friend’s wedding. A week later we went to a cousin’s high school graduation in Denver and we hiked at Mount Falcon Park.

As an annual tradition we spent a week with my in-laws in Madison, WI, in June visiting downtown, breweries, and the UW Union Terrace. In August we made a trip to Missouri for our niece’s 2nd birthday.

At the end of September a close friend and college roommate got married in the Virginia/DC area. We had great time reminiscing over our stupidity in college.

Work

I continue to work for John Deere as a UX Lead and love it. I was recently promoted and my area of responsibly has grown and I now directly manage a few designers. I’m adjusting to the new role and I’ll be reading The First 90 Days ASAP.

I’m fortunate to have a great mentor and manager. This was a tough year for layoffs across a lot of industries and I don’t take my position for granted.

I try to stay connected with the University of Illinois and in March I gave a talk about the design process at the Siebel Center of Design.

Games

I’m approaching the end of the main storyline in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and … what a masterpiece. Mario Wonder was a blast! 2023 was filled with amazing games and I expect my OLED Steam Deck can help expose me to more non-Nintendo games in 2024.

I’ve been playing retro games:

• Pokémon Red (Anniversary romhack) and Tetris on my silver Analogue Pocket.
• The PC port of Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Mac.
• Super Mario World, naturally.

This Christmas the Genki dock let my cousins and I (ranging from ages 12 to 32) play local co-op with 6-players in Super Smash Bros. Chaotic joy.

Podcasts

I heard the podcast ad market was tough in 2023. Hosts would mention this occasionally and I noticed fewer (or zero) ads. I decided to open my wallet and financially support the work I love:

• Accidental Tech Podcast: Exceptionally consistent. Gotta support John now that he’s gone indie.
• Into the Aether: I have a tremendous appreciation for the art of video game creation thanks to Brendon and Stephen.
• Roderick on the Line: I’ve been listening to the internet’s Merlin Mann and the Long Winters’ John Roderick for a long time.
• Upgrade: Myke and Jason’s segments on Apple and the entertainment industry keep me coming back week after week.

I loved Sir McCartney’s show where he tells the stories behind his killer songs.³

In 2024 I want to reduce my podcast intake or introduce more variety. It’s too easy for me to pop-in an AirPod and tune-out the world. I’m not giving myself enough time for silence.

Music

Thanks to Apple Music’s awkward Replay feature I have a list of most-listened music from 2023:

• the record by boygenius
• GUTS by Olivia Rodrigo
• Fantasy by M83
• WE by Arcade Fire (2022)
• Multitudes by Feist
• Asphalt Meadows (Acoustic) by Death Cab for Cutie
• The Land Is Hospitable and So Are We by Mitski
• Oppenheimer by Ludwig Göransson
• Random Access Memories by Daft Punk (2013) is routinely played on Friday afternoons as work winds down. (I will not link to the drumless abomination.)

Other music highlights:

• I started digging into Peter Gabriel’s i/o. There are 3 mixes of the album which is fascinating. I can’t explain it but the acoustic guitar in the opening track Panopticom fills me with joy.
• Sufjan Stevens’ Javelin was lovely but I haven’t listened to it enough.
• I recorded a short composition called A Quiet Night.
• As part of a Christmas gift I introduced my brother to some chords on the guitar.
• My hopes are high for Michael Stipe’s first post-R.E.M. album (I first heard it teased on Smartless). The Up remaster was impeccable.

Live shows:

• Rodrigo y Gabriela at Krannert’s Ellnora festival. They’re gods. (Thanks to Señora Kooy, my high school Spanish teacher, who originally introduced me to this duo.)
• Lauren Mayberry of Churches at the Rose Bowl. I missed seeing her opener, Claud whose record is a gift to humanity.
• YouTube concerts don’t count but my brother was at a very similar show to Bon Iver at Pitchfork.

One last note: we all heard a new Beatles song this year. Its authenticity is contentious but seeing people singing Now and Then in Central Park is something. It’s hard to imagine this song hasn’t been around for 50 years.

Reading

I started supporting kottke.org by becoming a member. His site is an invaluable source of information on the internet across a variety of topics and help satiates my curiosity.

I read Expecting Better which is the Freakonomics of pregnancy.

30 seconds into Apple’s trailer for Silo and I was hooked. Before the show aired I read the first book, Wool. I’m currently reading Shift, book 2 of 3. If you’re a fan of the show, read the books.

(I think I read more than this but I don’t have a good tracking system.)

Movies

Throughout the year I used Sofa to track what I watched. Stars indicate favorites ★.

• Dec: Barbie ★
• Dec: Knocked Up (rewatch)
• Dec: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (rewatch)
• Dec: Godzilla Minus One ★
• Nov: A Charlie Brown Christmas (rewatch)
• Nov: David Holmes: The Boy Who Lived
• Oct: Young Frankenstein (rewatch)
• Oct: Flora and Son
• Oct: The Swan
• Oct: You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah
• Oct: Flight of the Conchords: Live in London (rewatch)
• Oct: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
• Sep: Elemental
• Sep: Death on the Nile
• Sep: John Mulaney: Baby J
• Sep: Air
• Aug: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ★
• Aug: Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
• Aug: The Beanie Bubble
• Jul: Oppenheimer ★
• Apr: The Super Mario Bros. Movie
• Mar: Luther: The Fallen Sun
• Mar: Thor: Love and Thunder
• Feb: Emily the Criminal
• Jan: The Power of the Dog
• Jan: You People
• Jan: The Menu
• Jan: Last Night in Soho ★
• Jan: The Banshees of Inisherin

TV

Dates indicate when I finished watching the season or series. Stars indicate favorites ★.

• Dec: The Crown
• Dec: Veep (rewatch) ★
• Dec: Lessons in Chemistry
• Nov: Loki
• Nov: Doctor Who
• Oct: The Sandman
• Oct: The Fall of the House of Usher
• Oct: Only Murders in the Building
• Oct: Sex Education
• Oct: Ahsoka
• Sep: Physical
• Sep: Good Omens
• Aug: Girls (rewatch)
• Aug: Fisk
• Jul: The Crowded Room
• Jul: Love & Death
• Jul: Platonic
• Jul: The Bear ★
• Jun: Silo ★
• Jun: The Diplomat
• Jun: Succession ★
• Jun: Ted Lasso
• Jun: I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
• May: Jury Duty ★
• Apr: New Girl (rewatch)
• Apr: Star Wars: The Bad Batch
• Apr: The Mandalorian
• Apr: Unstable
• Mar: Shrinking
• Mar: Trying ★
• Mar: The Last of Us ★
• Feb: Slow Horses ★
• Feb: Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi
• Feb: Mythic Quest
• Jan: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• Jan: The White Lotus
• Jan: Fleishman Is in Trouble