{"id":127649,"date":"2022-08-29T14:00:32","date_gmt":"2022-08-29T14:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=9ab1g4r3"},"modified":"2022-08-29T14:00:32","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T14:00:32","slug":"behind-the-design-not-boring-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/08\/29\/behind-the-design-not-boring-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Design: (Not Boring) Habits"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Few things are more emotionally gratifying than checking something off a to-do list (well, for some of us, anyway). <\/p>\n

But if that sort of thing pleases you currently, wait until you get a load of the (Not Boring) Habits<\/em> approach. The app\u2019s checkbox is no mere tappable square \u2014 it’s an interactive event replete with explosive 3D animations, custom sounds, and playful haptics, all designed to make you feel less like you marked off a task and more like you landed on the moon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went all out,\u201d says Andy Allen, the app’s developer. \u201cThere was a lot of room to wrap something special around that box.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
\n

The mighty checkbox of (Not Boring) Habits<\/em> is an experience in and of itself. \u201cWe went all out,\u201d says Andy Allen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Magically transforming everyday events into bold, brash experiences is the driving philosophy around the (Not Boring)<\/em> suite of apps from Andy Works, the studio founded by Allen and Mark Dawson. Like its siblings Weather<\/em>, Calculator<\/em>, and Timer<\/em>, (Not Boring) Habits<\/em> wildly amplifies a pretty mild-mannered category, tearing down the traditional approach in favor of eye-popping aesthetics, zingy haptics, spiffy 3D animations, and plenty of the delight and fun that nabbed the app its 2022 Apple Design Award.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about adding something extra,\u201d says Allen. \u201cYou can write a to-do list on a piece of paper and it works just the same, right?\u201d If strict practicality is your goal, the app ecosystem is swimming in weather apps and habit trackers, and Allen is the first to admit that (Not Boring)<\/em> apps aren\u2019t for everyone. \u201cBut,\u201d he says with a smile, \u201dthey\u2019re definitely really<\/em> for some people.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘A joyful and maybe surprising ritual\u2019<\/h3>\n

In the summer of 1970, the painter John Baldessari, who\u2019d been working for nearly two decades, decided he\u2019d had quite enough. He collected all the paintings he\u2019d made between May 1953 and March 1966 that were in his possession, broke them into pieces, brought them to a San Diego mortuary, and lit them all on fire. One year later, he created a lithograph called I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art<\/em>, consisting entirely of that single phrase, written over and over like he\u2019d gotten in trouble with the teacher.<\/p>\n

Allen was taken with the blaze of glory \u2014 particularly the notion of a hard break with the past. He\u2019d studied filmmaking and worked for years as an animator, but gradually found himself drawn more to the \u201cpersonal connections\u201d possible with apps \u2014 especially in the nascent age of mobile development. One of his first apps was the hit drawing experience Paper<\/em>, which won he and his FiftyThree studio an Apple Design Award in 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was such a spirit of experimentation back then,\u201d Allen says. \u201cToday, and often for the right reasons, patterns and systems have been built up, and it\u2019s certainly easier to build now. But what if we built software that embodied some of those experimental values, that tried to differentiate not purely on functionality but also design? Every day you look at the weather, or a clock, or a list of stuff to do. Why not make that a joyful \u2014 and maybe surprising \u2014 ritual?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n
\n

Andy Works co-founders Mark Dawson and Andy Allen model the company’s official logo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This philosophy wasn\u2019t just a design approach; it was a function of the company’s size. \u201cThere\u2019s only two of us,\u201d Dawson says. \u201cBig teams will always have more features than we do \u2014 we just can\u2019t compete there. But design is difficult to copy. You can have your own style. You can make it beautiful. And that\u2019s something we can do while still having an opinionated feature set.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n

Big teams will always have more features than we do \u2014 we just can\u2019t compete there. But design is difficult to copy. <\/p>\n

Mark Dawson, Andy Works co-founder<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To create Habits<\/em>, they started by rebranding the habit tracker. \u201cWe consider it a habit builder<\/em>,\u201d says Allen. \u201cWe try to think about it as loving the journey of creating a new habit.\u201d <\/p>\n

They cast that journey as an actual, well \u2014 journey \u2014 with its roots in the mythic hero quest, taking someone through dark forests and over looming mountains en route to a preordained destiny. Habits<\/em> is predicated on research that indicates it takes 66 days to build a new habit; in certain ways, it\u2019s a video game with 66 levels. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always felt a little weird that games are seen as separate in the product design world,\u201d Allen says. \u201cYou\u2019ll hear people referencing movies or architecture, but it\u2019s like, \u2018Well, what about this incredibly rich domain of creativity that\u2019s super-adjacent to what we\u2019re doing?\u2019 Why does work have to be over here<\/em> and fun over there<\/em>?\u201d <\/p>\n

\"To<\/p>\n
\n

To Allen, design is a way of life. \u201cEvery day you look at the weather, or a clock, or a list of stuff to do. Why not make that a joyful and maybe surprising ritual?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Besides, what\u2019s a really good way to convince someone to do a job? Turn it into a game. \u201cMy daughter and I were playing Wilmot\u2019s Warehouse,<\/em> where you\u2019re literally organizing things in a warehouse,\u201d Allen laughs. \u201cBut it\u2019s a game! It has a goal and challenges you! Lots of fun, basic principles can be applied to utility apps in the very same way, but for whatever reason, I just haven\u2019t seen it. A big thing with (Not Boring)<\/em> was breaking down the barrier between apps, utilities, and games.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Fairly off-the-shelf’ <\/h3>\n

(Not Boring) Habits<\/em> required the nifty zing of its brand, but it also needed to be a lightweight, quick-launching, scannable daily utility app. And the road to get there was about as traditional as it gets.<\/p>\n

The app\u2019s 3D animations are authored in the open-source modeling tool Blender, built in SceneKit \u2014 which Allen chose for its easy integration with Apple tools \u2014 and tied together with UIKit and SwiftUI views. \u201cMost of [our] standard controls are fairly off-the-shelf, which makes things very simple and predictable,\u201d says Allen. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have to rethink how a button or a popover works. And SceneKit\u2019s interfaces with UIKit and standard UI controls make it all feel more seamless, like one environment,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
\n

The levels of your habit-building journey, seen here in prototype form.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Part of Allen\u2019s goal with building Habits<\/em> was proving that such a visual experience could be built with the basics. \u201cWe chose [Blender] because we wanted to prove out a possible pipeline that didn\u2019t require people to spend thousands of dollars on 3D software and then spend months trying to figure out how it worked,\u201d Allen says. \u201cWe wanted to should how you could build custom, rich experiences with off-the-shelf pieces. The pipeline didn\u2019t really exist; we had to piece it together. But once we got it working, things rolled fairly quickly.\u201d He\u2019s not kidding: (Not Boring) Habits<\/em> was developed in all of two months.<\/p>\n

This brings us back to the checkbox. The gonzo version of the box in the app is result of a complex, iterative design strategy that went like this: Add stuff, keep adding stuff, and follow with the inclusion of \u2014 you guessed it \u2014 yet more stuff. Here again, Allen drew from the world of gaming. <\/p>\n

\u201cGame designers are amazing at taking very simple inputs \u2014 like a one-button press \u2014 and turning into something much bigger,\u201d says Allen. \u201cThe same button can feel like you\u2019re tiptoeing around or smashing something with a sledgehammer. That was our idea: How do we take principles and techniques from games \u2014 the haptics and sounds and particle animations \u2014 and apply them to something as basic as a checkbox?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cA<\/p>\n
\n

\u201cA big thing with (Not Boring) Habits<\/em> was breaking down the barrier between apps, utilties and games,\u201d says Allen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In contrast with his history (\u201cThere was some real tension there with my minimalist graphic design background,\u201d he laughs), the checkbox was an exercise in more. In fact, the more Allen added, the more he felt closer to his desired feeling. \u201cExperiences on our phones are still trapped behind a screen,\u201d he says, \u201dso you have to put in what\u2019s taken away, and so you have to intentionally layer and layer and push and push.\u201c<\/p>\n

For instance, the Habits<\/em> checkbox can\u2019t merely be ticked; you have to intentionally press on the screen for longer than you might think to trigger the animation. \u201cIt\u2019s a very big, gross interaction,\u201d he says. \u201cBut after prototyping, we found we had to make it much more intentional; we needed feedback that told you you needed to keep holding.” Then came the iterations, sounds, and custom haptics to make it feel like more of an explosion. \u201cThere were thousands of iterations,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI\u2019d do something and think, \u2018OK, this is way over the top and I\u2019m gonna do it anyway.\u2019 And then I put it in and it\u2019s like, \u2018You know, it\u2019s not that bad!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

I don\u2019t want to live in a perfectly white-walled museum all the time. I want to live where there\u2019s richness and texture and fun.<\/p>\n

Andy Allen, Andy Works co-founder<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The language of gaming gave him much more room to play. \u201cThere\u2019s an understanding of how much feedback you should get from a game, and honestly, the bar is pretty high. We added maybe six or seven things in the checkbox, but most games probably have two or three times that for any one interaction.\u201d In other words, sometimes you have to get loud. \u201cLook, minimalism is a fun place to visit for me, but it\u2019s not somewhere I want to live,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI love visiting an art gallery. But I don\u2019t want to live in a perfectly white-walled museum all the time. I want to live where there\u2019s richness and texture and fun.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pushing ‘the language of product design’<\/h3>\n

As the saying goes, (Not Boring)<\/em> is more than an app; it\u2019s a lifestyle. \u201cIt\u2019s tricky sometimes to communicate that you\u2019re trying to sell someone on design,\u201d says Dawson. \u201cA lot of people might say, \u2018Oh I don\u2019t want to pay for that.\u2019 But maybe it gives you new experiences \u2014 or maybe you just want to open your app and feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Win<\/p>\n
\n

Win the final battle and your new habit is complete.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In the short term, Allen and Dawson are hoping for an elevated experience; in the long term, they wouldn\u2019t mind a wholesale design revolution. \u201cOur primary goal is to inspire other app creators to be more adventurous, to push the language of product design,\u201d says Allen. \u201cThere\u2019s been a coalescence over the last few years about what product should look like, and some of that is for the better, sure. But I believe we need people who want to explore new territory and find new patterns. There\u2019s so much space with apps to connect with people in their daily lives; I\u2019d love to see a world where we\u2019re all immersed in amazing, interesting ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more about (Not Boring) Habits<\/a><\/p>\n

Download (Not Boring) Habits from the App Store<\/a><\/p>\n

Behind the Design is a weekly series that explores design practices and philosophies from each of the 12 winners of the 2022 Apple Design Awards. In each story, we go behind the screens with the developers and designers of these award-winning apps and games to discover how they brought their remarkable creations to life.<\/em><\/p>\n

Explore more of the 2022 Behind the Design series<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Few things are more emotionally gratifying than checking something off a to-do list (well, for some of us, anyway). But if that sort of thing pleases you currently, wait until you get a load of the (Not Boring) Habits approach. The app\u2019s checkbox is no mere tappable square \u2014 it’s an interactive event replete with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple-developer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}