Archive
This era of my career has a special place in my heart. I was just starting out, learning how to craft beautiful interfaces. As a freelance designer, I worked with many clients from different industries and backgrounds.
By modern standards, these designs may look dated (and, sometimes, silly). Yet I’ve put as much care into them as I do in my work today.
2012
Sail Browser
Sail was a Safari alternative I designed and developed (I learned Objective-C for that).
Back then, I had a few nitpicks for Safari on my iPad. First, it had different search fields for URL and web search. I used Chrome on desktop, and a single field was so much easier to use. Second, my iPad 3 was quite heavy. To switch between tabs, I needed to lift my hand and tap in the center of the screen. The solution was to place tabs on the side, so I could navigate them with my right thumb while holding the iPad with two hands.
Beyond functionality, I believed the best user experience should look as close to native design as possible. I even recreated the fabric background texture many 2012 iOS apps used.
Spatial
An app for setting up friend meetups I designed for one of my clients. It could send location-based notifications. People could share their location with friends. I was into Radiohead back then, so for the person icon, I used lead signer’s silhouette.
Deals App
An app for finding discounts I designed for one of my clients.
This was the peak skeuomorphism era. I would start every design by thinking about a theme for the app. Few things inspired me when designing this app: a hotdog cart and a color palette I found at a website called Kuler (now known as Adobe Color). I’m also very proud of that “realistically” folded map.
At the same time, no matter how customized the theme was, I made sure I followed Apple Human Interface Guidelines for accessibility standards and component sizes. So the nav buttons may look unique, yet they’re exactly the same size as native buttons.
Australian Olympic Team
I worked with a client who developed the official Australian Olympic Team app for the London 2012 Olympics. The app used official team colors.
We were on a tight schedule, so the only thing that made it into the actual release was the running person icon. (Which was surprisingly challenging to get right: you want a person looking like they’re sprinting, not jogging.)
Light
First ever app I fully developed and submitted to the App Store. Back then, iOS didn’t have a button to toggle a flashlight: you’d need to go to the camera app. My dad had a classic MagLite™ flashlight which I used as a reference for the app’s design.
The app was rejected, citing too many flashlight apps in the store.
2011
The One
A platform that connected a user’s media across devices into one cloud network. Devices could control each other. An iPhone could control a TV set, an iPad could control a Mac app, etc. It also had TV channels from around the world, prerecorded shows, and personal playlists.
I was inspired by a jukebox and its song cards for the music and radio interfaces. I used a photo of my childhood wardrobe to create the radio’s background texture.