Let’s have a creative Apple team to invent the obvious

We’re of course all eagerly awaiting the iOS 18 headline feature to hit the betas: Apple Intelligence. But sometimes the little things really count.

Steve Jobs famously said that design is not just how things look, but how they work. Jony Ive added that one hallmark of great design is when it looks stunningly obvious after it’s been done – and Apple just gave us two tiny but beautiful examples …

Two of the little things

Both features are present in the tvOS 18 betas, and one of them has also made its way onto Apple’s other platforms. Both concern subtitles.

First, when you skip back in a video, Apple TV now automatically switches on subtitles for the 10-second replay, then switches them off again.

That reflects the fact that by far the most common reason to do that 10-second replay is because we missed a line of dialog. The need for that has increased over the years, as films and TV shows decided to prioritize ‘realistic’ audio environments over being able to actually hear what the characters are saying.

Previously, we’d listen again, hope we got it the second time, find that we didn’t, skip back again, switch on subtitles, finally get it, then switch off subtitles.

Now we hit the 10-second recap button and it all happens automatically.

Apple has implemented that not just in tvOS, but also in the Apple TV apps on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Second, if you mute Apple TV, it now automatically switches on subtitles. Again, reflecting the fact that if we’ve muted a show but not paused it, then we’re presumably continuing to watch and will need subtitles on to do so.

My colleague Ryan Christoffel was so delighted with both features that he celebrated each. I don’t even own an Apple TV (for the simple reason that I don’t own a TV), and even I admire them! To me, each meets that Ive criteria of being totally and utterly obvious after someone designed them.

Let’s put a creative team on this, Tim!

I’m so delighted by this type of thing that I’d love to see more of it. It just feels so Apple.

Of course, the problem with these insights is that, by their very nature, they are sporadic. But I wonder whether they necessarily have to be?

I have no idea whether or not it would work, but I’d love to see Apple put together a cross-platform team of creative people and give them one single task: Invent the obvious.

Come up with things which solve tiny little everyday problems. Overcome the smallest of friction points. Figure out the trivial things that bug people on a level so subliminal they don’t even know it, then fix it. Think of ideas that are ridiculously obvious, after the fact.

But maybe do it right after doing this … (And yeah, five years later, that ‘apps opening on the wrong desktop’ bug is still alive and kicking.)

Photo by Benjamin Child on Unsplash