Home | Obvious in hindsight

I'm a designer who swapped design apps for AI agents, to see how far a non-coder could get.

Six months later, a lot further than I expected. Two useful apps with around 1,700 users between them, two slightly silly ones for the iPhone Duo, and a calm rowing app for the Quest.

These are the design notes, including the bits I got wrong.

Design notes

Hinging on the hinge

Building two apps for the iPhone Duo that only make sense if you open and close it, without ever holding one.
Did it, or done?

Adopting Apple's checkmark for Done meant rethinking what Did It's own checkmark says.
Pressure is easy to miss

I thought I'd made empty days fun and inviting, but I missed what multiple empty days in a row could do.
Sketches, at last

Why it took months to add drawing to Did It, and what changed.
Size doesn't matter. Except when it did.

Don't believe everything you're told, even when it's true.
On trying not to be a dickover

Telling users something without stopping them to do it.
An entry is just an entry, right?

I wanted a day of entries to feel special.
How Did It knows what you mean

When a tooltip became an enjoyable feature, and when to draw the line.
I want to live in a Gaudi world. Just not today.

On the gap between could and should.
Can we just?

Adding captions to photos, one small tweak at a time.
From if you know, you know, to just press the button

Adding rich text formatting to entries