Integrating my now-playing controls with the new design language is hard. The biggest challenge: Where do I put the ad?
The system button-shadow style looks best at the screen edges, and can't stack (system-style toolbar buttons AND a capsule-style ad look bad next to each other).
Some options I'm playing with:
1 is the closest to the status quo.
2 seems safe, but I don't love the toolbar-style buttons floating in the middle like that.
Leaning toward 3 myself, but it's pretty different from the status quo.
Do you have a clear preference?
Everyone loves this one! I did, too, as a screenshot. But I build and use all of my designs to test them. This one’s downsides:
- It confuses the sheet-presentation metaphor
- When swiped to the show notes, it creates 3 levels of card depth, which is cluttered and doesn't fit the 26 design
- It needs a lot of vertical padding, which pushes the playback controls quite far down
This is why I build and live with my designs. I wouldn't find these tradeoffs in mockups or screenshots alone.
I've been using this design today. I think it looks great in screenshots, and improves a lot of those issues, especially in show-notes view (which lets the content scroll under the glass ad capsule).
In practice, though, it has a fatal flaw:
It always looks like I have a notification. And that's very distracting when it's sitting on a counter as I do stuff and I see it out of the corner of my eye.
Which I never would’ve realized until I lived with it on my phone for half a day.
Trying this variant for the second half of the day. It's less notificationey.
(I tried a border around the ad, but that doesn't fit 26's style and immediately looks old in context with the rest of the OS. And the low contrast between the backgrounds is, in this case, actually an upside — it makes it look less like a notification. I'm about 75% satisfied with this.)
@marcoarment what’s the Alan Dye button for?
It feels off to me to have some buttons be the new UI and some the standard Overcast buttons.
@marcoarment
> looks like I have a notification.
Ugh, good point.
@marcoarment Have you tried putting the ad between the podcast title and the podcast artwork? Then when sliding to the show notes, the title and the ad could be static and the show notes could slide in. The date of the episode on the show notes screen would be in the way, but this might give you the best of both worlds.
Might look terrible, but it might fix the persistent notification look
@marcoarment I think the now playing screen doesn’t need any Liquid Glass buttons except for maybe the “minimize” toolbar button in the upper left.
I think your existing screen would look good as is within a redesign. I would focus on the layer below with a search tab bar, accessory view for the mini player and updated navigation bar. My 2 cents. 🙂
@marcoarment this is a pretty good solution layout wise. Clearly separates the content from the ad.
The space could lend itself to be quite playful. Eg. if you try to swipe the “sheet” up over it you can trigger messaging to prompt subscribe to remove ads— or down the sheet to half detent, could reveal the subscription messaging/options below the ad.
Could also become annoying and not feel right over time— but might be worth experimenting with the space / interaction to see if it has legs.
@marcoarment Totally fair, but it does look very nice.
What about combining that with what you did earlier where the ad was at the bottom of the screen?
I like the “sheet below a sheet” effect.
@jeffrock @marcoarment I thought so too. Animate it closed on donation, and people will donate just to see it happen.
I’m dying to see it close up.
@ramarope @marcoarment I mean, I should just look like an unusually short sheet.
How to handle the presentation animation could be a challenge though
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