Let’s call on a creative Apple team to invent the obvious

We’re all eagerly awaiting the release of iOS 18’s flagship feature in betas: Apple Intelligence. But sometimes, it’s the little details that really matter.

Steve Jobs said that design is not just about how things look, but how they work. Jony Ive added that one of the hallmarks of good design is that it looks surprisingly obvious when it’s done. Apple just gave us two tiny but beautiful examples…

Two of the little things

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

First, when you rewind a video, Apple TV will now automatically turn on captions for the 10-second replay, then turn them off again.

This reflects the fact that by far the most common reason for doing this 10-second replay is missing a line of dialogue. The need for this feature has grown over the years as movies and TV shows have decided to prioritize “realistic” audio environments over the ability to actually hear what the characters are saying.

Previously, we would listen again, hoping to have understood a second time, only to find out we hadn’t, go back, turn on the subtitles, finally understand, then turn the subtitles off.

Now we press the 10 second recap button and everything happens automatically.

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

Second, if you mute the Apple TV, subtitles are now automatically enabled. Again, this reflects the fact that if we’ve muted a show without pausing it, we’re likely still watching it and will need subtitles to do so.

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

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

I’m so excited about this kind of thing that I’d like to see more of it. It’s so Apple-like.

Of course, the problem with these ideas is that they are, by their very nature, sporadic. But I wonder if it is really necessary for them to be.

I have no idea if this would work or not, but I would love to see Apple put together a cross-platform team of creative people and give them one task: invent the obvious.

Find solutions to the smallest problems of everyday life. Overcome the smallest points of friction. Find the trivial things that bother people on such a subliminal level that they don’t even know it, then fix them. Think of ideas that are ridiculously obvious, in hindsight.

But maybe it needs to be done properly. After do that… (And yes, five years later, that “apps open on the wrong desktop” bug is still around.)

Photo by Benjamin Child on Unsplash