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Comment by chrismorgan | Hacker News Reader

> The result is a beautiful menu bar on an iPhone app […]

Is that really what it looks like? The first screenshot that follows is genuinely the ugliest UI screenshot that I have seen in months (and the two that follow are only slightly better). It is just so messy.

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That's harsh, I spent quite a bit of time on the appearance and the feel of the UI. But I can get that it's not for everyone.

Edit: perhaps if you see it in context you might judge it differently?

Here's the menu being used in the new version of Codea

https://twitter.com/twolivesleft/status/1074989429817626625

Here is the menu being displayed in our two apps, Shade and Codea (though it's not being used much in this video)

https://twitter.com/twolivesleft/status/1078541508742045696

And a few more in-context uses of this menu

https://twitter.com/twolivesleft/status/1047882889046589441

https://twitter.com/twolivesleft/status/1040965832036167680

https://twitter.com/twolivesleft/status/1040898996623990784

I like the way it looks. The thing with design is that there will usually be someone who thinks it's ugly.

And I think that's okay. Everyone's aesthetic sense is a bit different. Nobody's going to like everything you do.

I do think that the ordinal poster's criticism could have been delivered less rudely, though.

Ah, nevermind that guy. I really like how Codea looks, and I think the iOS Menu looks great. More importantly, it feels great to use.

Counterpoint, I genuinely think it looks beautiful and I'm really impressed by it.

Definitely ignore that guy. While I personally would not use an iOS device for anything other than communicating, consuming media and entertainment (and have had just about every iOS device Apple sold, but I do my "real" work on an MBP), I really appreciate the thought you put in to this and double appreciate that you shared the thinking AND the code.

First of all, fantastic work. Developers as passionate, brave and talented as you are the ones who move this whole platform forward and eventually change paradigms.

The other guy was unnecessarily harsh and offered zero constructive criticism, so I'm left wondering what is it that he could have disliked so much. I think if there's one thing that might strike as a bit jarring on those iPhone screenshots it would be the light green tint. Why not gray or white? Menus are at a lower hierarchy than the actual content and the use of color makes them stand out too much based on everyone's years of experience with them

That's a good point. I use the tint because then the menu buttons match the rest of the buttons. Each app (Shade, Codea) has a variation of that green tint that goes all the way from the app icon to the web site (Codea.io).

I might experiment with what a completely neutral editor looks like.

Don’t listen to him man, guys like you are what makes the Apple ecosystem so nice for users. You actually care for crafting an experience that belongs to the platform its on. Kudos!

It looks much better there, and I think there are three factors for that: one, that it is interactive rather than a static screenshot; two, that those examples are on larger screens where the menu is not taking up a substantial fraction of the screen, and so the curved two-box outline is taking up less of the screen; and three, the colours: the screenshot I remarked on (and on which I stand firm in my judgement) is light-themed, with a strange tint that doesn’t feel right, and which is rendered far worse by the extra smudgy colour coming through from the text selection underneath. I think I would find that same screenshot in a dark theme quite acceptable, though probably still a tad odd due to the shapes involved.

Ah, your average constructive and polite HN criticism. Take it easy dude.

Maybe a bit orthogonal to your point, but I feel that oftentimes "usable" trumps "pretty".

I agree, but that's contradictory to the quote.

> The result is a beautiful menu bar on an iPhone app

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