Weekend in Shenzhen

My wife and I spent the weekend in Shenzhen and I used the trip as an excuse to test out two things I've been excited about: the new Halide Mark III on my iPhone and my Fujifilm GFX 100S.

We spent most of our time in the 南山区 (Nanshan) area, which has become our go-to part of Shenzhen. Coffee was, as always, a highlight. We visited Root & Loop at the new MixC World and we also had a great time at 梓咖啡 (Zi Coffee).

One of the surprises of the weekend was finding proper Mexican food at Tequila Coyote's. I've been craving good Mexican ever since we moved to Asia and this was seriously good. Highly recommend if you find yourself in Shenzhen!

Already looking forward to the next trip across the border.

WWDC 2026 — Apple's Big AI Moment

As I'm writing this it's less than 24 hours until Apple's annual developer conference starts into its 2026 edition. Apple is expected to finally deliver on its promises it made years ago to turn the technology underpinning all modern LLMs into actual products and integrate those deeply into its various operating systems.

A few days ago I listened to the latest episode of the Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP episode 694) and what John Siracusa said starting from 46:26 really hit a chord with me:

I think the Apple Intelligence Strategy as articulated in WWDC 2024 was and is the best strategy for Apple, which is we have all this data about you, let's let the model know it all and let's let you talk to the model and have it manipulate all this data in a privacy-preserving way on your device because we're the only one who are going to give that kind of access to.

This is exactly it. Apple is weirdly well positioned to deliver this experience that everyone is trying to hack their way towards using things like OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, ChatGPT's computer use feature, Claude's Cowork feature, PewDiePie's Odysseys and many many more.

Whenever I set up any of these things in the past the thing that I always stopped at was giving these systems access to my actual important stuff. The productivity hacks all of those people on YouTube, LinkedIn and Instagram raving on about? They're only possible if you're reckless enough to trust a random company with access to your email, your calendar, your file system or maybe even root access to your entire digital life.

I can't recommend that to anyone. The only exception is self-hosted models, and let's be real for a moment, most people are not doing this!

So with their unique focus on privacy Apple has the chance to deliver something that might be more valuable than all the chatbot interfaces, coding agents and Copilots of the world can bring to the table: The first digital assistant you can truly trust to give access to everything you trust Apple with. Tomorrow we'll find out if they actually pull it off.

Then I ran into a perfect use case: testing a bot interface with more than 40 questions.

The problem

For work I was working on a chatbot that needed to handle a specific set of questions. The challenge wasn't just making sure it could answer them but we also needed to compare how the bot's responses changed when we adjusted its settings.

The obvious solution would be to automate this through an API or server-side testing. But here's the thing: setting up that kind of automation is complex. It requires development time, maintenance, and technical knowledge that not everyone on the team has.

What we really needed was something reproducible but simple enough that anyone in the company could run the tests without writing a single line of code.

The solution

Turns out the solution was surprisingly straightforward. I opened the bot's chat interface in an Atlas browser window and gave it a simple task: work through a list of 40 questions, one at a time.

The workflow looked like this:

1. Paste the list of questions into the prompt for ChatGPT in Atlas one time
2. Post the first question to the bot
3. Wait for the response
4. Hit reset to start a fresh bot interface and paste the next question

The key was making sure Atlas didn't get interrupted while waiting for the slow bot responses. Once I got that part right, it just... worked. It went through each question methodically, waited patiently for responses (no matter how long they took), and moved on to the next one.

Why this felt kind of magical

Watching it run through all those questions on its own was honestly kind of impressive. It wasn't just that it worked - it was that I had created a reproducible, no-code testing setup that anyone on the team could use whenever we changed the bot's settings.

This is the kind of task that sits in an awkward middle ground. It's way too tedious to do manually with 40 questions (I mean, who wants to sit there clicking through that many times?). But it's also too simple to justify spending the time building some complex automation infrastructure around it. Atlas hit that sweet spot perfectly.

Why not just build proper automation?

Could we have built a proper automated testing suite? Sure. Would it have been more robust and faster? Probably. But would it have been accessible to non-technical team members? Absolutely not unless we build some pretty UI for it as well and host the service somehow.

What I like about the Atlas approach is how simple it is. No API keys to manage, no scripts to maintain, no dependencies to update. Just open Atlas, paste your questions, and let it run. When we need to test again after changing settings, anyone can repeat the process in a few minutes.

A quick caveat about AI-enabled browsers

I should mention that AI-enabled browsers like ChatGPT Atlas come with some real concerns. There are security issues to be aware of, and honestly, they're often not the right tool for the job because of their inherent unreliability and the uncertainty of outcomes.

For most tasks like this, a programmatic or API-driven approach would definitely be preferable if we had more time available. The main reason is that with automation, all the variables are entirely set and there's no need for qualitative review until the final comparison of outputs. And to be clear, that final comparison of outputs is currently done manually by a human anyway, so we're not replacing human judgment, just the tedious clicking.

That said, for a quick and dirty solution that got us what we needed in the short term, Atlas worked surprisingly well.

Tot (by Iconfactory)

Tot is a deceptively simple app: just seven small text documents you can use to capture notes, snippets, and ideas. Iconfactory has given Tot a subtle Liquid Glass refresh that feels completely at home on iOS 26. The subtle glass accents make the minimal interface feel a bit more fun, while still keeping focus on your text.

Zeitgeist (by Marcel Wichmann)

Zeitgeist is a brand-new app experimenting with the concept of private micro blogging. It uses the new tab bar style and adds a floating action button on top of the separate search button on the right side of the screen. It's an exciting example of how a fresh indie idea can also showcase Apple’s latest design work by keeping design to a minimum.

Overcast (by Marco Arment)

The podcast client Overcast is one of the classic indie apps on iOS, and Marco Arment (of ATP- and Under the Radar-fame) has consistently kept it modern without ever chasing trends. The addition of Liquid Glass here is subtle but effective. I especially like that Marco decided to implement a custom built floating "Playing now"-bar instead of relying on the new and still buggy tab bar accessory Apple provides natively with iOS 26. This shows what's possible when you want to build something custom with Liquid Glass.

Sequel (by Romain Lefebvre)

Sequel is a popular media tracker for movies, TV shows, books, and games. Its new Liquid Glass integration adds polish to an already well-designed interface. It’s a good example of how translucency can support, rather than distract from, rich content.

Daylish (by Manuel Kehl)

Daylish is a brand-new day planner using the new Alarms API. It uses Liquid Glass from the ground up, with translucent panels that give the daily view a fresh, airy feel. For an app designed around planning and time, the new design language adds just the right touch of calm.

LookUp (by Vidit Bhargava)

LookUp has been around since 2014 and has seen multiple careful redesigns over the years. Vidit Bhargava’s attention to detail shows once again in the latest update: Liquid Glass is integrated beautifully into the dictionary browsing experience, making the app feel both modern and timeless.

Wrapping up

It’s no surprise that indie developers are among the first to experiment with Liquid Glass. They’re closer to the platform, can move more quickly, and often see the design of their apps as a key differentiator. What’s especially exciting is to see the variety in how each of these apps applies Apple’s new design language. To me this proves that Liquid Glass isn’t just a new coat of paint — it’s a flexible set of tools that can adapt to different app personalities.

That assumption wasn't entirely wrong. Even Apple’s own pro apps — like Final Cut Pro and Logic — are sticking to their established look and feel (at least for now). Given the complexity of their interfaces and the need to keep long-time professional users in a familiar environment that makes a lot of sense.

However, a bit more than one week after the release of the new "26" operating systems (iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS) we’re already seeing some big early adopters of Liquid Glass. And while the overall adoption is definitely still in its very early stages, it’s interesting to see some apps are already leaning in early. Here's a list of a few interesting examples I have found so far:

Chrome

Let's start this with the biggest surprise of them all. Google Chrome has integrated Liquid Glass elements very cautiously so far. That being said, any adoption of Liquid Glass is news here as most of Google's apps like GoogleMaps, Gmail and so on tend to stick to their own design systems.

Firefox

The next browser adopting Liquid Glass is Firefox. It's at a very similar stage as Google Chrome with just the main buttons and menus having changed so far.

GitHub

GitHub’s iOS app has fully embraced the new floating tab bar style introduced with Liquid Glass. Notice the prominent Copilot button right of the tab bar.

Craft

Craft embraces Liquid Glass fully and also plays with translucency, glass materials and so on in custom views throughout the entire app. It also uses the new floating tab bar style.

Polarsteps

The travel journal app Polarsteps also uses the new floating tab bar style prominently, including the included native search bar.

Wise

Even some banking apps have started experimenting with Liquid Glass. Wise is using the new floating tab bar but with more opacity. In general they seem to be using the new aesthetic sparingly but effectively.

One to Watch: MLB

A particularly interesting case is the MLB app. It has a reputation for being a good iOS “platform citizen,” staying current with Apple’s latest design and system features. That’s why I’m especially curious to see how it implements Liquid Glass. I expect this one to update at some point after the end of the current season so it may take until next year realistically.

It's early days still

It’s still very early days for Liquid Glass but I have to say I am quite bullish on how fast and wide an adoption it will see. I think it’s worth keeping an eye on how these early examples evolve, because they’ll likely influence the next wave of adoption. In my next post I plan to take a look at some of the best indie app implementations of Liquid Glass. Stay tuned!

Online Check by Sindre Sorhus

Online Check can't fix your bad internet connection but what it does is almost as useful: It notifies you the second your internet drops out or comes back online again. It doesn't sound like much but since I've installed this little utility it has saved me countless times from wondering why that one document doesn't want to safe, why that form does not load the next page or why the FaceTime with my family member on the other side of the world just dropped out all of the sudden.

Understanding the problem is half the solution and when it comes to flaky internet Online Check has that part covered. You can get it here.

Itsycal by Mowglii

I've used Itsycal for so long I almost forgot it does not ship with macOS. Itsycal is just a simple calendar that lives in your menu bar. You'd be surprised by how useful this can be sometimes. Check it out for yourself here.

Handmirror by Rafael Conde

Handmirror has been featured in so many "Top 10"-videos on YouTube over the years I'm pretty sure everyone reading this blog already knows about it anyways. But on the off chance you don't here's my recommendation: Imagine a mirror you can quickly look at by simply clicking a menu bar icon. It's great for checking how you look before jumping into a video call or whenever you feel like looking at yourself. No judgment here! Handmirror is available in the App Store.

But why does the user experience of switching the interface language suck so often? What makes this so uniquely challenging to design and implement well? Let me list at least a few of the reasons that might explain this:

• First let's reiterate that if the interface is shown in a language the user can't understand this potentially stop the entire user journey right there. One funny real-world example I thought of on a recent trip to Japan are those famous "washlet" toilets and their complicated control panels. I bet a significant number of foreign visitors to Japan opt not to use the bidet functions of these fancy toilets just because they are not sure what buttons to press.

  

• Following from that first point one ideally would want to show the language selector front and center. The first thing the user should be able to do is to set the interface to their desired language, right? Well, one important caveat to that idea is that the language selector is only relevant to a specific subset of all users (those who need to change the language). So for all other users the language selector is just a distraction and takes up a step or screen real-estate that could otherwise show something more important.

  

• When interfaces opt not to show the language selector prominently to avoid distracting the majority of users who don't need to switch the language it often ends up buried in a low-priority area like the footer of a website – a tradeoff that degrades the user experience for everyone who does need to change the language in favor of the rest.

  

• At the same time this also means the interface has to be able to guide the user to the language selector without using language but there is no sufficiently well-known icon to signify "this is where you can change the interface to your language". While the most common icon a world-icon some use flags, gears, language abbreviations or a literal globe. These often come unhelpfully paired with the name of the language written in the language the interface is currently set to.

  

• The tool one might think solves all of this mess is automatic language detection (based on device settings, browser settings, IP address, location, etc.). This however, is also just another tradeoff. In real life this also often leads to issues that can annoy users – like websites in Hong Kong defaulting to Cantonese because most users there prefer to use it over English. Or just think of countries like Switzerland with 4 or more official languages. While automatic language detection is a great tool to have it has to be applied carefully.

But if all of that is true what's the fix? After all, this series "Fixing Things" is not supposed to be about complaining but about trying to find solutions. How can all of this be solved once and for all? Well, I admit it can't but I have at least come up with a couple of things to avoid which would improve the current mess we see out there in the wild:

• Do not (only) use language to guide to/display your language selector. The reason the user needs to interact with the language selector is because they might not understand the current one!
• Do not use fancy custom icons either because user's might not get what they mean.
• Do not bury the language selector in a menu or footer if you expect a non-negligible amount of users to interact with it.
• Do not force all users to interact with the language selector either (meaning no automatic popup on page load, etc).
• Do not use automatic language detection as the only tool to solve this complex issue without thinking carefully about edge cases and how to deal with them.

In the last few months I've eaten at Genki so often it seemed reasonable to download their membership app. By spending a certain amount you unlock some minor benefits like discounts and stuff. It ended up taking me a while but when I ate there last time a prominent orange badge in the app told me that I had finally accumulated enough spending to gain the Silver Pass. How exciting! Or so I thought...

After clicking on the badge telling me that I had to spend "$0" to "upgrade to Silver Pass" the next screen showed me that I was actually $0.1 short of reaching that limit. I finally realized that the "$0" in the exciting banner was just a rounding error. How annoying and disappointing!

In an effort to safe space and visual complexity the makers of this app had decided to round down to the next full dollar amount. This way the amount of $0.1 got presented to me as $0, making it look like I had already completed the spending requirement. It's a simple mistake that might seem small (and in this particular instance it actually is nothing more than an annoying hiccup) but actually shows how dangerous it can be sometimes to make what seems like a minor UI mistake. Just imagine making a similar kind of rounding error in a banking application where the stakes might be much higher.

Having your app show wrong or inconsistent amounts on different screens is obviously bad and I can't think of an instance where it can be justified. There are, however, some legitimate reasons for choosing to round a value before presenting it to the user, ranging from eliminating meaningless or misleadingly precise decimal places to simply saving space in the UI.

However, this justification for sacrificing accuracy and inconsistency just to save some space in the banner is not valid in this specific case. After all the UI element seems to work well enough (or even better) with bigger amounts such as 520$ as the next screenshots clearly shows. So the fix is really simple here: Just don't round for amounts under $10 and you should be good to go!

In conclusion, I take a few lessons away from all of this:

• Rounding numbers can be necessary to communicate effectively or to safe space in the UI
• Rounding numbers can be useful in certain cases (for example when eliminating meaningless or misleadingly precise decimal places)
• Rounding can also be dangerous if done the wrong way and should never lead to inconsistent or wrong information
• Be careful how to round numbers so you don't frustrate users by leading them to the wrong conclusions

Today's inaugural "Fixing things" is about the Hong Kong Starbucks app on iOS (turns out the UI of Starbucks apps in different countries differ from another!). The issue I want to fix about this app is the way it handles one small detail I recently interacted with: choosing a default card for payment. Starbucks let's you add multiple "Starbucks Cards" (for example gift cards) to the app that you can then use to pay for your orders. When I realized my default card was empty I wanted to switch to a different one right away but this is when I realized that the toggle to remove the empty card as my default was annoyingly disabled.

Why show me this toggle when I can't actually change what it is set to? I figured that I had to go back to the prior screen showing all of my cards in a list view. Surely there would be a way to switch between default cards there, right? Right? No, there was not. I was completely baffled by this but moved on to another card to check if something in the app was broken. Finally, I figured out that the only way to change your default card was to open the details view of a non-default card and tap the toggle there. Who knew?

How should we improve this interaction? In my opinion using disabled states is almost never a good idea. Users might not realize that the input is disabled which can make them think your input is broken, get frustrated and give up. This is why it is important to let the user remove a card from being the default by tapping the toggle. The idea that the app cannot handle not having a default card is not an excuse either. This could be worked around by showing a popup forcing the user to choose a different card as default. The more important change however is to lift this functionality entirely from the card details screen to the card overview screen. This makes way more sense as the mental modal for this particular interaction is that the user chooses one out of all their Starbucks cards as their default.

The mockup I've created shows one way how this could be implemented without changing the current overall design and layout of the app in question. If a bigger overall change of this screen was acceptable of course an even better solution could be found. One cleaner option for example could be to add a "choose default"-button to the bottom of the screen and only show the default buttons on the cards once this mode is active.

Funnily enough, I did stumble across a relevant screenshot of the Starbucks app in the US after writing this. Its designers seem to agree with my overall idea of moving this interaction to the card overview screen.

One of the tools I spent the most time working with in the last year or two definitely is Figma. Figma is a great tool for anyone doing work in the UI/UX-fields and I'm sure you are well aware of this product if you are reading this right now.

But in the last few years Figma maybe has gotten too big for its own good. It first replaced the old Adobe XD as the de facto industry standard and then almost got acquired by Adobe which has since stopped working on XD entirely.

So where does that leave us in terms of alternative full-featured interface design applications? There is of course my personal favorite Sketch which seems to try quite successfully to catch up to Figma in terms of features. I know Sketch well and have used it for several projects in the past. But there's one more I think is worth trying out: Penpot.

The special thing about Penpot is that it is free and open-source, both of which is pretty amazing for something as elaborate as this. I must admit that right know I don't know much about Penpot (other than that I unfortunately don't like their logo at all). But what they claim on their own page comparing Penpot to Figma seems pretty impressive and promising.

This whole post is about me announcing that I'm going to start a new experiment and try to use Penpot as my main interface design app for the month of March whenever possible. I will try to keep an open mind about it and I'm already curious what I'll think about Penpot as a Figma replacement after about a month of intense use and will report back right here on a future blog post.

However, the point I want to make here is that all of these reasons and thus all of these changes of the tools I am working with every single day are completely out of my control. This can be dangerous. If a tool I rely on to do my work gets discontinued or changes in a way that makes it harder or impossible for me to get the results I need from it I could be in trouble. So what can you do about this? By staying nimble!

One way I try to do this is by regularly trying out some of the existing alternatives to the tools I mainly use at any given point. In the past this has meant designing with Sketch when working on my personal project while continuing to do my client work within Figma. In the last few months I tried out wireframing on the iPad with slightly unorthodox tools like Apple's Freeform or Notes. Another good example is a former colleague of mine who turned to Microsoft Paint to stitch screenshots together for simple Mockups whenever Figma got on his nerves too much.

I think there's no reason to confine this learning to only the UI/UX field by the way. Regardless of what area you are working in – be it something completely tool-driven or something where you only occasionally have to rely on tools out of your sole control – it's always a good idea to stay aware of the dependencies in your workflows and think about alternatives so you have some potential exit strategies if push comes to shove one day. Change is certain. So remember to stay nimble!

One of those principles is "Show, don't tell". To me this principle means that a good user interface should know when it is necessary to tell the user something explicitly. The flip side of this is that it should also know when to trust the user to come to the right conclusion from the contextual information presented to them.

The following screenshot shows a section of a website I recently came across that violates the second part of this principle in the most hilarious way possible.

Yes, this website decided to tell the user explicitly that it is possible to swipe left and right to see more of the company's "Strategic Partners". Why do they not just show scroll indicators (for example the standard grey dots), navigation arrows or the edge of the other logos on the right and left side of the screen instead? No idea.

But this post is not about how bad things might get. Instead I want to focus on the only thing I can control about this: how I (re)act.

This year I am going to put all of my focus into getting better at the things I want to be great at, learn new things I want to at least be competent at and generally find more things that make me (and hopefully also the people around me) happy.

There's no use in constantly worrying or doomscrolling and I encourage you as well to focus on the things you want to improve about and for yourself, your environment and the people close to you.

Happy 2025 to all of you!

We are both really appreciating being able to explore, learn about and live in Asia and we have honestly been able to travel more than we've ever been able to do before then – even compared to our time as university students. This year alone we have spent New Year's Day in New Zealand, Chinese New Year in Vietnam, Easter in Japan and have been able to do a couple of short trips into Mainland China and to Macao on several occasions. Of course we have also explored Hong Kong more and I can't wait for what's to come in 2025.

To another great year in Hong Kong and Asia!

Since then I've sticked to GoogleMaps as my main mapping app of choice and had no reason to switch since. That was until last weekend, when I had to switch to yet another app when I travelled to mainland China (you guessed it, GoogleMaps is also not really worth using there either). This time I chose Apple‘s Maps and my hopes were high. But to cut straight to the chase: I was disappointed yet again and could not wait to get back to my good old GoogleMaps.

I could fill endless lines of this blog post complaining about little things that annoyed me about Apple's Maps but I want to keep it short and concise today (it's nice outside and I'd much rather spend this Saturday enjoying the dry air and clear sky). The thing that became so apparent to me on this trip was actually a much more general point. The reason I did not like using Apple's Maps app was really not any of the many little things that could be designed in a better way about it. Instead, it was the fact that my expectation of how a mapping app should function is at this point so heavily influenced by the choices GoogleMaps has made that the switching costs of changing to any other app making any other choices are greater than any benefit those different choices could potentially come with.

I guess that's what you call user inertia.

The thing you will probably notice right away is that the image is way smaller on the second one. The reason for this is that the controls at the top and bottom of the screen are no longer overlayed. As a result the image are way too tiny when the iPhone is held horizontally and the controls are visible.

Why is this a bad idea? Well, most of the time the stuff one cares about in a photo is in the center of the image, not in the upper or lower edges. In order to quickly check a photo after taking it (for example if the main subject is in focus/has their eyes open/whatever else one wants to check normally) it now requires an additional tap to have the image use the entire available vertical screen size.

On iOS 17 part of the image was hidden behind the controls but the image was still sized so that it used the entire vertical screen size. This was a much better compromise to enable checking the details in the center of an image.

There are a few other things I could criticize about this screen alone (the very odd lack of spacing on the top of the circular buttons on the top right would be one) but I'll leave it at this today.

I really hope Apple reverts this change soon but I seriously doubt it will.

Another reason not to upgrade too often

There are several reasons why I rock my phones for at least 3 to 4 years before ditching them for the newest shiny hotness. Being mindful of earth's limited resources is one, saving some money along the way is another. But to be honest, both of those got surpassed by a much better reason that I was forced to (re)discover on Friday: avoiding the awful experience of transferring my old phone to the new one!

Switching phones sucks

The honest truth is: switching (i)phones sucks! I don't know if it didn't suck as bad last time or if I just forgot about the last time because it was 4 years ago but whatever the case may be, it's bad. I consider myself pretty educated when it comes to this sort of stuff so I knew what different methods there are to transfer your data from one iPhone to another. I opted for device to device transfer using the "Quick Start" function and it still took me the better part of a weekend to get to a state where I can leave my old phone at home when I go outside and still have everything I need available to me on the new phone. As I am writing this post I am still waiting for two apps to stop freezing on launch though.

Why it sucks

Let me list the things that sucked about the whole process (I am aware that every user has a different experience switching phones so I am happy for you if you didn't run into some or any of these issues yourself but please respect that these were the ones I myself encountered):

• Inconsistent experiences without feedback: When I first tried the device to device-transfer it said that it will take 2 hours. I knew something wasn't right with that number because my wife's phones just finished the same process in 15 minutes earlier. After waiting for a while I restarted the process (which was a pain in and of itself) and it then completed the whole thing in under 20 minutes.
• Premature prompt to erase my old phone: Right after the transfer was done the setup wizard asks you if you want to erase your old phone. This is very much premature as many things do in fact not carry over to your new phone and erasing the old phone at this point could have costed me many hours on the phone with various banks to get my new device approved again.
• Painful process to make sure every app works again: As mentioned in the previous point I had to make sure all of the apps (banking apps, authenticators, the ID apps, etc.) that used my old phone as a device verification method also accepted my new phone. For none of these apps this was done automatically and transferring this to a new device was handled differently by each of them. This took several hours and some of it couldn't even be completed until 24h later due to the security requirements of some of those banks/apps.
• Lack of communication: Since I currently live in Hong Kong and bought my new iPhone 16 Pro here I was not able to transfer my e-SIMs to my new device (iPhones sold in mainland China, Macao and HK do have two physical SIM slots instead. At no point during the transfer or setup process did iOS communicate this or how to deal with this at all.
• Random settings changes: When I was finally done with most of the manual work required to get my new iPhone up to speed I realized that several notification settings had changed (or rather enabled themselves) for some reason. This is most likely just a bug and not some nefarious practice by Apple but it is annoying nevertheless. Marco Arment mentioned something similar happen to him regarding the Apple Sports app on Mastodon.

Why not make it suck less?

If the experience of switching from your old phone to a new one sucks so much that it could actually make some people (like me) hold out buying a new one for as long as possible you would think that smartphone manufacturers (and/or smartphone OS manufacturers) would do everything in their power to make this process as frictionless and enjoyable as possible.

There are of course apps from both Apple and Google to facilitate switching from iOS to Android and vice versa. Providing tools like this is table stakes and mostly aimed at combatting platform lock-in. As my most recent four phones have all been iPhones I can't and won't say anything about how well these work and how smooth of an experience switching from Android to iOS or the other way round actually is.

But what I don't get is why the experience of switching from old iPhone to new iPhone – a user experience that is almost entirely in the hands (and financial interest) of one company (Apple) – is so horrible. I mean, just look at Apple's official documentation on "Moving to a New iPhone or iPad". It's a mess even if it all ends up working as advertised without any hick-ups in some cases.

A complex problem to solve

I'm left with two conclusions: First, solving this problem is in the clear interest of all smartphone and smartphone OS manufacturers as it probably deters a significant amount of users from upgrading more often. Second, the fact that this problem is not solved yet (despite of the first observation!) leads me to believe that this is a complex issue that might not be so easy to solve after all.

To me, it comes down to making an effort to tackle all of these small issues which add up to create this mess one by one. There's not a simple solutions, but a lot of small steps to a better, more consistent and more enjoyable experience. I just hope it has gotten much better next time I have to upgrade my phone. That will give you another 4 years, Apple. I hope you use them wisely!

As I am mostly working from home these days this is really more like my 'occasional carry' - the stuff I take with me every other day or so when I end up spending half a day in a co-working space or a cafe to get some stuff done outside the house.

The bag - Ucon Acrobatics Jasper Mini Lotus

I like how minimalist backpack by Ucon Acrobatics is. It's a very simple product and I got it mostly for its slimness (when I use it I tend to ride the MTR a lot) and the fact it is quite waterproof (it rains quite a lot in HK). No complaints here.

The laptop - 14' M1 Macbook Pro

I already praised this computer in my post about my current desk setup. Short version: It's amazing!

The tablet - M2 iPad Pro 12.9" with Apple Pencil

At home the iPad is my reading machine but when I'm out and about I sometimes only take the iPad with me instead of bringing my MacBook Pro and use it as my actual work machine for the day. I still find it fairly limited but sometimes that can actually be an advantage (like when I want to focus on writing). I use the Apple Smart Folio case when I take the iPad with me but at home I take it out of the case immediately so it's not so heavy.

The phone - iPhone 12 Mini

Not much to say about this one. Love the color and how compact it is. I'll have to switch to a new one soon though...

The charger - Verbatim 100W GaN Travel Charger

I got this gallium nitride-based charger from Verbatim a few months ago because I was fed up of having to bring so many different chargers with me everytime I travel. I can only recommend you do the same. Having just one charging brick that can charge pretty much any device I want is a game changer.

The notebook - Moleskine Cahier Journal (Dotted)

I use these soft-cover journals to doodle, sketch and note down anything that comes to my mind that's worth keeping. I have used Moleskine products since high school and I am still a a fan.

The pencil - Pentel GraphGear 500

I'm honestly not too picky when it comes to pens and pencils. But it's important to always have some writing utensil with you. My weapon of choice is the GraphGear 500.

The wallet - Secrid Miniwallet

I hardly ever have any cash on me so I often leave the house without my wallet, carrying only my ID and the key card that opens the door to my apartment in a transparent protective cover. But when I bring my entire wallet it's this Secrid Miniwallet.

The camera - Leica M8 with Voigtlander 35mm F/2.5 Color Skopar

I have owned this camera (which at this point can be considered vintage) for many years. I bought it well-used for a very reasonable price and did not plan to keep it for long at first. However, it still serves me well and is the only dedicated digital camera I still use regularly (even though it only captures 10mp images!).

The desk - EKOBOR I-Mini Standing Desk

I got this desk late last year and I am very happy with it. EKOBOR was the only brand that I could find in Hong Kong offering powered standing desks with such a narrow width as I needed (turns out HK apartments can be quite small, who knew?). I use this desk every single day and I have zero complaints so far.

The display - Apple Studio Display

I purchased the Apple Studio Display the same day I got my new standing desk and I am not sure what I was more excited about. I absolutely adore this display and whenever I have to use a regular 4k monitor I can't believe how much better it is to work on the Studio Display. Is it expensive? Yes! But it's absolutely worth it (to me at least).

The monitor stand - IKEA ELLOVEN

The IKEA ELLOVEN is a decent monitor stand with an inoffensive design. To be honest, I didn't really think much about this purchase so I know there are much better solutions out there but for now this does the job.

The computer - Apple MacBook Pro 14' (M1)

The 14' M1 MacBook Pro might just be the best computer I have ever owned. I think that everyone knows how amazing the Apple silicon transition has been for the entire MacBook lineup and at least for my purposes the M1 has more than enough power to do the job. And the battery life is just *chef's kiss*!

The keyboard - Mode Envoy

I love this keyboard! My Mode Envoy was a surprise gift from a friend which makes it even more special. I never was a huge keyboard snob before I got this but now I really miss it whenever I am travelling and have to type on my MacBook's built-in keyboard or the magic keyboard I occassionaly use with my iPad.

The mouse - Apple Magic Mouse

I know, I know. The Magic Mouse is a contentious choice but what can I say? I really like the thing. I blessed in that I do not suffer from any ergonomic issues such as RSI and the like so the supposed horrible ergonomics of this mouse are not really an issue for me. I like how I can use the mouse to swipe both vertically and horizontally and I also like how it feels in my hand. The only thing I wish was a slightly less absurd way to recharge it. But since the battery lasts for an extremely long time I hardly ever have to think about that one massive design flaw.

Why though?

This relaunch was actually motivated by a few different factors:

• First of all I want to thank Louie Mantia for his wonderful article on 'how to make a damn website'. Reading this piece motivated me to switch from my previous website which was hosted on wordpress and built with Oxygen builder to a completely 'handmade' website.
• I have really gotten into Mastodon in the last two years. Being in control of and owning my online-presence is a really good feeling and I wanted the same for my own website.
• It took me a while to realize but my previous website was really not done for the right motivation. I just needed an online-portfolio at the time to help attract clients for my UX work. I actually was happy with the website and it served its purpose well but I feel like it's time for a change.
• The purpose of this new website will be to serve as one of my creative outlets first and foremost. If that also ends up attracting or convincing potential clients to want to work with me that is great too but it's not longer the sole reason for the existence of this space. In the end, clients who find me this way will also tend to be more aligned with my actual interests and not just with some 'professional' version of myself that I presented on my old website.

I'm happy with it

In the end I think that almost every owner of a personal website goes through these stages where they feel like their current website just does not represent or serve them anymore. I guess it's almost cliche at this point to go back to the basics but that doesn't make it any less right. It was a really fun process to get back into writing plain html and css again and I am very happy with the result.

Some thanks

Last but not least, I want to list some awesome personal websites which have served as inspiration for my new space here (in no particular order):

• The aforementioned Louie Mantia's website
• NBTK
• Andy Bell's website
• Max.hn
• MB Bischoff's website
• Jim Nielsen's website