We already distilled the complexity. It’s beautiful for the simplicity. A checkbox with an “experience” is the tacky chromed out Harley cruiser next to the essential cafe racer that is… well, a check box.
True. Except for in this specific case, where the checkbox is in the centre of attention instead of it's usually supporting role. Other than that I completely agree!
It feels silly to have to type this out, but it's OKAY to have fun sometimes. There's more to life than optimizing every second until you reach the grave.
There's objectively nothing fun about waiting for something which you have no control over and doesn't benefit your life in any conceivable way. You will never find a single human on their deathbed fondly reminiscing about all the checkbox animations they watched. There's more to life than whimsical UI animations.
This is great, Alex! I didn't write about it in this article, but much of the app is based on leading behavioral science advice for building new habits. It's great to hear stories like yours to show that something that looks and feels great can also work really well too. — Andy
Andy here! Thank you for reading my article. We had a lot of fun creating this checkbox. Was it necessary? Of course not. We wanted to push the idea of "feel" in product interactions. For some, it's too far. Others not far enough.
Regardless, I love reading all of the comments here because it does what we aim to do which is to bring ideas like "feel" to the forefront and talk more critically about the apps, services, and ui patterns that shape our daily experiences.
We tend to fall into thinking about software in purely functional terms—speed and power—with metrics we can optimize. Yet software is also very personal. It shapes our daily experience as much or more than many of the physical products we use or the spaces we occupy. Great Design (of any kind) reaches beyond meeting functional needs and satisfies deeper needs that enrich our daily lives. If we can appreciate the bevel on a phone or the satisfying feel of a car accelerator, we ought to expect more the software we spend hours in every day.
This kind of evangelizing sounds terrifying to me. I'm expecting more of these "whimsical" "fun" UI elements all done in the service of some poorly defined ideal of capital-D Design! The capital D is important.
While I'm not a huge fan of this checkbox, it is very clearly delineated in it's purpose. It's not design for design's sake, it serves one very specific purpose: To reward the user by giving them a (hopefully) satisfying interaction.
I don't see how you would think someone would try that with something as essential and utilitarian as a car accelerator.
