I’m working on an app at work where I’m regularly implementing new sections/views. And I’ve become really fond of the “native” design look. It’s something I’ve tried to do with TextCase and Slate, but it’s now spreading to my actual job.

I think it’s down to two facts:

• I like Apples design for apps.
• I don’t think users should have to “learn” a user interface.

There’s also a whole bunch of benefits you get from using native controls, such as accessibility support, and standard designs for certain contexts. An example of that is a system alert, where you specify if an action is a “cancel”, “destructive”, or “default”, and then the formatting is applied.

I’m not doing this as a way to make the apps feel more generic though, as I’m making use of accent colours, and in some cases, fonts, to make sure the “branding” still comes through.

I didn’t want to purchase a 30w USB C charger and Lightning cable just to charge my iPad. But I since realised that I can actually use my MacBooks USB C charger without any issues, so I found this little USB C to Lightning cable on Amazon! £29.98 originally, but currently £20 off!

I’ve made a long needed addition to my blog, a sidebar. I’ve been restricted to the top nav bar for a while now, and it’s been a pain to keep it simple but also have all the needed links.

Now I use the top main bar for high level links such as home, micro blog, projects page, etc. And the sidebar houses a few social icons, featured sections on the blog, and also a few links to my current projects.

I see this section being very helpful.

When I started my first job as an iOS Developer just over a year ago, I was really excited about my two 23” monitors on my desk. I had every app I’d need for the entire day open and visible for 8 hours.

The past month or so I’ve started to find myself disconnecting my MacBook to eliminate distraction, and it’s certainly working. I find it a lot easier to to focus on what I’m doing if I just have the one window visible.

I could probably just use the one monitor, and keep it minimal with one app always in full screen mode. But I think I just enjoy using a laptop more. It could be down to the fact that I’ve never owned a desktop computer before though, as for the last 10 years I’ve always used 13" MacBooks.

It feels right to me to do all my work on this small laptop, but it certainly sounds weird in my head.