Issue 9 19th May 2023

Welcome

Welcome to Nice UX Design: a celebration of the small details found in products that elevate them and make them greater than the sum of their parts.

Each issue features some examples of nice details from the digital and physical worlds, along with the occasional not-so-nice detail where things could have been improved.

Chiptunes on Mario Odyssey

Nintendo's Super Mario Odyssey includes a few 2D sections where you switch from the 3D, high-definition Mario and play as the 2D Mario from the original Super Mario game.

One little detail I really enjoyed is that not only does Mario change from 3D to 2D, the game's background music also switches from an orchestral theme to a simpler style that would have been on the original NES. It even stays in sync the whole time, so as soon as you exit back to 3D world, the music picks up immediately where the simpler one left off.

See it for yourself on this YouTube video

Image credit: ProfasiaGaming on YouTube

Nice Details

Gran Turismo's render of Tesla Model S

I've been playing Gran Turismo 7 in VR recently. It's really fun and immersive, especially because you can sit in the car and see how the developers have recreated them at a really high level of detail.

When I sat inside the game's virtual Tesla Model S, I noticed that the big screen on the centre console was open on gran-turismo.com on the built-in web browser.

I love that they included this, it's such a silly thing to do but it made me smile.

ETAs when using Apple Maps

I got stuck in some really bad traffic (four hours to get from Southampton to London!) and wanted to let my partner know I'd be late. When I was texting him on iMessage, the keyboard figured out I was trying to text my ETA and suggested it based on the navigation I had running in Apple Maps.

To me this epitomises great design. It's not flashy or obstructive and it doesn't call unnecessary attention to itself, it's just quietly there in the most convenient place. I particularly like that it gives both the option of the time in absolute (21:46) and remaining (1hr 26min) terms.

That's all

That's everything for this issue.

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For more of my work, check out my iOS apps Personal Best and Taylor's Version.

Until next time!