Animations in version 2.3 (or 2.2.10?)

Personally I enjoyed the list enter/exit zoom animations of Clear before version 2.3 much more than the new card style animation. Any chance to get the old behavior back as option?
And I kind of miss the wobbling of the remaining tasks after clearing the done tasks of a list. Was that effect intentionally removed or is it a bug?

5 Likes

Yeah, I agree. I didn’t jump on the beta train this time around because I rely on Clear too much, and I also like having access to the shop, so I didn’t see this was coming, and… The new animations sadden me haha. They feel way too sterile.

I wish I could have the old ones back.

4 Likes

100% agree. At least make the animations an option to switch back and forth. The old animations are far better in my opinion. The pinch to go back gesture doesn’t even make sense with the card animation in terms of user interface language (it’s not consistent)

4 Likes

Yes, is it perhaps a bug that these transitions have gone back to iOS default transitions? Is everyone experiencing this or just some of us?

I’m also having issues with the pinch to go back gesture since last update (2.2.10) Sometimes it takes multiple pinches to close a list…

2 Likes

I agree the new animations are weird. They don’t match the action of the fingers, if that makes sense. I find they actually make the experience of using the app a little uncomfortable.

Sometimes it seems like app developers change things just to change things. Please unchange this thing.

4 Likes

Old animations are better. New ines are weird and laggy.

3 Likes

Guys I’m really sorry about the confusion, I am still kind of digesting this but it was a beta build that I accidentally picked for release instead of an intended Japanese localization only update :sweat_smile:

That said it was a beta that was mostly waiting in the wings so… time to polish it up in public. Will take a look at the animations but it would be fine tuning vs. reverting.

We were doing some usability testing Clear with people new to it and it was eyebrow raising. There’s a steeper learning curve built into Clear’s premise, with its gestures and such that are obviously part of what makes it special. (And the gestures are super useful over time and hard to forget once picked up etc.)

Tried to streamline away some things like this that might overload people to start, and unintentionally end up as little puzzles that need to be solved or internalized.

The previous animation is cool, but it’s a lot to parse on first take what’s going on compared to going back in other apps. I think leaning on cards will help, piggybacking on a navigation/spatial model people are already more familiar with.

Also if anyone else is having usability issues with the changes, like the report of pinching to exit being more difficult, please report here!

I personally don’t think the cards make the interaction model any clearer. If anything, it muddies it up, because it destroys the spatial relationship between levels.

I would argue that, yeah, Clear has a learning curve, but trying to get rid of said learning curve by trying to make it more similar to “normal” apps would kill its appeal.

I feel like the origami-esque animations of Clear are part of its DNA. Getting rid of them makes the app feel… Bad. Upsettingly bad.

4 Likes

It seems to me like there have been a lot of UI and feature changes with the last version/updates in an effort chase adoption by new users, and I get the motivation behind that. But it bums me out a bit that this seems to be being prioritized over the usability of the app for your existing customer base, some of whom have been users and fans for a long time.

I loved Clear from its start because it was a simple and elegant app that was focused on its core job: let me create and manage lists with ease. Constant tweaks with each update makes doing this job harder. In short, it’s very frustrating that ongoing changes worsen the user experience.

3 Likes

Most of Clear’s development work the past 4 months has been on syncing infrastructure and catching up on Siri support + beginning to restore shortcuts and such, they are just taking a while but I think the Siri/shortcuts pass should be out the door soon to start. Syncing testing here in the forums hopefully soon after.

We will be slowing down on tweaking the interface, that is oscillating to a more finished state and you all have made me understand since new Clear’s launch that the friction of change is annoying. (Even the good ones!)

Could we have an option to at least switch animation styles please?

5 Likes

Yeah, if the default going forward is going to be the card style, and that’s set in stone, I would like at least to have an option to toggle back the origami animations.

The cards interface seriously makes me sad haha, I haven’t found any delight in using Clear since it rolled out :smiling_face_with_tear:

5 Likes

This is something I’ve complained to phillryu about a few times on other threads this year. They had a perfect to-do list app that was charming, elegant, and easy to use but they don’t seem to want to leave it alone as it is. Seems like they’re innovating just for the sake of innovation and not giving any thought to how existing users are already using their app.

5 Likes

It also feels like our concerns aren’t being taken seriously in a genuine manner. It bothers me that valid complaints about the changes making Clear harder, uncomfortable, or unpleasant to use are almost being dismissed as just be “annoyed” by “the friction of change”. Good change doesn’t annoy me at all. But a lot of these changes just complicate things that used to be intuitive, or remove features I liked and used a lot (like swiping between lists).

3 Likes

I mean, dang it, if the issue is the revenue stream, and that’s why they’re trying to attract new users, I would be willing to pay a donation each month just to keep the app from going down these weird paths.

Clear is already almost perfect when it comes to its basic UI. Tinkering with it doesn’t seem like a good idea, it risks diluting its essence.

2 Likes

Not only is the dismissal of a loyal userbase one of the worst things any creator can do (customer loyalty and satisfaction is about your best bet for any product), but the idea that it’s just because some people new to Clear struggled with it is itself—strange. Like, were these people actually comfortable with other apps? How were they with technology in general (i.e. would they struggle to learn ANY app)? What were their expectations for Clear when first interacting with it? Were they people who would need or use Clear regardless of how easily they picked it up one way or another?

Like, if you’re going to ignore the users who actually like and utilize your app on the daily in favor of courting whoever is confused by it, when it’s already a dead simple app, would those same people be any less confused by a different UI and animations anyway? Like it really does feel like change for the sake of it, because I can’t see what benefit there is in chasing the shadow of an idea that if you change this and this and this, somehow that will be what makes Clear click for some users that felt it had a learning curve before.

Anyway yeah hate the new animations, and it’s not because of “friction” and “change.” It’s because they’re sluggish and don’t even actually behave the way you expect a card interface to (even just swiping/pulling down doesn’t always work). They make the app feel slow and bloated. And yeah a lot of the existing gestures don’t work as well with them anymore.

It really is bad form to ignore persistent existing users in favor of theoretical future ones, who may still never use Clear even if you change everything about it.

2 Likes

To Phill: Can you, please, just push the previous version back up in the meantime, until you figure this out? The app seriously feels broken and odd right now with these animations :cry:

7 Likes

I forget what it’s called, but could that pink-to-green theme from the Swirl set make an appearance in the Shop sometime soon? :point_right:t3::point_left:t3: I use it for Christmas, lol.

Dang, no icons yet either. Full Xmas day please.

I think these messages are slightly off topic here lol