I am delighted that the beloved Clear app is making a comeback, but there are some aspects that are causing me some concern. Therefore, I would like to share some feedback, questions, and suggestions on how to make the New Clear even better!
Thank you for providing the opportunity to transfer my lists from the old Clear to the new beta! It enables me to fully utilize and evaluate the app.
The icon changing with the theme switch is great, but sometimes it’s hard to locate the app on my smartphone’s screen because my mind still remembers its previous appearance. It would be wonderful to have an option in Settings to disable the icon change when switching themes and the ability to choose an icon from the available list.
Using two hands to move lists to the Archive is not very convenient - often, when attempting to go back with gestures, the screen zooms in instead of going back.
In my opinion, it would be better to use the more Clear-classic San Francisco font as the default font, rather than San Francisco Rounded, which looks a bit silly in larger sizes, resembling Comic Sans. The former font aligns better with Clear’s basic minimalist and sleek vibe.
I appreciate the ability to customize the font size, but I believe the default size should correspond to the Small option, rather than Medium as it is currently set. The current default size is too large, at least on the iPhone SE 2.
It would be great to have the option to disable Emojis in the titles of system menu items and lists in the List Catalog, and not have them enabled by default. On the top-level screen, they look out of place and disrupt Clear’s overall style (especially Emojis for Clear and Lists items).
The List Catalog is a great idea! It doesn’t interfere with the user experience and can make using Clear even more useful.
The “Tap above Home Bar to go back” gesture is intuitive and very convenient - a great addition!
Will the option to disable vibration be added in the Settings later, as I understand it?
I don’t quite understand the gamification aspect of collecting fonts when it could simply be a font selection in the Settings, considering that Clear is a to-do list app, not a free-to-play game. However, I understand that some people may find it more enjoyable that way.
Will there be an option to choose a sound theme added later?
And what is this Collectible #1 (in the ‘Clear Update #1: We’re Back!’ newsletter, the Brick Playset app icon is labeled as Collectible #2)?
Thank you so much for bringing back the beloved and stylish app to the App Store!
I apologize for any shortcomings in my English as it is not my native language.
That’s a long list! Let me quickly address some of them:
Archiving interactions are bugged! Next build will actually introduce a better way for now (swipe left to archive a list, swipe further to delete).
Definitely considering the SF Rounded to SF switch, some people REALLY don’t like rounded
Considering on smaller default font size
Thinking about going more glyphs that match your theme than emoji for app level lists
Collecting is fun, and there will honestly be so much fun content by launch we wanted some way to trickle it out so people can appreciate/try each one as they come
There will be a growing/collectible set of app icons separate from the theme-matching ones you can choose in a new Personalize section coming soon (next Testflight possibly)
I’ve got an iPhone SE too. It’s worth mentioning one reason why the text feels too big: the default text size in Clear is so much bigger than the rest of the OS (regardless of what you have your system text size set to). The default text size in Clear seems to be about the same as what you’d see in the rest of iOS if you set the highest size in Settings.app (Brightness and display → text size; excluding Accessibility settings). At the default size, with the current padding, you can see 7 tasks and the list’s title on an iPhone SE.
I appreciate the aesthetic of having larger text in Clear. It sort of emphasises the “clear” in Clear. Personally I’ve got Clear set to “Small”. This way I can also see all the items in the main menu (“Lists”, “Archive” etc.) in a single screen.
Love the idea of theme-matched glyphs on the top level menu.
I also really love emoji in general, but I feel Apple Color Emoji’s glyphs and colors don’t match very well with Clear’s themes. SF Symbols seems a good starting point, but I also believe custom in-house icons and theme-specific ones have the potential to add just that extra bit of polish.
I like SF Rounded being an option, because it matches (most) of the new icons. But I can see why it’s polarizing, and looks a bit less mature. That said, I find SF Rounded at smaller sizes doesn’t have that problem as much. Maybe after making the default sizes smaller, Rounded will be better recieved.
I think if we ended up going more SF glyphs direction they would at the least color to match your themes (based on your themes text color or something like that.)
Hmm yeah that’s an interesting point, it probably is the combo of bigger + SF rounded that’s… I don’t want to use the word frivolously, but triggering some people? If I had to pick a personal bias to push a little on people it’s probably slightly larger text they’re used to vs. rounded, so maybe we will try to defaulting to non rounded first and see how that goes.
If I had to pick a personal bias to push a little on people it’s probably slightly larger text they’re used to vs. rounded, so maybe we will try to defaulting to non rounded first and see how that goes.