Testflight #2: Collectible Fonts & Loot Drops, NLP Reminders disabled for launch

[phillryu]

For all of you testing, here’s what’s new in the latest TestFlight build:

• chance for themes/fonts as loot for pulling to clear
• tap popup after unlocking loot to check it out
• new typography options, mix & match sizes/fonts
• all text throughout app reflects text personalization
• reintroduced pull down to go back (tap above home bar also active)
• minor revisions to Getting Started list
• disabled NLP reminders for launch…
• disabled buggy toggle all list items for now

Update: Hot Fix TestFlight #2.1

Hot fixes giant padding in last build:

• Header rows are tweaked in height and text offset across all levels.
• Font sizes are slightly adjusted from TestFlight 2
• Getting Started list now renders at normal list sizes, not top-level list sizes
• Fixed a typo in the Settings screen.
• Cartridge-Bold should load properly now.

Previously:
TestFlight #1: Experimental back gesture

You can collect the following fonts so far:

BASE FONTS:

• San Francisco Rounded
• San Francisco
• Yeseva One

RARE FONTS:

• Cormorant Garamond
• Courier New
• Baskerville
• Helvetica
• Permanent Marker
• Noteworthy
• Grape Nuts

LEGENDARY FONTS:

• iA Writer Quattro
• Jet Brains Mono
• Captain Edward
• Cartridge
• Easy Coast
• Hylia
• Partly
• Vault Alarm
• Womprat
• Inter
• Amatic
• Ballet
• Bonbon
• Monoton
• Sarina
• WindSong

Hope you all have some fun with the collectible fonts to mix and match with themes! They’re a preview of the personalizing dimension we’re going to be going deep with on the new Clear.

This is something of a transitionary build though, to start really gearing up for final release. So let me address some questions:

Why are NLP (natural language parsing) reminders disabled?
Basically the natural language side of this single feature is so much more complex and open ended to wrap up and polish, that it could honestly take the rest of the summer to nail this single feature. We would rather ship the rest of the new Clear. The best case scenario is Apple vastly updates their NLP API this WWDC in a way that supports our basic needs, or we decide to ship a simpler version of reminders with a non NLP trigger. What we really want to avoid is every time you make a new item there’s something visually nagging you about making it a reminder, I feel this was a regretful UI design in Clear 1.x. Basically still working on figuring this out.

Why is the medium/default text so big?
First I think we left too much padding in on medium settings making each row taller, which we will fix. I do also have a bias towards larger sizes in Clear, starting with the 1.0. Why? I find it promotes being more concise and less typing, to keep items to a single row, and fills the screen in a more satisfying way when listing or checking things off. But it’s totally possible it’s pushed a little too far in this build and should be dialed back, and it’s not a big deal to tweak these values. Someone was speculating we might be designing/running on a Max, and this is true, charging my test mini as we speak to get a better sense of the other extreme side of screen sizes.

Why is spacing/padding and some font sizes changed in this build?
Basically we had to redo how Clear handles its UI text labels etc. so they will all respect your typography choices in this build and moving forward. We eyeballed it but have some tightening / polish on the values in a future pass and can focus on the main regressions brought up.

P.S. there was another thread started already by the community let me see if I can merge it into here.

[Dragon]

Oh boy! I really don’t like the UI in the latest TestFlight build. The spacing is waaay to big when medium font size is selected and some categories don’t fit my screen on iPhone 11 Pro. Medium size on previous TF version is perfect. Please see all the screenshots with notes and PLEASE consider them. And why the scheduled reminders are broken and not working?

Thanks!

[Balint]

I completely agree with you, and was just in the process of writing a similar feedback…

• Although there were some extra space above the top of the lists, it just got even bigger
• the font sizes got HUGE, as well as the the difference between them: When I updated the app, the text got huge, and even after I went from medium to small, it’s still bigger than in the previous release. Normally, this shouldn’t be a problem, as I could just go down to tiny, however, the difference between them is really big.

What I mean, is that if I set the size to small,

• the font size of the items of a list is fine to me,
• the font size of the list of the lists is a bit too big, and
• the font size of the top/Clear menu is too big (see screenshots).

If I go down to tiny,

• the font size of the top/Clear menu is fine, but
• everything under (list of lists, list items) is just too small.

I completely agree with Dragon, that the medium size on previous TF version is perfect.

I have an iPhone 13 mini. Do you use any custom display settings @Dragon?
I was speculating, that it might be because I have “Bold text” on, and also have the “Text size” set to bigger one under the “Display&Brightness” setting.

I think reminders are not working because NLP reminders have been disabled. I also really miss them, and hope they’ll be turned back soon!

Some other comments:

• I like the icons in front of the menu items (personalize, archive, etc.)
• An empty line before Size under the Typography menu would be nice
• After unlocking a type and clicking on the pop-up, the animating navigating me to the typography menu is real smooth

Not to ruin testing for the latest build, but if this release is as painful for you @Dragon, as it for me, I suggest going back to the previous build in TF. I might do the same, until the UI gets fixed and NLP reminders are enables again.

[Dragon]

@Balint I’m glad that we share the same thoughts! As for your question - nope, I don’t use any custom display settings that are within the phone settings. I never used the bold text option of the iPhone and text size is the default one.

I guess that Medium text size of Clear app is now great for Max versions of iPhones but the Small text size that is kind of close to the previous version Medium size is a bit smaller and I don’t like it. Previous version medium size was just perfect.

[JoeyPasco]

Adding to the chorus here, I just opened the latest build and immediately had the exact same thoughts about the typography. Again, previous “medium” was perfect, I have mine set to “small” now and while it looks fine inside the actual list, everything else is WAY too big and spaced out.

Please consider going back to the previous typography size settings!

EDIT: One more bit of feedback, I’m personally not a fan of the emoji/icons so I’m hoping for the option to remove them (not a huge deal though since it’s only at the top level where I don’t tend to “hang out” unless I’m personalizing)

[mdtolic]

Same. I thought everything must have defaulted to “Huge”. Nope

[phillryu]

Thanks Balint the specificity of this feedback is very helpful. I just added a starting post with some extra feedback/context, but overall, should not be hard to tweak some of the default font size values, even add another step to the scale etc.

The transition you all are seeing with this build is going from previous builds that were basically designed with a bunch of handset values for a single font, to the app being updated to accommodate any choice of font. (Or size.) Different fonts have some different sizes, paddings etc. so things like list titles vs. list item sizing are done more dynamically now and have multiplier values that need to be dialed in.

I hope that makes some sense. We have some tweaking to do around this new way of handling things but it should end up being worth the trouble in the end. And we still have a healthy amount of dev time budgeted towards final polish.

Finally to be honest a couple of our weaker sides as designers specifically are ‘being pixel perfect’ and ‘typography/fonts’, so it makes sense we’ll need to lean on you all a bit with this one

Some initial feedback I’m noting (keep it coming!):

• List rows seem to have too much padding (at least on medium)
• Too much added padding above list titles?
• Tiny/Small/Medium tunings could be adjusted

[gabrielmoro]

Option for reminders. The pop up is hidden by default. But when you type “at” or a week day it unhides the “add reminder”, the same way as on Clear 1. That way it’s showing for people who actually want to add a reminder and it’s not always on your face. It’s the best of both worlds.

Visually it was perfect on the last build and I say this with love, you could undo it and launch as it was bc it was amazing. <3

I only use Clear for reminders so it would be good to have the option back.

[mdtolic]

I’m not a fan of the emojis on the home page. Funny thing is, when you started posting pics of New Clear using them I actually added emoji to my own lists! The default emoji are too cartoonish for me though. It takes away from the sleekness of Clear that love. This might be heightened for me due to the font size issue.

Also, I felt immediate relief when swipe down to go back was reenabled. But I do miss the sound
: )

[phillryu]

This is an interesting idea, to kind of bridge a simpler form of phrase recognition with contextually showing a control. I will be thinking on it!

[phillryu]

I’ve been thinking about toning down on the emoji sprinkled throughout the app and pre-filled lists etc. It does feel like too much at this point! (And if anyone was wondering, we wouldn’t ship with that standard emoji check in the app level for “Clear” if going that route, it would match your current app icon.)

[tapping_rainbow]

Similar to others; the fonts were so big I thought I had messed it up with accessibility settings.

But! I’m so so so glad to see Clear showing signs of life.

[phillryu]

I think I keep subconsciously inching up the font size in new Clear as a bigger font size person hoping people won’t notice but I get it, you all notice. I’ll tone it down the default next build

And yeah! Feels great to be back on this final push to get it out to the world.

[Klippityklop]

I appreciate keeping the tap to go back instead of just dumping it for the swipe down. Having both options is good for those who prefer one or the other.

In fact I found that I was using both depending on the circumstance. Say, if I have a VERY long list I just tap to go back rather than having to scroll back a mile up the page to then swipe again. Also there are times when I’m working toward the top of a list where it makes more sense to swipe down to back out.

Best of both worlds! Good work. Keep it coming

[phillryu]

Yeah we will probably make tap above home bar one of the personalizable gestures in a future TestFlight. Testing that feature (a set of personalizable gestures / actions to pair) internally and it feels like a good way to let users opt into some personally useful functions and interactions while still allowing us to keep the core simple and minimal, and continuing with a theme of personalization in the new Clear.

[Efthymis]

Hello everyone! I hope you are all well!

First, thank you guys for the TestFlight invitation! And please don’t take my comments as assaulting you!

Unfortunately, I’m in a bit of shock. I mean, OK I was watching all the videos you and the users made, and the screenshots too, and I would think OK this is looking great! It seems like a nice reboot!

But when I got to use it today, though… Well I cannot say I’m happy. Don’t get me wrong, this is YOUR app and YOUR vision, you can do whatever you want with it. I just can’t see the new version as a good replacement for the old one. The old Clear was so much cleaner, more compact, AND visually pleasing.

My main issues are:

• What’s with the padding? Too. Much. Padding. Everywhere. Why?

• Even with the Tiny text, there’s so much wasted space! I am including a screenshot of the main lists. I find it rather unacceptable, and I’m using a Pro Max device. Can’t imagine how it would look on a SE or normal iPhone.

• Emojis. Emojis everywhere. Guys, please chill. Kindergarten is calling, they want all their emojis back cause the kids are crying.

• And I have to stick with my opinion that the exploding text really isn’t looking good in person. The magic of the original Clear was that it was so clean, so minimalistic and professional, it would get out of your way and it had one feature that separated it from the rest: the heatmap. That was the core characteristic. It conveyed at a glance what was important and what could wait in every list. Now it’s all looking so “busy”.

• The pull-down-to-go-back gesture needs some work. It feels off, when compared with the old Clear. It’s as if the old Clear was scrolling 1:1 with your finger, but the new one as if the UI is “lagging” behind your finger. I cannot explain it well enough, but it feels off.

• Both exploding text AND confettis? Really??

[phillryu]

We’ll be looking into this today, the padding specifically feels like an accidental regression during this typography build and system redo/swap.

[macsrwe]

I got an invite a couple days ago to download the new Clear, so I did. My first reaction was space inflation – it only fit about half the items on my screen as the old one. I managed to set my font size down to the minimum, which made it more resemble the old version, but there is still a lot of white space at the top and bottom of each entry that wasn’t there before. Phone screens are already too small – it would be nice to be able to condense the display to fit more items on them, as the old Clear did.

[phillryu]

We actually did mess up! With too much row padding when we were redoing how the type in the app is rendered with this very latest TestFlight build. We should be issuing a fix in the next build.