How Apple perfects the simple stuff we (often) overlook

Ever stop to think about how we just accept certain experiences as being about “perfect”, with no room for improvement even coming up during typical research. But then Apple comes along and blows our minds with a tiny, yet brilliant update (one more time!).

With the new  tvOS 18 update, hitting mute on your Remote now auto-activates subtitles. Un-mute, and they disappear. It's like Apple read our minds and figured out that if you’re muting instead of pausing, you still want to keep up with what’s happening on-screen. Duh, right? How have mute buttons not always worked this way?

For even more convenience, subtitles now automatically appear at just the right moments elsewhere, including when the language in a show does not match the device language, or when users skip back while watching something (again the intuition informs that the reason to go back is because you missed an important detail :))

It’s so simple, yet so genius! A great reminder for all of us in design. Sometimes the most impactful innovations come from rethinking the little things we take for granted. Keep questioning, keep improving, and remember—there’s always a better way to enhance user experience!