Labs

Scratch pages where the design was worked out, one question each. Kept as a record of what was tried and why.

Each lab put a few options side by side, drawn live or shot on the simulator, so a choice could be made by looking rather than arguing. Where a decision came out of it, it's noted here and logged in the app's Docs/decisions.md.

Colour lab

Which tint to use. Orange variations, from Apple's system orange to custom rust and oriole shades, and a custom "bunting" indigo, each on a small sheet in light and dark with measured contrast.

Decided: Apple's accessible orange in light, standard orange in dark, so white text works on the light tint. Bunting kept as an option.

Choices lab

Four design choices in the chosen colours: corner radii, buttons in a sheet, the species row, and map annotations.

Decided: corners 6·10·16, action-box buttons, a standard list for species rows (checkmark with count, swipe to tick or count), and count discs on the map.

Navigation lab

How tabs, search and sheets work together over the map. Eight proposals drawn in HTML: the iOS 26 tab bar, tabs inside the sheet, two modes, two Apple Maps-style sheets, a glass search bar, a toolbar, and swiping between modes.

Lead: option A, the iOS 26 tab bar with search on its own. Not decided.

Navigation lab A

Option A built for real in SwiftUI and shot on iOS 27, iPad and iOS 26.5: every state of the tab bar and the sheets, including the minimized bar, the list accessory and search.

Found: the bar only minimizes under a finger, search sits differently on iOS 26 and 27, and the list accessory crowds the smallest sheet.


Birds Near Me 2 • Send Feedback • Birds Near Me 1 • © 2026 Gerry Shaw