Issue 118

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Hello, dear readers! 👋

In this issue, among other things:

• A breakthrough device for the treatment of blindness

• How dark themes impact on the conversion of websites and applications

• Steve Jobs' speech at the International Design Conference in 1983

• Analysis of the new navigation in the Photos app on iOS18

• A useful checklist for creating good forms

• Examples of A/B design tests for the popular apps

• Impressive mapping on flower arrangements

• …and much more!

Enjoy reading!

🗞 News and articles

Dark Mode as a conversion enhancement tool

Article by Erik Messaki, in which he talks about the impact of the dark theme on the conversion of websites and applications. He examines it from the point of view of marketing and psychology and explains in which cases it improves conversion and in which cases it reduces it.

The article contains practical tips on implementing a dark theme and good examples.

The main thing from the article:

• The introduction of a dark theme should be justified by marketing goals and brand features

• A dark theme activates the instinct of self-preservation. It additionally stimulates the brain and provides high concentration

• Excessive concentration is not needed everywhere. For example, it will be useful to a programmer, but it will only interfere with the reader of the book

• Light sites are perceived as more reliable and trustworthy, especially in professional fields. Before introducing a dark theme, analyze the nature of your content

• The dark theme adds emotionality and increases the emphasis on visual content

• To successfully implement a dark theme, it is important to gain the trust of users and give them a sense of security

• A dark theme requires more air. Therefore, it is not suitable for B2B applications with a large number of forms, components and widgets.

• Offering a dark mode as an option may be a good compromise, but it should be thought through in advance rather than added at the last moment.

Objects of Our Life

A retrospective article about Steve Jobs' speech at the International Design Conference in Aspen in 1983.

At this talk, Steve explained why computers would become an integral part of everyday life, and predicted that their sales would surpass car sales by 1986. At the time of the speech, computers were so rare among ordinary users that statistics will begin to be collected only a year later, when 8% of households will already have them.

Steve also encouraged designers to actively participate in the creation of computers. He emphasized that good design can improve the functionality of devices, create an emotional connection with the user and make technology more accessible and attractive.

The article contains a video of the main and two additional speeches at the 1983 conference.

iOS18 Photos: Tab Bar to Single Scroll View

Luke Wroblewski analyzed the navigation changes for the Photos app in the new iOS18. Apple removed the usual tab bar from the bottom and made a single scroll. Luke explained how it works and why the company decided to make such changes.

⚡️ Briefly

Good forms. A useful checklist for creating good forms.

New technologies

The news of recent weeks speaks of a coming breakthrough in how language AI models work and how we interact with them.

In the near future, full-fledged agent models will appear that will be able to independently solve complex tasks. They will independently reason, learn and perform actions in other systems and services. This will make them significantly more advanced compared to previous versions.

For example, one of these models should be the o1, recently introduced by OpenAI. The head of the company, Sam Altman, noted that the ability to reason will allow it to perform tasks that were beyond the power of early GPT models. She will be able to make discoveries and invent technologies that will lead to significant achievements in science and medicine.

As if to confirm these words, Google DeepMind mathematically proved that transformers can solve any problem if they are allowed to generate as many intermediate steps of reasoning as necessary.

And a Reddit user shared an example of a ChatGPT dialogue that the AI started a chat. Perhaps this is how the new proactive mode of interaction with the neural network is being tested, in which it can initiate or continue dialogues with users on its own.