One Interview Made Me Question Every App I Use
Recently, I listened to a Mac Power Users podcast episode interviewing Werner Jainek, the designer of the beautifully designed task manager Things. In the episode, Jainek talked about how important it is to him to use beautifully designed apps, and how that drives the design of Things.
This made me think more about how much beautiful design matters to me. It prompted me to audit the apps I use and see where I could upgrade from ugly to beautiful. It reminded me of the Bear Notes app, which I had briefly looked at before but never seriously considered using.
The App I Used Every Day but Never Loved
Even though Apple Notes has made huge advances in its design and functions over the last few years, I’ve never really cared for it.
I don’t like the font it uses, and the app offers no way for users to choose another. The whole app is black and white except for small thumbnails of color attachments in the left panel. I’ve never really cared for the layout and navigation. Although it can import and export Markdown, you can’t write in it.
In spite of its negatives, I’ve used Apple Notes as a quick-access personal reference shelf, not for thinking, work, or blog material. It contains things like family medication lists, my license plate, and a pinned note for a 10-day trip with hotel reservations, travel times between locations, locations we plan to visit, and everything we’d need on the go.
However, I find no joy in using it. To me, it’s an ugly black-and-white app, and it feels too utilitarian. I don’t feel the joy, happiness, or whimsy I do when I use an app with excellent design.
The App That Made Me Feel Something Again
In contrast to Apple Notes, I find Bear beautifully designed, attractive, and easy to use.
It has multiple built-in color themes that I can choose and change at any time. It also lets me change the font to my preferred one.
Unlike Notes, which uses rich text format, Bear lets me write in Markdown. It automatically hides the ugly Markdown syntax and instead presents beautiful, clean text while still keeping all the transferable benefits of writing in Markdown.
Bear also does a much better job presenting images. PDFs render the full first page, not a cropped thumbnail or oversized image that extends outside the viewing area.
Bear provides many more options than does Apple Notes. For instance, Bear exports to ten different formats, whereas Notes is limited to only two.
In reviews, Bear is repeatedly described as the more elegant, writing-focused Markdown app, with Apple Notes winning mainly on being free and the system default.
Why Pretty Apps Actually Work Better
I use an app more, and I enjoy it more, when it’s well-designed and beautiful. I reach for Bear more often than I did Notes and find new ways to use it. Because its design is beautiful and inviting, it feels more open to other possibilities for the types of notes I keep in it.
Researchers have found that the aesthetic-usability effect, as it’s called, causes people to perceive better-looking interfaces as easier to use, and they forgive their flaws and enjoy using them more.
James Clear, the popular author of Atomic Habits, commented on the power of feelings of pleasure to prompt more use:
“Feelings of pleasure—even minor ones like washing your hands with soap that smells nice and lathers well—are signals that tell the brain: ‘This feels good. Do this again, next time.'”
The Question Worth Asking About Every App You Use
Not “does it work,” but “do I enjoy using it?”
Apple Notes worked fine for me for years. It just never felt like anything. If an app in your life is stuck in that same gap between functional and enjoyable, it’s worth asking whether something better is already sitting a download away.
Beautiful design isn’t a luxury — it’s the difference between an app you tolerate and one you actually reach for.
Most of us pay more to use Apple products because of their beautiful physical design and operating systems. So why use apps that look like holdovers from the early PC years?
If there’s an app in your stack you’ve been putting up with instead of enjoying, take an hour to see what else is out there. You might find your own version of Bear.
Note: I wrote this blog post myself using my own words and thoughts for the initial draft. I used AI only to suggest headlines, section headings, images and text improvements.
Links to product pages on Amazon include a referral code which pays me a small percentage of the sale when products are purchased. This helps to defray some of the costs of running this site. I strive to only include links to products I believe are worth purchasing.