45 // Native apps

With Muse for Mac on the horizon, the team convenes to discuss the merits of native apps versus web technologies like Electron. Discussion points include the conflict between brand identity and apps that feel true to the OS; “proudly native” apps like Sketch and Nova; and the lost art of designing using system components. Plus: the business case for and against building native apps, and why great native apps tend to come from smaller companies.

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Show notes

• The road to Muse 2
• Electron
• DMG file
• URL
• widgets
• GTK
• /usr
• the JVM and write once, run anywhere
• Java servlet, Flash
• React Native, Cordova
• transpiler
• browser quirks
• siren’s song
• Audacity
• Flutter
• Things
• principle of least surprise
• Twitter on iOS non-native share sheet
• Material Design
• Google’s iOS apps retiring custom widgets
• WeChat
• Microsoft antitrust case in the late 90s
• how the web broke Microsoft’s monopoly
• Steve Jobs visiting Xerox PARC
• Alto, Lisa, Macintosh
• Metamuse episode with Weiwei Xu
• V for Wikipedia
• Twitter’s custom typeface, Chirp
• ScreenFlow, Sketch, Nova
• Sketch’s proud-to-be-native article
• WebAssembly in Figma
• Sublime Text
• Finda’s 16ms goal
• Microsoft CEO deemphasizing the Windows business
• Obsidian, Superhuman, Linear
• 1Password’s switch to Electron and subsequent outcry
• video games and colorblind mode
• Game Maker’s Toolkit — Designing for Disability