APPTUI · 2012 to 2015

Adaptive interfaces before their time

Context and stakes

APPTUI built remote controls that reconfigured themselves for whatever app or device you connected to.

My role

I led the design team. Our method was a systematic teardown of each host application: map what it exposed, find what was missing, then design a purpose built control surface for it.

Purpose-built control surfaces, one per host app

Photoshop Colour palette remote
Netflix Timeline scrubbing and playback
Any app Trackpad mode
Any app Search mode

All of it had to render well across the fragmented device landscape of early mobile and respond fast enough to feel like a physical remote.

We solved the design and the engineering. We never solved distribution.

Outcomes and open threads

The work was credible enough to bring Rogers and TV manufacturers including Vizio to the table.