5 design details I ❤ about Pocket
On how I stopped wasting time on the web
Pocket is singlehandedly responsible for any and all semblance of productivity I have.
The app really only does one thing—it saves things for you to view later (offline)—but it does it phenomenally well. Every interaction and feature on Pocket seems inevitable, like they were the only product/design decisions possible.
Some startups make you feel like there was a hole in the universe shaped like them. —Benedict Evans
The icing on the cake: the following design details that, I promise, will not only make the app your preferred reading experience (even when you do have the time to surf the web), but that will also impel you to excitedly and repeatedly recommend it to everyone you know, if I’m any indication. ;)
1—It has a beautifully minimal mobile flow for adding articles
If you’re on your phone and you copy a URL to your clipboard, opening Pocket will load a prompt that asks whether you want to add the link to your reading list.
Every time I encounter this functionality, I fall more in love with this app. This is one of those thoughtful features that make me feel like someone at Pocket really cared—someone really thought through how I would want to use their product on my phone. They were right: what else could I possibly want to do with the URL I copied to my clipboard?
2—An incredibly satisfying confirmation pop-up
Pocket’s Chrome plugin for saving articles is so gratifying to use, I’ll Pocket things even as I’m already reading them.
I only started noticing this when I encountered Kippt’s confirmation screen. Or rather, their lack thereof. Kippt is a filing cabinet for links. I digitally hoard, so I was ecstatic to have found them. Both Pocket and Kippt allow you to save articles as you browse the web with a Chrome plug-in that puts a button in your browser.
Their user flows for doing this stem from the same click action, but, as it turns out, diverge in an extremely subtle, though arguably important way.
How saving an article on Kippt works:
1) You click the icon →
2) A screen pops up asking you to write notes or pick a folder →
3) You press “Save” →
4) The screen disappears
How saving an article on Pocket works:
1) You click the icon →
2) The icon turns from gray to colored →
3) A confirmation screen animates in and tells you your page has been saved (triggering a mini endorphin rush) →
4) The screen lingers until you click away, during which time it asks if you want to add tags to your article
Pocket provides a sense of completion immediately (step 2). Kippt, on the other hand, does not… at all. To receive no feedback—after delaying the moment of gratification through three discrete actions (steps 1 through 3)—is like using a microwave that lets you punch in numbers but then does not react when you go to start it. No beep, no countdown, no whirring noise to indicate the plate is spinning.
Feedback, when done right, becomes something a user takes for granted. Of course, a microwave should let me know when my food is heating up.
On the other hand, feedback, when completely missing, can be uncomfortable—at first. Initially, you might not even notice something is missing. But over time, it could mean the difference between an app that gradually falls to the wayside and an app that becomes addicting. An app that feels impenetrable and an app that feels polished, responsive, and considerate.
3—Easy access to frequently emailed friends
How did they know one of the most frequent next things I’d want to do upon finishing an article is to send it to a friend? And not just any friend—probably the same few friends, over and over.
I’m grateful for this because I can imagine an alternative to this flow: only the “Send to a friend” button exists, and it prompts me to type in an email address, every time.
With this solution, sharing requires no typing.
And on the business side—what a great move. They’ve made it incredibly easy for me to help them get into my friends’ inboxes, with an implied endorsement. How often do you think people sign up for Pocket via these emails?
4—Background downloads
When you open Pocket, it kickstarts its syncing process and runs it in the background, regardless of where else you navigate. This means you never need to wait for anything within the app. You can start reading other articles while your latest ones download.
Compare to… the good ole browser. My internet is often spotty when I’m surfing the web on my phone, so waiting for an article to load takes a “long” time—especially if there are ads and/or large photos. Meanwhile, I’m locked into the window, lest the loading stops.
So what I would do is I would add an article to Pocket, go about my business while it downloads—i.e. read other articles, surf Facebook, check email, etc—and then return to it when it’s done loading.
Impatience, satisfied.
5—Hidden controls for an uninterrupted reading experience
This is becoming a common mobile pattern for content apps, used so as to defer screenspace to the content. When you’re reading in Pocket (i.e. scrolling down an article), all controls slide off the screen, and only reappear if you scroll up or reach the end of the article.
The overarching effect of this—combined with the thoughtfulness of its aforementioned design decisions—is that Pocket has become my preferred reading experience. Because there are no ads, no extraneous content vying for my attention, reading articles in the app feels like curling up with a book. So while I’ve cut my time reading articles on the web by 90%, I actually now read more, because of how much I love this app.
The most beloved apps are the ones that help people accomplish something that they already badly want to do.
Pocket definitely rounds out my top three, alongside DayOne and Medium.
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