Vidit Bhargava

A hand holds a smartphone displaying a movie or show with a dramatic poster, showcasing two intense faces and the title in a non-English script. The background shows a sunlit garden and modern building through a window.

A hand holds a phone displaying a book review for "Project Hail Mary" with a 4.2-star smart rating.

A hand holding a smartphone near a window, displaying a movie info screen with details like director, release date, and cast. Background shows a green lawn and buildings. Screen indicates a post-credits scene available.

A hand holding a smartphone by a window, displaying a movie poster in a streaming app. The poster features multiple faces in a blurred, dramatic style with some text in a non-English script. Background shows a garden with green grass and shrubs.

Movie Buzz Beta is now live! Starting with a small batch of 50 testers.

Still early days so a lot of rough edges but the core algorithm of the app is up and running.

As you can see it’s a truly global app, that adapts to your preferences.

testflight.apple.com/join/yKTaTtpT

How LookUp Gets Its Look - App Store For Vidit Bhargava, the developer behind the award-winning dictionary app LookUp, learning is a visual… Learn more tips and how-tos on the App Store.

Had the opportunity to talk to the App Store about how I make LookUp's Word of the Day illustrations, my philosophy behind LookUp and the thoughtful use of AI.

apps.apple.com/us/mac/story...

It was fun making this retro TV.

Had a lot of fun making the TV static from shaders.

How Apple could keep the bottom search bar in iOS 26.4 without disturbing the flat navigation hierarchy.

This also solves the problem of multiple tabs having their own search bar (which right now go on top of the screen)

This week we featured:

Kavsoft - undo/redo state management in SwiftUI
@viditb.bsky.social - designing for emerging tech in 2026
Kyle Browning - dependency injection without boilerplate
Omar Elsayed - AI as a teaching collaboration tool

Sketch

Some macOS icon design that I indulged in a few years ago.

When someone makes an AI friend app or a life recording locket or AR Glasses with a video capture camera;

I wonder if the designers considered the impact of any unintended consequences of their products .

Wrote about designing emerging tech here: blog.viditb.com/designing-em...

A framework illustrating the design of emerging technologies. Highlights complex systems of interconnected problems, methods for design interventions, and transformation of products into platforms. Emphasizes tech solutions within social systems. Created by Vidit Bhargava.

Framework of Action Centered Design. Top section shows context influencing wants and needs. Middle highlights tools aiding actions, including bikes and scissors. Bottom covers output mediums like screens and speakers. Side text explains action-centered design principles and examples.

Framework on contextual computing. It illustrates tangible and intangible context and emphasizes shared understanding for better UX. Concepts include bounded context, asking follow-ups, and failing gracefully. The framework aims to improve human-computer interactions.

My trilogy of Design Frameworks for designing in emerging technologies. You can peruse or download all of them here:

blog.viditb.com/frameworks-f...

That’s definitely one way of looking at it but the most important thing as to why Ai Pin imho was just how confused a product it was. It had no idea who its user was and it never struck as something useful to anyone.

The best I got was getting bus schedules from it.

Emerging tech design isn’t just a form problem though. People look to sci fi for giving form to things, not solving problems

The biggest issue with AI devices is they don’t solve any problem. Ai Pin was famously inspired by Star Trek, it failed because it was no better than a string of cool demos.

Seems relevant to what I just wrote about emerging technologies design:

blog.viditb.com/designing-em...

The Ultimate Guide to Designing Emerging Technologies in 2026 Emerging tech is not a form-factor problem. In 2026, we need to design emerging technologies that look beyond techno-centric appliances.

Want to read more about emerging technologies design without reading about AI?

I’ve spent the last year, summarising, visualising and writing this post on what it means to design emerging tech.

blog.viditb.com/designing-em...

This is such a great page. Also just realized I have been using Wikipedia since day 1.

wikipedia25.org/en/?utm_camp...

A white MagSafe charger attached to metal Apple charging dock, which stands on a wooden table near a window, capturing natural light.

Smartphone on a stand with a charging screen displaying 85% charged. It sits on a wooden table with woven placemats near a window showing a view of neighboring buildings.

Bringing back two forgotten devices to life.

The Lightning Dock and the MagSafe adapter combine to make a slick charging stand.

The assembly-line-ification of App Icons Today's app icons look as if they came out of an assembly line. All looking the same, designed for maximum scale, and devoid of any identity or soul. Turning the craft of designing an app icon into a ...

Consistency is sucking the soul out of app icon design.

We're truly in the Bauhaus era of app iconography (in a bad way)

blog.viditb.com/the-assembly...

Smart glasses with integrated cameras floating above a textured, wearable band against a gradient background.

A person wearing a dark green sweater, with an Ai Pin device clipped on their chest, extends their hand. Holographic buttons appear projected onto their open palm, resembling a futuristic interface.

Person wearing a dark shirt and jacket with a round, sleek pendant on a necklace. The pendant has a smooth, reflective surface with a slight color gradient. The background is dark, highlighting the pendant's modern design.

A person wearing a virtual reality headset and holding two controllers stands in a sleek, modern space with glass walls. They are dressed in a black jacket and white top, appearing immersed in a VR experience.

These aren’t examples of great emerging technology design. They’re simply well made hardware interaction design projects.

Thinking that only this is emerging tech is the first misstep in making products that don’t succeed.

Why does coffee special in SF cafés mean that it’s a sugar syrup masquerading as coffee. 😖

Giving Storygraph a try. Anyone else there?

You might be thinking, "CPSC, does a dry Christmas tree really burn that much faster than a well-watered tree?"

Friend, let's find out together by watching this PSA.

Colorful bouquet of sunflowers and red flowers in an ornate white vase set in a rustic niche with textured stone walls.

A decorative architectural column features an ornate cherub figure with wings perched atop a fish, embellished with intricate floral carvings below. The column is lit with warm lighting, highlighting the detailed craftsmanship

Yellow rose and white daisy in a small vase on a wooden table, illuminated by soft sunlight, casting gentle shadows

Bright yellow autumn tree next to a building with arched windows. Street signs point to Jackson and Montgomery. A person walks by.

So far very very impressed with iPhone Air’s camera.

App icon resembling a night jasmine flower with orange center at the bottom center of screen with title “Praise for Shiuli”. Image collects praise Shiuli app for generating meaningful alt text via an intuitive interface. Quotes highlight its usefulness and innovative applications and Five-star rating from users.

Been a week since I launched Shiuli, flattered by all the praise it’s been getting so far! 🙂

Indie App of the Week: Shiuli by @viditb.bsky.social

Generates meaningful alt text for images through an intuitive interface with Shortcuts and Visual Intelligence support, making web content more accessible.

bsky.app/profile/crea...

Shiuli by @viditb.bsky.social , issue #86.

Discover more, subscribe!

createwithswift.com/subscribe/

iPad screen showing a vibrant display of cherry blossoms against a bright blue sky. The time displayed is 2:08. A warmly lit room with blinds and a lamp creates a cozy background.

There are times my iPad surprises me with wallpapers of images even I don’t remember clicking.

App icon featuring a star-shaped white Shiuli flower with a red center and four petals, shown next to a smartphone displaying a cluster of Shiuli flowers amid green leaves in sunlight.

Three smartphones displaying different nature scenes. Left: Autumn street with glowing leaves by a streetlamp. Center: Lush white star-shaped flowers against a dark background. Right: Sunlit green leaves with star-shaped Shiuli flowers.

Flower-like central icon with five colored circles surrounding it. Each circle contains an icon from top left (clockwise): iPad, Shortcuts, iPad, Visual Intelligence, and Share. All icons are connected to the central figure with dotted lines. Dark green background.

Three smartphones display a plant identification app. Left screen: dusty miller plant identified with alt text. Middle screen: app interface options. Right screen: close-up of a jasmine plant with alt text describing its features.

Shiuli is out now on the App Store!

Shiuli makes it easy to make any image accessible, through alt-text which can be accessed from any where.

It’s the first alt text editor that also works with Visual Intelligence and Apple Shortcuts!

apps.apple.com/in/app/shiul...

Note to self: Never work on a milestone based contract.

Happy Halloween!
Drew a new custom icon that matches the spooky vibes for today. (and, changes to bloodied fangs in Dark Mode) :P

apps.apple.com/in/app/looku...

I love it very much too!! 🩷

This summer I did something different for LookUp’s major update.

I broke it down into making multiple fake apps i.e. small prototypes that did just one specific thing while scaffolding everything else through rudimentary screenshots.

blog.viditb.com/fake-apps-ho...