This year's update focuses on three key features: A complete redesign of the app, New Learning Modes, and Origin Maps.

Redesign

The Design Philosophy

Anatomy of LookUp

The latest redesign for LookUp, simplifies the app into three key actions, i.e. Discovering new words, Collecting them, and Learning them. these actions mirror the entities responsible for each of these actions, i.e. words, a collection of words, and a learning box of a collection of words.

Collect

Learners can collect / cluster the words together in different collections

Learn

Once collected, learners can then start taking quizzes and learning the words.

The simplified tab bar is a reflection of the key actions of the app

New Learning Modes

New learning modes people to learn more freely through through three  new learning modes. People can now learn through Interactive Quizzes. Example sentences, Conversational Questions.

Example Sentences presents contextually relevant and learner friendly example usage of the word, and quizzes the user on the meaning of a particular word in the sentence. This is a helpful way to remember how to use a word.

Conversational Questions offer a snippet from a conversation between two people. Based on that conversation the user is then asked to comment on a word that best describes the scenario. These questions dig one layer deeper than just rote learning a word's meaning. They check true understanding of the word.

The Learn with Example Sentences and Conversational Questions feature use AI in thoughtful and meaningful ways, i.e. helping people learn words, but also responsibly using AI to only generate content it can reliably generate.

The learning logic still uses scientifically proven frameworks such as the spaced repetition technique to create a learning set for the learners.

Origin Maps

Origin Maps is a fun new way to understand a word’s origins, which helps people to understand the word’s origins by tracing where it came from.

Origin maps are fun and informative in their own way. They help users understand a word's roots in a visual format. Also another cool use of the Foundation Models, transforming data from text to something entirely visual.

So this is LookUp 12, a major redesign for the app, that also includes meaningful updates that'll help language learners learn English in even more fun ways.

You can check the app out today on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/lookup-english-dictionary/id872564448

This is a cross-post from Vidit Bhargava's personal blog, watch out that space for more design deep dives for LookUp.

LookUp 12: Discover, Collect, and Learn

A portfolio of LookUp’s latest update, the design philosophy behind its redesign and key new features.

Pixel PostsVidit Bhargava

With the launch of iOS 18 and watchOS 11, LookUp is gearing up for another major update to the app that brings together the state of the art iOS features and genre defining features that enable english learners to learn the language in new and innovative ways.

Smart Search - Smart Search enables people to LookUp words in natural language and their own language, So the user no longer needs to know the exact words or spellings for a dictionary look up, they can say “what’s the word for the smell of rain?” Or “how do I say ‘ausgezeichnet’ in English?’ Or “explain what ameliorate means in a German context” and have the definitions available to them. The new search features also include a voice look up mode that make it all the more easier to search for words in a natural language. Smart search makes English learning easier for non-native speakers.

iOS 18 Support for Control Center Widgets: Key actions to LookUp’s search features and Reading Mode are also going to be available through the Control Center Widgets,

Locked Screen Camera Capture with Scan Words: feature is available as a locked screen camera capture extension
, so users can look up words right from the Lock Screen.

New iPad Tab Bar Layout: The iPad app is updated for the new tab bar layout. (Customisations will be available in the upcoming builds)

Tinted Icons: LookUp supports dark and tinted app icons including a slew of new alternative app icons that take advantage of that.

WatchOS 11 Support : On watchOS 11, LookUp is bringing relevant widgets, interactive widgets, and double tap support.

LookUp is available on the App Store as a free download with Subscriptions for Pro features: App Store Link

Check out our Press Kit here: https://impresskit.net/lookup

LookUp 9.5 is now available on the App Store. And it has two major changes to the app.

1. LookUp now supports offline look up for meanings, origins, phrases and usage notes.
2. LookUp is now free to download with an option to subscribe to LookUp+

What is offline Support? Simply put Offline support means that for basic look up you no longer need an internet connection. Sitting on a flight, and want to LookUp definitions, LookUp can now do that.

What does a basic look up contain? It contains, Meanings, Example Sentences, Origins (also known as Etymologies), any associated Phrases, and Usage Notes

So when you’re using your phone without an internet connection, these are the definitions that will show up for any word that you look up.

You can download LookUp for free, and get the basic functionality for free.

Need a basic dictionary? LookUp is the best dictionary you can download for free today.

Want to build your vocabulary, get more context from definitions? Sign up for LookUp+.

LookUp+ offers more words of the day, more out of definitions, and powerful vocabulary building tools that make it a perfect reading, writing and studying companion.

Here’s a breakdown of what you get with LookUp+

What happens to existing users? Existing users get lifetime access to the app for free. They won’t even realise we’ve switched to subscriptions.

What does it cost? LookUp+ costs $3.99 per month, $39.99 yearly, $89.99 for a lifetime purchase.

Why subscriptions? LookUp provides a recurring value to its users. There’s new content on the app every day, and there’s a lot more I would like to do with the app in the future.

Making the app free, makes it accessible to even more people and those who want to get more from the app can subscribe to the app.

Why switch to subscriptions Now?

When LookUp launched in 2014, paid upfront was the way to go for premium iOS apps and we adopted that model. Over the years, it’s allowed the app to grow leaps and bounds and even as the number of people who choose to pay upfront for apps decreased over the years, LookUp’s sales only increased.

Over the last couple of years, what we’ve observed is that for the same number of App Store page views, a significantly smaller number of people choose to buy the app. Which is understandable, as the prices of everything else have gone up, people are more conscious about spending money, and buying an app without being able to try it is going out of favour.

Largely speaking, people no longer buy apps without trying them first. So we had two options,

If we were to continue to offer the app for a paid upfront fee, it would stagnate its development in the long run and I’d not be able to develop some of LookUp’s most requested features.

Why offer a Lifetime purchase? Some people don’t want to subscribe to apps. They don’t want to add another monthly fee for an already increasing subscription bill, and that’s totally fine. People can pay for the app once and they’ll never have to pay for it again.

Also, LookUp+ Lifetime costs $89.99 up front. If a user were to subscribe the app for a little more than 2 years, they’d pay this fee. So if you see using the app for longer than that, $89.99 for a lifetime purchase is the way to go!

That’s it for this release, I really hope people enjoy the new updates to the app.

You can Download LookUp Here: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/lookup-english-dictionary/id872564448

Starting April 2023, LookUp will be offering offline dictionary support. Offline dictionary support makes LookUp faster and more accessible.

This is an often requested feature and I am delighted to be able to finally add this to LookUp!

Details

LookUp will be starting the support for offline mode by providing definitions, example sentences, word origins.

Other search results including Translations, Wikipedia and detailed Thesaurus entries would require an internet connection.

Along with offline mode, LookUp will also be under-going another major change to the app. We’re going from a paid-upfront model to a Free with Subscriptions and In-an-purchases model.

Details of the Subscription:

What’s available for Free:

Latest Word of the day

Basic offline lookup of words with definitions and example sentences, and,

The ability to Like Words

What’s paid:

Thesaurus, Translations and Detailed Search Results.

The Learn functionality in LookUp

Access to more Words of the Day

Subscriptions and In App Purchases

Users will be able to buy LookUp’s subscription in three ways: A monthly subscription, Annual Subscription, and a Lifetime Purchase.

What about existing users?

Anyone who buys the paid-upfront app, up-until the date LookUp goes free (i.e. sometime in April), will get free lifetime access to all LookUp features and wouldn’t need to pay for the subscription.

The current paid-upfront price for the app is $9.99, the lifetime IAP will cost significantly more than that. So if you were to buy LookUp now, you could think of it as a way to get lifetime access at a major discount.

—

We’ve been selling LookUp as a paid-upfront app for 9 years now and it’s been immensely successful at that. By making LookUp free, even more people will be able to get a great user experience.

Starting next month, our time zone conversion app, Zones is going to be available for free to everyone and users will be able to subscribe to Zones+ to get more out of the app.

What is Zones+

Zones+ aims to make Zones more than just a simple time zone conversion utility.

There are three key features that we’re making available with Zones+

1. Holiday Information
2. Weather Data, and
3. Reminders

What does it cost?

Zones+ Ad Supported Tier: $1.99/month
Zones+ Enterprise: $1.99/month
Zones+ Ultimate: $1.99/month

Just kidding, Zones+ is available to everyone at $1.99/month and there are no tiers.

What about existing users?

Right now, Zones is available at a paid upfront cost of $4.99 and it includes some of the initial features of Zones+.

Anyone who buys the app for $4.99, will get free access to all of Zones+ current and upcoming features till January 1, 2024.

Zones will be free

This isn’t crippleware. Zones will be a great experience regardless of whether you choose to subscribe Zones+ or not.

There will be no ads. Ever. We are not going to push you to subscribe by paywalling every part of the app. But if you want to get more out of Zones, we highly encourage you to try Zones+.

When is it going to be available

Zones+ will be available starting December 2022.

--

You can download a copy of Zones right now from the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/zones-time-zone-conversion/id1612523936

This fall we’ll be introducing the 9th major release for LookUp: English Dictionary, with the launch of iOS 16.

I’m excited to share some of the new features we have planned around the release, and what we’ll be working on for the next few months.

Lock Screen Widgets

With Lock Screen widgets are coming to the iPhone with iOS 16. LookUp will be supporting them extensively from day 1.

The idea with Lock Screen widgets is to provide relevant glanceable information to the user.

Combined with Focus modes, Lock Screen widgets are a powerful way to reach LookUp at a glance. One could create a learning Focus where their Lock Screen shows their progress in vocabulary building, or a reading focus, that simply shows quick actions for search and the Collection in which they wish to save words.

Share Words

You’ll soon be able to share words with friends using LookUp. It could simply be a link to the word, or a snapshot of a definition you wish to share.

Notes

An often requested feature for LookUp is the ability to annotate words with text and images. LookUp 9 is going to provide just that.

Notes will offer an opportunity to LookUp users to personalise their searches in a way that helps them better remember the words they LookUp.

Starting with Text and Image notes, I eventually plan to add a broader set of note taking options such as audio, and hand drawn notes.

App Intent Shortcuts

App Intents introduced in iOS 16, offer a broad set of features and customisability to Shortcuts parameters.

LookUp’s already extensive Shortcuts support will benefit heavily from AppIntents framework, and provide even deeper control to existing actions in the Shortcuts app.

Stage Manager Support

One of the most important upgrades coming to iPadOS this year is the introduction to Stage Manager. LookUp 9 is ready to support the latest iPad feature with its extensive multi-window and resizing support.

More Features planned for later this year

After the major update in fall, LookUp’s roadmap includes a couple of major updates scheduled for early next year.

Learn Flash Cards

Flash Cards based learning is coming to LookUp! While interactive quizzes provide a fun learning experience, a lot of LookUp users still want to use the traditional Flash Card based learning that allows them to remember and retain words the way they like.

In an update planned for early next year, LookUp will include Flash Cards support in Learning, along with a redesign to our entire Learning interface, that makes learning even more fun.

Shared Collections

Early next year, LookUp will introduce the ability to create Shared Collections.

With Shared Collections multiple users can collaborate and add words to a single collection, this will enable students who want to learn together with friends to collaborate on a single collection. Making the learning experience even more fun.

Releasing with LookUp 8, is a new feature called “Learn”. The idea is to help users build their vocabulary using a simple but scientifically proven technique of spaced repetition. It’s an extension of the “Quiz” feature introduced in LookUp a couple of years ago.

Much like Quizzes, Learn too is tethered to a user’s Collections and presents a set of multiple choice questions in a learning session. But while Quizzes are a great way to test the user’s vocabulary, Learn is meant to build it.

How does it work?

Vocabulary building is divided into different Learning Sessions, with the purpose of repeatedly showing words that the user gets incorrect more often. When the user makes a mistake in the sessions, the app understands that they need to learn it again. It also keeps track of that for the next time the user starts their session.

This way, over the course of multiple sessions spaced out over a few weeks (depending on the number of words in a collection), the feature helps users master words, so that they don’t forget them. The collection’s sessions are considered complete once all words are mastered.

The Science

How does spaced repetition work?

Learn is based on the technique of spaced repetition. Words that the user gets right more often are asked less frequently and new words or words that the user gets wrong more often are asked more frequently. Over time, the words get ingrained in the user’s memory and they remember the definition for longer.

The idea with spaced repetition is to ask for information at the right time. There’s little use of asking everything at once, which results in the users practically cramming words; or asking things after a very long period of time which results in users forgetting what they learnt in their previous session.

Forgetting curve

An area of research closely linked to Spaced Repetition is the Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve. The Forgetting curve theorises the speed at which we forget something shown to us.

Ebbinghaus’ curve further suggests that the rate at which we forget information can be slowed down (or the memory curve be flattened) by repeatedly learning the information.

The forgetting curve provides valuable insights into how sessions could be spaced so that the users best retain what they learn. LookUp uses the ideas behind this forgetting curve to time the learning sessions appropriately.

Habit Loops: How does one build a habit?

While spaced repetition is effective, it’s also important to have users show up to learn just as frequently. Which presents another interesting question. What makes people come back to an app?

One of the ways that makes people come back is that the app ingrains a habit of performing a certain task. This technique is fairly common in a lot of apps right now from social media apps like Instagram and Twitter to language learning apps like Duolingo. The idea is to form a habit out of a certain task.

Habit forming involves a three step loop. A cue (or trigger) that starts the action, a routine i.e. the habit that we’re trying to form, and a reward that encourages the user to come back again.

Designs that encourage bad habits create addiction

Habit forming is a double edged sword. On one hand, it drives engagement, makes people come back to your app more often, but on the other, it can lead to habits that aren’t exactly healthy.


For example: Likes, and Retweets are a great way of making people check Twitter again and again, they serve as great triggers to form the habit of using twitter regularly. However, that habit can be a time sink and make people hooked onto to the momentary happiness they get from the likes.

Such habit loops are elsewhere too including in real world scenarios.

Streak based learning: A bad habit loop?

A draft of the habit loop design for LookUp’s learn feature looks like this.

As you can see, Duolingo’s design pattern has an influence on this feature. It’s using the same streaks based methodology. So during the course of designing the feature, I paid a closer look at how Duolingo’s design of streaks works.

What I observed was, that the trigger in Duolingo’s case eventually becomes the fear of losing the streak. If you have an 1800 day streak like me, you’re probably looking to answer the quiz just in time so that you don’t lose it. That fear in turn creates a trigger of answering the quickest, most easily accessible session in that layout.

If the user misses a day, Duolingo sells them a streak freeze through it’s “virtual coins”. Don’t have enough coins? Pay Duolingo a small sum to get them. Missed getting a coin? Subscribe to their Pro features to keep retaining the streak. By designing streaks this way, the app creates a perfect monetization opportunity. It knows there will be days when people miss learning and uses that as a way to sell its digital coins.

How LookUp is designed to be different

I wasn’t particularly fond of the way Duolingo’s streak systems work. Design doesn’t just end at getting people to use the app, it’s also how it impacts users long term.

Habits formed out of the fear of something are not positive habits. They are a great way to get you hooked on to using the app every day, but the long term impacts of fear based learning aren’t good.

Design is how it impacts you long term. The goal is to learn, not engagement.

The end goal with LookUp is to learn and build vocabulary, it’s not “engagement”. So LookUp’s streaks are designed differently.

If the user misses the learning sessions for a particular day in LookUp, the app intelligently takes into account their current streak and past trends to automatically “freeze” the streak. This way, the “fear of losing a streak” is no longer is no longer the part of the habit loop.

Another area where LookUp does things differently than some of its counterparts is the size of the learning session. Learning sessions in Lookup have small chunks of 15 or fewer words, as opposed to packing in everything. This makes it easier to learn words, rather than cram them all at once.

Learning in small chunks is important for a stress free learning experience.

Smaller chunks also create a less stressful experience. Large sessions can be mentally draining, especially for people who have just started to learn the language, whereas small sessions are great motivators to learn.

Conclusion

LookUp Learn is one of the most ambitious features I’ve designed on LookUp. It’s built on top of months of research into techniques that have shown strong scientific evidence of improving vocabulary in learner’s of the language.

But more importantly it’s designed with the intent of creating a stress free learning experience, one that’s not trying to get you hooked or addicted to the app and really focusing on learning.

More Reading:

The Psychology of Study: CA Mace: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1933-02633-000

Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve:

Memory; a contribution to experimental psychology : Ebbinghaus, Hermann, 1850-1909 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Translation of Uber dea Gedächtnis

Internet Archive

Habit Loops:

Habit Loop: What It Is and How to Break It

The habit loop is a useful way to think about the way habits form and break. Learn about the different components, find examples of it in action, and get tips for breaking the cycle.

Healthline Media

Dr. Jud Brewer: Habit Loops and Every day Addictions:

Habit Loops & Everyday Addictions | Dr. Jud

Habits are our brain’s way to conserve energy. Everyday addictions are just runaway habits. Dr. Jud discusses what causes addiction and the addict’s loop.

Dr. Jud

Along with iOS 15 updates, LookUp 8 Introduces brand new ways to build your vocabulary and organise your collections, making it a one of a kind, state of the art app for learner’s of the English language.

Introducing LookUp Learn: Learn uses scientifically proven methods to improve your vocabulary by organising learning sessions in a timely manner allowing for vocabulary building over time.

The idea is to learn in small chunks and daily to improve your vocabulary.

Quick Notes brings annotations to LookUp. You can annotate words with the quick notes feature on iPadOS and the apps remember where you added them and resurface the notes when you lookup the word again. It’s an Incredibly useful way to devise your own ways to learn a word.

Always on support for Apple Watch: A small detail on watchOS 8, when the app goes into always on mode, the image dims further, to be able to show Word of the Day text clearly at a glance. It’s a small detail but improves legibility in always on mode.

Widgets on iPadOS: LookUp has been updated to take advantage of the extra large widgets on the iPad including a redesigned Collections widget that shows more relevant information.

One of the most powerful tools in a good iPad app is support for multiple input mechanisms; the device is built upon multitouch input, but it’s also used by people with a keyboard, and trackpad. So when we look at the actions in an iPad app, it’s often a good idea to support secondary interactions that allow easier access to them.

I wanted to share how I went about designing the interactions for multiple input methods.

Defining the actions

LookUp’s information structure can simply be defined around two components. Words and Collections of Words.

Each Word is linked to a definition that can include several parts: Meaning, Origins, Similar Words, Opposites, Wikipedia excerpts, Usage Notes and more. A user, when presented with a word, can perform three key actions: Like a word, or add it to a collection, or pronounce the word.

Each collection is a list of words that can be added or removed from it. The user can take a quiz on a collection, or share it as a PDF.

Touch: Drag and Drop

Drag and Drop is a powerful tool, it’s a natural mode of interaction for touch screen users on the iPad. Here are some ways in which drag and drop is used in LookUp:

Adding words into a collection:

This interaction is designed to be consistent across the app. You can simply start by dragging in a word of the day too.‌‌

The drag and drop interaction is a quick way to add multiple words into a collection. Simply startp picking words and drop them into a collection.

Opening a new window: You can drag out a word, or a collection to create a new window.‌‌

This interaction also works with sidebar items.

Reordering a list: This is one of the most natural interactions one can think of when supporting drag and drop in a list. Simply move an item up by dragging it into a list.‌‌

A little detail: You can actually drag a collection from the collection list view and drop into it into a position in the sidebar, and it’ll still rearrange.‌‌

Pointer: Contextual Menus

Contextual menus have always been useful on iOS as a place for secondary actions, but with the advent of pointer interactions in iPadOS, the contextual menus have become essential for users who use their iPad with a trackpad or mouse.

The mental model of right clicking a button to see actions is one that’s carried over seamlessly from the desktop to iPadOS

Contextual Menus for words:‌‌

Adding a word to a collection‌‌

Contextual Menus for collections:

Opening new windows through contextual menus:‌‌

Keyboard: Keyboard Shortcuts & Navigation:

So this is how I mapped the key actions in my app to relevant secondary interactions that allow users to quickly perform the tasks. New users to the app can easily discover these actions but power users can find ways to quickly perform them through the different ways such as keyboard shortcuts, contextual menus and drag and drop.

After 6 months of development, LookUp 7.5 is now available to the users on the App Store.

What’s changed? Everything. On the outside, it’s still the familiar, easy to use interface of LookUp. But internally, the app has been completely rewritten for faster performance, better compatibility across all the Apple platforms, and hosts a new more reliable sync and storage system. It’s a major update to LookUp that’s filled little improvements across the app.

I wanted to talk about some of the major new changes coming to the app with this release.

1. Universal Purchase

LookUp is now a universal purchase across all Apple platforms (iOS, iPadOS, watchOS and now macOS).

I wrote at length about it a couple of weeks ago on the blog; the gist is, that this will allow me to keep the apps in lockstep, and enable the app to provide a consistent user experience for upcoming features like Shortcuts for macOS and Quick Notes.

2. New iPad UI

LookUp’s iPad UI has also been completely rethought for a flatter navigation structure. The iPad app now features the Sidebar UI that Apple first introduced last year. It also supports dragging and dropping words into different collections; and shows inline editing tools where required.



Since the sidebar UI can sometimes be jarring on smaller form factors, there is also a new Layout Settings page in Settings to use the tab bar layout (this is especially useful, when using iPad mini or other smaller iPads).

I’ve written about the new iPad previously on the blog and will soon be sharing more about how I designed it.

The app also includes Layout customisations to further customise how you want to see your definitions.

3. Exporting Collections as PDF:

Users can now export collections as PDFs and share with their friends. This is something that was designed keeping in mind students who use the app as a learning tool.

It’s a small utility, but one that I hope lots of students to benefit from. The PDFs are all designed in a way that look good on printed paper, so if students want to share these lists around they can do that too.

4. Sorting Collections

You can now rearrange and sort collections in different ways. There a couple of pre-defined sorting options (Alphabetically and Date added) but you can also create your own list order simply by dragging and dropping the word into a position of your choice.

5. More Results

The Search results have also been revamped to include Phrases. The Definitions have also been updated with more detailed definitions.

6. Search Widget

While each one of the previous widgets have got significant performance improvements, there’s also a new Search Widget for iOS and iPadOS users. That allows a quick access to the actions in the Search Screen: (Search, Search from Clipboard or Search by Scanning a Word)

7. Shortcuts Improvements

The Shortcut actions in the app have been updated to show more output details making it easier to chain multiple shortcut actions.

The app also includes new actions for taking quizzes, finding words in a collection, and finding and exporting collections. These are useful, flexible actions that allow users to create powerful actions, making it easier to automate parts of the app without even launching it.

These are some of the salient features of today’s update. The update is filled with little details such as Layout customisations, options to choose a pronunciation voice, a completely revamped action extension and more.

Hope you enjoy using LookUp!

You can get LookUp: English Dictionary from the App Store: here

With LookUp 7.5, LookUp for macOS is getting some major updates. It’s essentially getting everything that the iOS version does while maintaining it’s true Mac app appearance.

Feature parity with iOS and iPadOS:

One of the things I did when rewriting LookUp for iOS, was to rewrite it in a way that I could easily reuse the components for the macOS app, while maintaining the unique appearance and conventions on the two platforms. And I’m glad to share that all the new refinements coming to LookUp for iPadOS are going to come over to the macOS app.

Drag And Drop Support:

Users have been requesting for it and it’s finally ready. LookUp now has extensive intra-app drag and drop support. People can drop multiple words into different collections or drag items to rearrange a list.

Sorting options:

The app also supports sorting options that allow users to arrange the list the way they like.

Export to PDF:

This is something that’s been adapted from the iOS version, where users will be able to share PDFs of the collections they’ve made from inside the app. In LookUp for macOS, the feature has been redone to support proper file export.

Quizzes

For Quizzes on macOS, users will now be able to see their past performance and trophies.

More Widgets

Thanks to our rewrite efforts, LookUp for macOS is going to get a lot more than just a Word of the Day widget.

Apart from the new enhancements to the app, LookUp on macOS is getting one more major update: It’s switching to a universal purchase. Starting LookUp 7.5 users will be able to pay once, and download LookUp anywhere. On macOS, iPadOS, iOS and watchOS.

Why is LookUp switching to a universal app?

When we first released LookUp on macOS as a Catalyst app in October 2019, universal apps weren’t possible then (Universal apps for macOS were introduced in March 2020), and we sold it as a separate app. However, if the last few months of feedback have been any indication, people really want to, and expect to buy the app once, and use it everywhere.

Universal app’s are also clearly the future. As highlighted in a previous blog post, Apple platform apps are much more than just single app units, they involve multiple extensions on both platforms and users expect those extensions to work consistently across all platforms. Two separate apps barely enable that.

In fact, with the upcoming Shortcuts update, being able to reuse your iOS shortcuts on macOS is going to be a major feature. Something that universal apps can effortlessly take advantage off.

What happens to the existing LookUp for macOS app?

The existing LookUp for macOS app which is available as a separate purchase right now, is eventually going to be sunset in favour of the new universal app.

Once LookUp 7.5 releases on all platforms in mid-July, the existing LookUp app will be renamed to LookUp: 2019 Edition and will go through an icon change to indicate that the same.


The existing app (LookUp: 2019 Edition) will get some of the features of LookUp 7.5 as one final major update to the app, following which the app will only receive necessary bug fixes and minor improvements. Subsequent major updates like the LookUp 8 (launching with macOS Monterey) would only be available on the new app.

LookUp: 2019 Edition will stay on the Mac App Store until at least the end of 2021 and will then be removed from the App Store.

What about the users of the existing macOS?

If you’re an existing LookUp for macOS user and have bought the iOS app in the past, you don’t need to do anything except downloading the new app from the Mac App Store.

If you use the macOS app but don’t have the iOS app, you will be able to request a free upgrade to the new macOS from LookUp: 2019 Edition when the update is available.

Coming to the next major release of LookUp, is a new user interface for the app on iPadOS.

iPadOS 14 introduced a new form of layout for iPad devices: Sidebars. A departure from the tab bar interfaces, the new Sidebar layout focuses on a faster-flattened navigation, fewer full screen transitions and better utilisation of the screen space. LookUp will support this new layout in the next release of the app.

I wanted to highlight some of the work that's gone into designing for this new interface below, it's a major design change that has been months in the making; involving a lot of work on both usability as well as technical aspects of the design.

Multi-Column Navigation

Multi Column navigation is not new to LookUp. Our macOS app has made use of a multi-column layout for a very long time. The idea there, was to make use of the larger screenspace and give users a quick way to access their collected words. It's been very well received on that platform.

The iPad in many ways has moved closer to the Mac, with the introduction of the Magic Keyboard with trackpad. When the user uses the iPad in that mode, it creates a setup that's similar to the Mac in many ways, and with larger displays, even more so. It's a setup that just asks for a multi-column layout for a utility app like LookUp.

So taking a cue from the macOS our iPadOS app also makes use of the Sidebar and multi-column design to the app:

Utilising large screen spaces

A 12.9" iPad is extremely similar to a Macbook in size, and so where required, we have extended the multi-column layout to a 4 column layout to better use the larger screen space.

Sidebars + Contextual Menus = Pro Navigation

Contextual menus are a quick way to access parts of an app that could require multiple taps. They're secondary navigation; shortcuts to different parts of the app. So we've added extensive support for contextual menus in the sidebar.

For example you can quickly take a collections quiz by simply right clicking that collection and selecting the quiz option from the menu.

Providing a Flexible Interface

The sidebar, multi-column navigation is great for large iPads with a keyboard and mouse setup. However, that's not how everyone uses the iPad. In fact, smaller iPads like the iPad Mini or the 8th generation iPad are more hand-held than following a laptop like setup.

Currently there are two ways of using the iPad

1. Used as a hand-held touch screen device where the user browses through the iPad, holding it in their hands or setting it down on a table.
2. Used with a keyboard and mouse accessory.

Apart from how the iPad is held, it's size also plays a big role in how users want to use the iPad. Larger iPads are far more likely to fully take advantage of the sidebar interface as compared to smaller iPads like the Mini.

So LookUp will provide an option to switch to the traditional tab bar interface.

This is one of the design choices where I feel the context in which a user is using their iPad dictates what they'd prefer. And therefore, it's a setting that can be adjusted.

Seemless Window Resizing

A trivial detail but much of the technical work that's gone into making the sidebar navigation possible on iPadOS has been about making window resizing seemless.

Currently iOS 14 Split Views can assign a compact mode to enable a traditional tab bar layout for smaller screens. However, there's no default way to retain the views in both interface modes; and so they behave independently of each other, providing a disjoint user experience. Apple recommends doing work to retain the views, and that's where a good chunk of the sidebar development went into.

So this was a quick preview of the new iPadUI for LookUp. But that's not all, there are more UI improvements planned for the iPadOS app, like support for dragging and dropping words into a collection, a faster rename system that makes use of an inline layout and more. But more on that later.

This week I’ll be starting the public beta for LookUp 7.5, as the previous post details, it’s a massive internal update, with some user facing features. I wanted to take the time to share what’s on the agenda for this update.

Improved iCloud Sync:

One of the key reasons for switching to our new database system is to be able to better sync collections, liked words and quizzes across platforms (iOS, macOS and watchOS).

The app would still use iCloud sync, which is tied to the user’s iCloud account making the experience seamless on Apple platforms.

Better Extensions:

With the rewrite, one of the major benefits to this update is going to be a consistent and improved user experience across the extensions.

New iPad UI:

LookUp also plans to adopt the new Sidebar UI for iPadOS. The sidebar UI’s flattened navigational structure is ideal for both point and click and touch interfaces, utilising the screen real-estate better, while enabling a faster, more productive user interface.

More Results:

The results screen is also getting improvements, with a better support for the Oxford’s English Dictionary; and, the app will also include support for “phrases” when you search for a word.

For example, if you search for the word “eye”: the results screen will also point to phrases like “a twinkle in someone's eye”, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”, “an eye for the main chance”, that the user can tap and look up.

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More Updates planned down the line:

These updates may not arrive with LookUp 7.5, but will be available soon.

Improvements to Word of the Day:

There’s a major word of the day update lined up; making them more accessible and dynamic. The app will also support new features such as the ability to test your knowledge of the week’s words of the day.

Notes:

Notes will allow the users to annotate definitions with text, images, sketches, and audio notes, to be able to personalise and better learn them.

Universal macOS App:

When macCatalyst first released, universal apps weren’t possible, and LookUp adopted a Multi app model. However, universal apps are much convenient and something that users have come to expect after their release in early 2020.

LookUp will also be switching to a universal app model, allowing users to buy the app on any platform and use it every where. I’ll share more details about the transition before the release.

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More updates and a link to join the beta for LookUp 7.5 will be released in the coming days.

The next major release for LookUp: English Dictionary is coming soon, and I wanted to share some notes on what's changing:

When LookUp first released on the App Store in may 2014, it was meant to be an iPhone app, and iPhone at the time meant one device, one screen size and a pixel perfect UI.

Over time, the app has expanded into bringing in new features, supporting different platforms and using system extensions such as Shortcuts, Action Extensions and most recently Widgets. The app has expanded from being a one device app to something that scales from the Watch to a Mac.

All this is built on top of a codebase that was designed for the iPhone app. And while the app's doing fine right now in terms of performance, to enable the next set of major new features, it needs a bit of a rejig.

So, I'm rewriting LookUp from the ground up, to be a more modern, robust and reliable experience.

What does this mean for the user?

While users may not see any new features in this particular release, they'll observe an overall improvement in the the app, whether it be little UI tweaks or minor reliability improvements. That'd also mean fewer errors when using extensions, a snappier user experience and an experience that's more integrated across platforms. Overall, the app is just going to feel much nicer.

Why the rewrite?

First, It's been a long time since I refactored and rewrote a bunch of things in this app, and as new features get added, I find myself writing a lot of redudent code.

Secondly, There are a bunch of features I'd like to build into the app, but it's proving to be extremely challenging to create them in a satisfactory way with the app's current codebase. And if I were to not change anything with the code, it'd eventually lead to a fragmented, frustrating experience. So, the much needed rewrite.

For example to make the upcoming word notes feature in the app, I want the user's annotations and notes on a word to be able to sync across devices so they can access them easily.

The current codebase could do that, but neither the result screen's current UI, nor it's data model would help create the experience I want, and the result would be something sub-par that people don't end up using. Rewriting the app is helping create such newer experiences be available everywhere with ease.

Over the next few updates to the app, you'll see the app improve manifold. Previously all major changes could be packed into a single release in the fall but since the app's much bigger now, I want to take an iterative approach to changes. Making sure new features work robustly for a longer duration.

Starting with a major internal refresh to the app. Followed by some exciting new features, and a major design overhaul, over the course of the next one year.

What's next?

I hope to start a closed TestFlight Beta for the update by the end of March, and release the update a few weeks later.

With more major updates to the app arriving in Fall 2021, and Early 2022.