The Identity Crisis of Nothing’s UI - My Review & Redesign

I reviewed and redesigned the UI of Nothing Phone 2, including NothingOS, glyph Interface, and the design elements.

Hope you enjoy!

Let’s connect:

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[juxtopposed]

what do you guys think of Nothing phones?

[bartolomeus]

> Buy Nothing Phone
> Look inside
> Things

[exrew]

the way you kept roasting them respectfully is just amazing lol

[txma.]

Nothing made a phone with a removable back but no removable battery. They have a massive identity crisis

[bajiraosingham]

Now I want to see Nothing CEO react to THIS

[thui]

you’re redesigning entire OS UIs now?!?! thats amazing

[musicbysazid]

Given how community-driven Nothing is, can't wait to see these suggestive redesign actually end up in future NothingOS release.

[mks-h]

4:05 — the idea of monochromatic icons is actually to make it harder to navigate, so that you can break your habit of jumping into social network apps with shiny colors the moment you see them. Instead, you are supposed to actually think why did you open the phone, and what app you want to open. Although I'm not opposed to the slightly colored versions as another middle-ground option. But only if they can actually maintain an icon pack that covers thousands of apps, so you'd rarely run into an app that doesn't follow the style. This is different to monochromatic icons which are provided by the app developers themselves (actually this is called "adaptive icons").

[orange]

the nothing phone can now be written off as a business expense. big brain move

[TheSolidfoxhound]

Somehow I was wanting this exact video 😤

Someone plz post this on Nothing forum ASAP! Carl needs to see this👀

[panameraflow]

1:03 you meant compared to the pixel launcher by Google. Pure Android 14 is a whole diffrent story, you wouldn't want to use that one on a daily base.

[binku]

4:22 That is a design philosophy for nothing in general. Make tech disappear into the background. That includes not distracting you every time you click off of an app you were working on. The monochrome colors help because you can't instantly see pink and violet and click on Instagram on your home screen. It has to be a more thoughtful decision.

You did point out the other design flaws very well, I cannot unsee that now 😂

[Ryu-wfet]

As someone who bought Nothing mainly for AOSP out of the box, your redesigns actually looks so nice, without losing AOSP identity

[jpkdesignz]

I have to disagree on some things you said:
1. The app icons are less readable because of the lack of color on purpose. They want you to decide which app to use because you have an intent and are looking for it actively, not because your eye catches the tempting colors of Instagram and you end up swiping reels for 10 minutes again.
2. I dig the serif font on the calendar widget. If _all_ of the UI was the dot letters, I think it'd look sterile and outdated. This combination of serif and dots is more unique and stylish IMO.
3. Not having own apps for phone, messages etc. is _exactly_ what most users (including me) want and are always asking for on other phones and OS.

[leeseth]

4:11 this was actually intentional. according to carl, its for less risk of doomscrolling

but your idea is pretty cool too

[orciw]

Tbh.. Nothing design isn't all about dots. They have 3 main fonts. Ndot that is used on headlights etc, Ntype that is used on that calendar widget and the last one is LetteraMono.

If it was all about dots, it would be very confusing and distracting in the end. Also the implementation of Nothing elements is slow, because it's still a very small team of developers and to be honest quantity < quality is always better.

[e-]

I can’t describe how much I love this channel! I thought I was the only one seeing these design desasters. And you not only complain about them, you even fix them. Amazing work!

[zekiz]

Homescreen customization and messing with gimp is what got me intrested in design when i was 12. Im not a designer, I'm a dev, but I still take time to appreciate good or beautiful design everywhere I see it.

[YDVN]

I haven't watched yet but this is a great video to make as Nothing actually listens to feedback and might implement some of your designs which i have no doubt will be great

[anshsoniYT]

I'm so glad to see some genuine unique criticism of this phone