Letterboxd app for iOS

If you love movies, then do yourself a favour and sign up for Letterboxd. They just released their iOS app. A great addition to the service.

Screenshots of Letterboxd app
Screenshots of Letterboxd app

There are two things that stood out to me in the app as different choices on iOS. Firstly the Letterbox app doesn’t have labels on the tab bar at the bottom.

Letterboxd tab bar - sans labels
Letterboxd tab bar - sans labels

Unlike the iTunes app, which clearly shows labels and is translucent.

iTunes tab bar - with labels
iTunes tab bar - with labels

On some apps I believe this is fine. Say like Twitterrific, but only because the icons are recognisable. I don’t think that’s the case with Letterboxd. There is a small but annoying learning curve just figuring out what each button does. In the case of Letterboxd I think it would have been better to have labels.

Twitterrific tab bar - sans labels
Twitterrific tab bar - sans labels

Purely by coincidence Letterboxd was released the same week Google updated the “Material Design” guidelines adding a bottom navigation bar similar to the iOS tab bar in Safari on iOS. On Letterboxd as the content is scrolled the tab bar (and navigation bar) is hidden therefore removing a distraction to reading/viewing.

Letterboxd hide toolbar video

The wait has been long but has been worthwhile for Letterboxd to provide a great version 1.0 iOS app. I look forward to what they add next to the service.

You can follow me on Letterboxd as FilmIndy.

Tags:
 design,
 ios,
 letterboxd,
 app