I use AntennaPod to listen to podcasts. It’s a simple app that does one thing well, without any bling. I usually stream podcasts, but recently I had to travel and started downloading episodes for a long flight without internet access. The download button isn’t directly accessible from the main user interface — it’s a couple of taps away.
After downloading a few episodes, AntennaPod pleasantly surprised me with a popup along the lines of: “You seem to be downloading a lot; do you want the download button here?” I responded yes, and voilà — the download button was now just one tap away.
This sparked a thought that had been dormant in my mind for a long time: why don’t applications radically personalize their user interface and experience?
Apps know which features I use most, and which ones I rarely touch. So why not make frequently used features more accessible for me, and push the rarely used ones into the background?
They know my common workflows — why not personalize the UI to support those?
They know which buttons I never click — why not hide them?
Beyond the technical complexity, the biggest reason I can think of for why this isn’t done more often is that this kind of personalization would make the app behave differently for each user, which in turn complicates UI/UX consistency and product decision-making.
I wish more apps would start doing this.
Abhirama's Blog 