a new look, and a red light that means recording

the short version

underway has a new face for its titles, and one new colour with one job.

the headings across the site, the app and the phone are now set in a serif. it is calmer than what was there before, and it makes a page read like something worth reading rather than a dashboard.

and red now means one thing: the camera or the microphone is live. nothing else in underway is red.

why a serif

underway is a diary. the thing you make with it is a record of your work, numbered like a show, kept in the order you said it.

the old headings were a confident grotesque, which suited a tool. a serif suits a record. it is the type of a good notebook, a film poster, a book you keep.

the rest stays as it was. everything you read is in the same plain sans. episode numbers, times and streaks are still in mono, like data burned into footage. the change is only in the titles, so the app feels new without anything moving.

what it does not touch

your episodes. the title card, the captions and the cover of every episode keep their own type: your brand if you set one, and the same lettering as before if you did not.

that is on purpose. a series only works if episode 3 and episode 190 look like the same show. changing the type on every card in every archive because the app got a new heading font would break the one thing a card is for.

red means recording

gold has always meant now in underway: today's episode number, your streak, the record button. that stays.

red is new, and it means rolling. the moment you press record, three things turn red together:

• a red frame round the picture of you
• a red rec light with the time running
• the stop button

press stop and the red goes away. the button is gold again, waiting for the next answer.

it is the same idea as the tally light on a camera. you should know you are live without reading anything. if you look up from your notes mid-sentence, the frame tells you.

everywhere you record

the same red, on every surface:

• the interview, on the web and the phone
• a moment and a freestyle
• a call with your co-host, by voice or on camera
• a promote video you film
• the voice note in the chrome extension

on the phone it arrives as an update to the app, the next time you open it. you will see the gold bar that says a newer version is ready, and restart takes it.

problems are not red any more

if red means recording, an error cannot be red too. a failed upload in red would look like the camera had come on.

so problems are now written in a warm brown, and they say what happened in plain words. nothing about what they say has changed, only the colour.

one rule per colour

most apps use colour for decoration, and then nothing means anything. underway keeps it scarce on purpose:

• gold: now. today's episode, the streak, the button before you press it.
• red: rolling. only while the camera or microphone is live.
• everything else: quiet neutrals, so your face is the brightest thing on the screen.

the logos of the tools underway reads, like github, your calendar, slack and whatsapp, are the one exception, and they are shown in their own colours, because that is how you recognise them.

faqs

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