an open letter to the person at apple who made the airplane mode animation

dear person at apple who made the airplane mode animation,

hello!

i recently got an iphone for the first time and also just recently got on a plane, which meant that i had the chance to notice your handiwork—when you turn off airplane mode, the airplane flies away.

i would like you to know that this brought me an unreasonable amount of joy.

why did it bring me such joy? well, the amount of joy being unreasonable, it is a little hard to name a reason. but if i had to guess, it has something to do with the fact that it felt…human? yeah, that’s it. it felt like a human had made it. i think there is a way in which software that is designed for everyone feels somewhat…impersonal. i imagine that it is unavoidable—for something to work for everyone, it has to land somewhere in the intersection of what people understand given their personal life experiences, which only gets smaller as you add more people. and then you end up with something that works, but is unopinionated. invisible, by design. i actually think this is probably a good thing to some degree—

sorry, i’m rambling. there are a lot of things i could say about the impersonal technology thing, but that’s not really the point, is it? i just wanted to thank you for fighting for this little bit of whimsy. that little animation didn’t have to exist, you know? but you made it anyway, just so someone like me could delight in it.

you remind me that we are human, in the way that we like to stash little secrets into the things we make for others.
it was nice to be reminded.

thanks,
kaylee