Back to Diary

Prepared for iOS App Store launch with major UI polish

ImplementationBug Fix
9 sessions3 commits#app-store #ios #android #icons #design-system #stickers

Development Diary - December 30, 2025

📋Daily Summary

Intensive day focused on iOS App Store launch preparation. Major UI polish across Notes, Boards, and Designs pages including icon redesign, shadow improvements, and layout adjustments. Fixed critical Android sticker extraction issue with transparent backgrounds. Also started cross-platform consistency research between iOS and Android.


🕐Work Sessions

Session 1: Early Morning UI Polish (3:07 AM - 5:25 AM)

Focus: Board Icons and Shadow Improvements

Activities:

  • Added board-representing icons to board list page (dimmed 50%)
  • Adjusted padding and sizing for board notes
  • Added subtle shadows to boards for visibility
  • Updated documentation

Key Prompts:

  • "in board list page, render icon that represent the board in the bottom right side"
  • "let's give a slight shadow to boards in Boards page"
  • "make the shadow darker"

Session 2: Board Note Styling (3:20 AM - 5:46 AM)

Focus: Consistent Note Appearance in Boards

Activities:

  • Aligned board notes styling with Notes page
  • Removed labels from notes inside boards
  • Adjusted icon transparency on Notes page

Key Prompts:

  • "on Boards page, notes inside boards should follow the design looks of notes in Notes page"
  • "don't show labels in notes in boards"

Session 3: Icon System Redesign (5:25 AM - 5:51 AM)

Focus: Label Icon Assessment

Activities:

  • Listed and reviewed 20 label icons
  • Researched dual icon system for notes (small/simple) and boards (expressive)
  • Chose hybrid approach for icon redesign

Key Prompts:

  • "let's come up with two different icons for note and board each for the label"

Session 4: Label Manager Redesign (5:48 AM)

Focus: Clean UI Design

Activities:

  • Redesigned Update Label menu following iOS design guidelines

Session 5: Main Development Session (5:59 AM - 6:40 PM)

Focus: Icon Implementation and Launch Prep

Activities:

  • Implemented new Phosphor icons with gradient colors for boards
  • Added label icons to note edit page
  • Debugged character sticker generation issue
  • Started RevenueCat integration research
  • Decided to launch as free app first for initial testing
  • Researched cross-platform consistency between iOS and Android

Key Prompts:

  • "let's use phosphor icons for board icons as well but add color"
  • "character sticker is not generated when creating a new design. debug this"
  • "let's put a placeholder for RevenueCat and launch this app as a free app"
  • "this is what I'm seeing. iOS left and Android right. they look significantly different"

Session 6: Note Editor Fixes (6:10 AM - 8:27 AM)

Focus: Background and Layout Issues

Activities:

  • Moved Edited bar to bottom of screen
  • Investigated background fill gap issue
  • Added padding to note edit page
  • Fixed thin background color line below accent

Key Prompts:

  • "inspect how and where the background is defined and set compared to the frame"

Session 7: App Assessment (5:16 PM - 6:43 PM)

Focus: Quality Assessment and Designs Page

Activities:

  • Ran thorough app quality assessment using world-class developer frameworks
  • Updated Designs page to show My Designs instead of presets
  • Removed redundant UI elements

Key Prompts:

  • "let's run a thorough assessment of the app"
  • "on Designs page, instead of presets show My Designs"

Session 8: Android Sticker Fix (9:38 PM - 11:06 PM)

Focus: Cross-Platform Compatibility

Activities:

  • Fixed Android sticker extraction with transparent backgrounds
  • Enhanced prompting for transparency

Key Prompts:

  • "on Android version, new design generation doesn't get the character sticker properly"

Session 9: Android Code Review (9:39 PM - 11:02 PM)

Focus: Android Quality Assurance

Activities:

  • Ran code review for Android app
  • Updated unit tests to match implementation

🏷️Categorized Work

Implementation

  • iOS App Store launch preparation (112 files, 17,813 lines)
  • Board icon system with Phosphor icons and gradient colors
  • Label icons on note edit page
  • Updated Designs page to show My Designs
  • Component library (Icon, Button, TextInput, BottomSheet, TagPill)
  • Theme tokens system (colors, spacing, typography, effects)

Bug Fix

  • Android sticker extraction with transparent backgrounds
  • Unit tests updated to match current implementation
  • Background fill and accent line issues

Research

  • Cross-platform iOS/Android consistency
  • App quality assessment frameworks

📸Screenshots

No screenshots captured for this session


💡Insights & Learnings

Decision: Launch as free app first for initial testing before integrating RevenueCat payments.

Learning: Android and iOS render designs differently - requires platform-specific adjustments.

Decision: Used hybrid icon approach - simple icons for notes, expressive gradient icons for boards.


📊Statistics

🕐
9
Sessions
📝
3
Commits
📁
122
Files Changed
19,461
Lines Added
4,419
Lines Deleted
🏷️
Implementation
Primary Category

🎯Tomorrow's Focus

  • Continue cross-platform consistency work
  • Complete iOS App Store submission
  • Test Android sticker extraction fixes

Generated with ToonNotes Development Diary