Alan.app – Add a Border to macOS Active Window

https://tyler.io/2025/11/alan/

171•donatj•2mo ago

Comments

smcleod•2mo ago

This has been a serious problem since macOS Tahoe. Whoever signed off on the UI for Tahoe needs a serious schooling in UI/UX design principles - it's incredibly hostile to users. Not only does it make it impossible to distinguish between overlapping windows as this tool seeks to mitigate, there's many confusing UI elements and lack of contrast not to mention why it has so much padding on everything - you're left with far less usable space.

swyx•2mo ago

i cannot wait for OpenAIPhone and then OpenAIMac to come out and make Apple wake the fuck up

ed_mercer•2mo ago

If openai can pay their bills

aaronbrethorst•2mo ago

Ah yes, because Jony Ive definitely made iOS better when he was in charge of its look & feel and usability. :-|

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ios-7-interface-design-...

charles_f•2mo ago

Apple has favoured looks over function for quite a while now.

smcleod•2mo ago

That'd be true but it doesn't even look good!

linguae•2mo ago

Indeed. Here’s an article from Don Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things and former Apple employee, that talks about Apple’s decline in usability back in 2015:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-apples-products-so-confus...

Apple had usability experts like Bill Atkinson (RIP), Larry Tesler (RIP), Bruce Tognazzini, and Don Norman. At one point, what differentiated Apple products from competitors was Apple’s focus on usability and consistency. However, it seems that sometime during Apple’s revival under Steve Jobs, there became a big focus on appealing design. Beige desktops and black laptops gave way to colorful desktops and metallic laptops, and the Platinum interface was replaced with Aqua. Nothing was wrong with this; in fact, this was peak Apple, IMO, with usability and visual appeal. But somewhere along the line, Apple lost the plot. Apple became less about usability and more about visual appeal, but with usability taking a hit.

To be fair, Apple makes world-class hardware, and I still prefer macOS to its competitors. The problem is that I prefer 2000s Mac OS X and even the 1990s classic Mac OS (from a UI perspective, not necessarily a UX perspective due to stability issues) to modern macOS.

ori_b•2mo ago

They stopped favoring looks recently.

mhd•2mo ago

Seems everyone has. Which is weird, given how bad everything looks despite this focus.

I'm not sure what's going on in the design world. I mean, of course there's the influence of the web design spheres. The web didn't have the GUI standards that e.g. Macs were known for. In the beginning, they couldn't emulate the desktops. Toolkits like ExtJS tried, but you stated with the basic problem that you didn't know what desktop you wanted to emulate. Windows? Mac?

By the time the browser caught up, the damage already had been done, and the stop-gap solutions and styles more suitable for ads created a "web style". Flashy, flat, deserts of whitespace. The aesthetic stranglehold this had then not only persisted, but crossed over first into mobile (the somewhat standardized look & feel of early iOS quickly vanished), then the desktop.

And now nobody knows where they're going, despite having more people solely focused on "UX" than ever before. But you need to do something to justify your position/salary, and that's how we get the Microsoft/Apple designs of the last decade or so. And not having any ideas beyond type systems or init replacements, the open source world just emulates that.

gyomu•2mo ago

> Whoever signed off on the UI for Tahoe needs a serious schooling in UI/UX design principles

Their background is in marketing/packaging/retail design, and they were at Kate Spade before Apple.

https://a-g-i.org/user/alaindye/

It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine why someone from that world would prioritize things looking good in promotional photos/videos, and not care too much about human factors and fundamentals of interaction design.

varenc•2mo ago

Notably, their name is Alan (or sometimes Alain), which might be where this app gets its name?

MangoToupe•2mo ago

Blaming any one person doesn't seem very useful without extraordinary insight into the development process. It could be this approach was dictated, and it's not like the rest of the product team didn't have say, and it allows scapegoating them even if both the above are true.

gyomu•2mo ago

Being on the E team is literally about being the one person to blame when things aren’t right.

When you’re an exec in charge of a whole area, the buck stops with you and, to quote Steve Jobs - the reasons stop mattering.

As a user I don’t care about having “extraordinary insight into the development process”. All I know is you’re vice president of interface design and the interfaces are getting worse over time.

MangoToupe•2mo ago

Well that's all well and fine when you're trying to scapegoat someone in the corporate hierarchy, but it doesn't make very much sense to respect if you're trying to make sense of it in general.

lapcat•2mo ago

Isn't that the point of a hierarchy, though? The important decisions come from the top.

When I worked for someone else (now self-employed), some bugs were my fault. But with features and other intentional changes, the bosses had to sign off on them, and in some cases there were vigorous internal debates, but the bosses had the final say and could overrule objections.

MangoToupe•2mo ago

So you're saying we should blame the board, or stockholders, for this terrible design?

lapcat•2mo ago

In a vague sense, yes, but in a specific sense, no.

The stockholders do not make design decisions but only elect the board of directors. The board of directors do not make design decisions but only elect the CEO. The former CEO Steve Jobs did make design decisions, but the current CEO Tim Cook appears not to make design decisions, delegating that to subordinates. Alan Dye is Vice President of Human Interface Design at Apple. He does make design decisions; indeed that's in his job title. Dye previously reported to Jeff Williams, COO, but Williams just retired, so it's unclear who Dye reports to now. In any case, Dye is likely the person at Apple who has the final say on design decisions.

exe34•2mo ago

it bothers me when this kind of thing needs spelling out in such detail. the initial claim of scapegoating showed an incredibly childish world view and then when it was pointed out what this role was, they doubled down. do people really hold that kind of world view, or do they enjoy being contrarian?

rrgok•2mo ago

It is not scapegoating. It is actually helding people responsible for the huge compensation they are getting. If something is successful it is these people who gets the big bonus.

lenkite•2mo ago

> So you're saying we should blame the board, or stockholders, for this terrible design?

No, he is saying that we should blame the person who has command responsibility. It is pretty well-established principle in jurisprudence actually.

carlosjobim•2mo ago

Even when everyone is to blame, one person is to blame. That's why prime ministers resign when they can't hold together a government. That's why leaders step down.

There are tens of thousands of interface designers who would be able to make a better interface than what is Tahoe and iOS 26. One of them should have the job.

MangoToupe•2mo ago

Ok why this person, not the people who hired him, not the people who could have said no?

gruez•2mo ago

>not the people who hired him

So if you hired a plumber to install a new faucet or whatever, and he totally fucks up (eg. floods your entire kitchen), you're saying we shouldn't blame him, we should blame... you, for hiring him in the first place?

>not the people who could have said no?

Going to the plumber example, you're saying that you should be hovering over him to catch any mistakes? Isn't the whole point of hiring a professional is that you don't have to worry about stuff like this? If you're able-bodied and are going to have to supervise the whole thing, why bother hiring someone?

carlosjobim•2mo ago

If Apple as a whole is a disaster, then Tim Cook needs to be fired.

If Mac as a whole is a disaster, then whoever is responsible of that needs to be fired.

If Mac hardware is a disaster, then whoever is responsible of that needs to be fired.

If Mac software is a disaster, then whoever is responsible of that needs to be fired.

If Mac software UI design is a disaster, then whoever is responsible of that needs to be fired.

And of course the people above are responsible as well. But in this case there's a very obvious project which has failed.

itopaloglu83•2mo ago

Similarly, when you switch to another app via command+tab, the keyboard events are being sent to the previous app for a couple of hundred milliseconds.

I cannot remember the number of times I quit the wrong app because of this or pasted something to the wrong window. I genuinely have to wait a second on every app switch.

AaronFriel•2mo ago

This also happens on switching virtual desktops, even with reduce animations there is a 100ms+ delay before any input on the new desktop will be sent to the correct app.

normie3000•2mo ago

It seems mindbending that this would pass any stage of testing. As a non macOS user, this feels like a complete dealbreaker for ever considering a switch. But macOS is demonstrably popular, and I haven't heard this complaint before. Is it less of an issue in reality than I imagine it would be?

thenthenthen•2mo ago

I have an electric moped that delays the throttle 500ms after the brakes have been pressed and released. Terrifying in corners now and again

hulitu•2mo ago

Windows also has problems with mouse clicks and window stacking. And an ugly bug, when closing a window with the mouse on "x" button, will also close the window below.

venturecruelty•2mo ago

Software isn't written for users anymore, unfortunately. Users are merely an annoying side effect that attempts to impede the line going up.

bromuro•2mo ago

I must be out of the loop - i’m using Tahoe since few months now and I haven’t noticed any difference in what you are saying.

throw-the-towel•2mo ago

Somehow it's so cute that the name of the app is, well, a name.

tailspin2019•2mo ago

Maybe derived from “a line”?

nexton•2mo ago

As an Aussie, I assumed it was a reference to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Border

andrewshadura•2mo ago

My understanding it's a reference to Steve Coogan, who played Alan Partridge, who in one episode sees a friend called Dan, and starts shouting his name, but Dan doesn't react. Alan proceeds shouting: Dan! Dan! DAN! and eventually gives up. This scene was later parodied in a BBC programme about animals, where one animal shouts Alan! Alan! ALAN! and then realises the name's wrong: STEVE!

mbreese•2mo ago

In reading more from this guy's blog, he also wrote a game called "Steve".

https://stevethegame.com/

andrewshadura•2mo ago

Has he also written a Dan?

nreilly•2mo ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Border Is a pretty famous cricketer.

devjam•2mo ago

That was my first thought too! but then realised Allan Border has a double L, while the app's name is "Alan"

steve_adams_86•2mo ago

I believe it's named after a guy who likely influenced the direction of the macOS UI such that this app's development was necessitated in the first place.

glebd•2mo ago

I think it’s a reference to Alan Dye, who screwed design and usability of xOS 26 so epically that an app like Alan became necessary.

who-shot-jr•2mo ago

There is also https://github.com/FelixKratz/JankyBorders

Bizarre that this has not been fixed by Apple, it has been an annoyance well before Tahoe. Relying on the three dots in the top left corner to see which window is on top gets frustrating.

phantasmish•2mo ago

Oh damn, this has been causing me trouble when working in half-and-half and quartered windows as recently as this week. I’ll be installing the one you linked, or the one the thread-link points to. Thanks, didn’t occur to me this would be a thing but of course it is.

Atreiden•2mo ago

Always glad to see more software in the window management space, especially for MacOS.

Any reason to use this over JankyBorders? I'm using it alongside Aerospace right now and forget sometimes it isn't built-in. Kind of weird to me that after all this time this is such a sparsely implemented feature. But the combo with Aerospace works well. Only thing missing is support in Aerospace for a toggle to have a window expand to the size of it's container. Really liked that feature in Yabai, made working with multiple tiled terminals really nice

qyron•2mo ago

One difference can be seen right away - when moving a window, border made by JankyBorders moves smoothly together with window, unlike with this app.

The implementation is probably different.

evaneykelen•2mo ago

I’m surprised this feature isn’t part of the built-in Accessibility Settings. Neat little app!

treetalker•2mo ago

A similar app I really like is HazeOver, which is a configurable dimmer for everything on the screen except the front window.

https://hazeover.com/

CharlesW•2mo ago

HazeOver is great, even when configured to be very subtle.

zaius•2mo ago

That is an A+ demo video - dimming the background of the page in sync with the effects in the video is very clever.

jandy•2mo ago

That was surprisingly awesome.

lanewinfield•2mo ago

I love how the site reflects the darkness of the screen in the youtube video. nice touch!

c-hendricks•2mo ago

Been using it ever since trying out the similar effect in KDE.

vintagedave•2mo ago

I use this, and absolutely recommend it. I am scared if it gets too much attention it will be Sherlocked, but I would love it Apple was able to ethically acquire and include it in macOS.

mickelsen•2mo ago

This one was nice, pity it was never updated: https://github.com/dwarvesf/blurred

mike31fr•2mo ago

Seems nice but I'm afraid it would not be compatible with my main work setup: VS Code on my main monitor, my web browser on my external monitor, and my eyes going back and forth between these 2 windows every few seconds to either read code or check the effects on the hot-reloading app. If one of the windows is dimmed, it would be painful.

swah•2mo ago

Then you don't need a focus app, I'd say. But HazeOver has some "rules" that could help you. I agree that it only makes sense for me, on a single big display. If I'm using the MBP 14" one, I'm always maximized...

l5870uoo9y•2mo ago

Am I the only one who can't see what the problem is in that screencast? Click on the window you want to use or tab through until you find the right one.

Jeremy1026•2mo ago

This is great, but do wish the border followed the radius of the native window's corners.

phren0logy•2mo ago

The recent direction of MacOS has been a good excuse to try out a few new linux distros. As someone who was away from linux for a while, the degree of UI customization continues to be both amazing and a little overwhelming, but it feels more polished than before. Taking a look at Niri and hyperland, it's hard to feel satisfied with the UI of MacOS.

bsnnkv•2mo ago

Took a look at this and it feels like it is implemented using public macOS frameworks so it shouldn't break between macOS updates

My guess is that kAXWindowMovedNotification, kAXWindowResizedNotification, kAXMainWindowChangedNotification etc. are being listened to on the currently focused window using the Accessibility framework, and there is a callback which gets the latest position of the tracked window whenever it is fired, and uses that position as a reference to update the border position

The border window itself is most likely an NSWindow, which is why the tracking of the border with the target window feels quite sluggish

tylerhall•2mo ago

Developer of the app here. You’re correct. Accessibility APIs + timer + transparent top-level NSWindow that ignores input and draws a border.

bsnnkv•2mo ago

Fwiw I think this is the right approach. The trade-off between stability across OS updates vs tracking performance is a no-brainer for me - the absolute last thing that I would want is a deluge of bug reports with no other information than "it stopped working" when Apple pushes out an update

hyperhello•2mo ago

As a developer I would interpret that as "try it in the new OS and you will immediately see what is wrong so there is no reason for me to write a tedious and unnecessary message to you".

Angostura•2mo ago

Very nice idea, thank you for developing it. With an M1 iMac, though the window border lags the position of the window quite a lot if you drag it around, so probably not usable for me.

AshamedCaptain•2mo ago

I really ponder what is the usecase here that requires dragging windows "quite a lot" and also makes a lagging window border "not usable".

Angostura•2mo ago

You seldom resize, or drag windows?

OGEnthusiast•2mo ago

Some lag is probably going to be unavoidable with a third-party app. The only way to have perfect synchronization of window dragging/resizing and the border is for macOS to implement this as a first-party feature.

inatreecrown2•2mo ago

I thought I take a look at the code, but I can only find readme and license?

tylerflick•2mo ago

PopOS's Cosmic DE has this baked in. I was unsure about the feature at first, but it has proved itself useful. I wonder if this will eventually be Shirlocked into macOS.

charles_f•2mo ago

I also created a hammerspoon script to do that. Especially when you're using a tiling window manager like aerospace, it's quite useful.

https://gist.github.com/cfe84/901411ee43450e7ee0e50e88cf029f...

ivanjermakov•2mo ago

Ugh, the delay between the window and border moving is crazy. About as crazy as not having this as an accessibility option.

jbverschoor•2mo ago

Insane that we need this because some people who don’t actually use macOS make decisions and implement things at Apple.

It’s probably the highest crime within Apple to state some things are not useable

jaffa2•2mo ago

Excellent. Can you do something about the 5px wide scroll bar?

nesk_•2mo ago

You can: https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/make-scroll-bars-always-vis...

jaffa2•2mo ago

This makes them always visble. But you still need eagle eyes and motor skills of a high end athlete to actually click on the darn thing. Fitts law? Actual usability?

hxorr•2mo ago

It seems we have come full circle back to Win 95 days...

satvikpendem•2mo ago

I want the opposite, I want to remove that annoying drop shadow from the active window, something that does not exist in other OS UIs like Windows. It's simply distracting to me.

placatedmayhem•2mo ago

Does the Reduce Transparency option in Accessibility remove the drop shadow? If it does, I'd expect it to be all windows, but might satisfy your desire here.

satvikpendem•2mo ago

It does not, unfortunately. It's baked into macOS and is extremely difficult to remove, requiring all sorts of hacks which break at each OS release.

c-hendricks•2mo ago

Hm? Windows has a drop shadow, GNOME has a drop shadow, KDE has a drop shadow.

satvikpendem•2mo ago

You can disable it there, but not so in macOS.

mandrade2•2mo ago

need this for my tmux panes!

brontitall•2mo ago

In the default config, tmux panes _do_ have a highlighted border. It takes a bit to get used to how it’s done when there’s only 2 panes though (half the border is highlighted for each pane)

hibajiri•2mo ago

I’m using this app: BorderMe – Where’s My Window? https://apps.apple.com/app/borderme-wheres-my-window/id67450...

Different apps on macOS use different corner radii, so I’m wondering whether the apps can use any API to get the exact window bounds in order to draw the correct corner radius.

WorldPeas•2mo ago

if you do not wish to install another app, check "increase contrast" in the mac settings under accessibility>display. it will draw borders around windows and text entries. Much welcomed.

forlorn•2mo ago

Thank you. Each time I see an app that does the smallest change possible (and it's a MacOS-only thing by the way) I think to myself: Does it have to be an APP?

Not a script, not a configuration, but an actual app that occupies space and RAM and does just that? How had somebody come to this weird idea that everything is an APP?

aegypti•2mo ago

Because that’s been the user convention for 30 years since the day Mac OS 10 was released.

People do not want to manage scripts and configurations in esoteric locations. They want to drag and drop app bundles into the trash from the apps folder.

This is trivially found out after 5 minutes with a user.

urbandw311er•2mo ago

But the parent poster wasn’t recommending a script or a configuration, they were sharing a really easy way to do it by clicking a checkbox in the Settings App.

WorldPeas•2mo ago

KDE does this well though, just make the configuration system modular so in settings you can download, install and manage someone else's windowing and styling from within the system settings panel. Perhaps that wouldn't work so well outside Linux's trust ecosystem

pratyahava•2mo ago

Thank you so much! I did not know I needed it! Still it does not help much to see which window is active right now (Sequoia), but makes overall experience easier.

spiffotron•2mo ago

this actually looks amazing as well, feels very vaguely a bit like classic macos

alsetmusic•2mo ago

I run a tool that I like much better both in terms of not being distracting on-screen and reducing the light blasting my eyes:

https://hazeover.com

I'm not affiliated, but I love it and recommended it to friends.

replwoacause•2mo ago

Same came here to post this. One of the first things I install.

gorbypark•2mo ago

Does it work in dark mode? I guess if it does it would have to make the background apps brighter?

nixpulvis•2mo ago

Just let people run sway on macOS.

nothrowaways•2mo ago

3 similar apps already! Apple and big tech UI designers should read this thread.

steve_adams_86•2mo ago

It seems to work well generally, but it breaks with Ghostty. The border seems to cover around 60px (vertically) along the bottom of the window, though covers it properly horizontally. I don't see any other issues, though.

Love the name!

meesles•2mo ago

It might be the age thing, honestly. I'm past 30, and recently I changed my cursor coloring to bright orange/yellow because I was genuinely spending time trying to find my white cursor on all my white backgrounds (Github, some text editors, Notion, etc). I think I'll continue to adopt some of these tools since they just increase comfort and remove strain for tasks I do 100s of times a day.

mitchell209•2mo ago

I have to switch to the black / white outline cursor or I will guaranteed lose my cursor. I also bump up the size significantly. Any time I use a coworker's computer station I lose the cursor for a second.

addaon•2mo ago

"Shake mouse pointer to locate" is also nice.

port11•2mo ago

“We are all temporarily abled.”

Good reminder to make things accessible by default, for the vast majority that can benefit from it.

Tyler, I'd pay 5€ for this app btw.

mstaoru•2mo ago

In a similar vein, but different concept - https://hazeover.com/ - dimming inactive windows.

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