TOLANI SMITH

Engineering Dynamic Island Animations

Enhancing Streaming Experience for Disney+ Subscribers

Engineering Dynamic Island Animations

Problem Statement:
iPhones 14 Pro and newer, feature a new element, called the Dynamic Island, the pill shaped bar at the top of your screen. This Dynamic Island however, is limited in its current capabilities. To be truly dynamic, it needs to more versatile!

Problem Statement:

Created designs to facilitate in enhancing user engagement, creating stronger emotional impacts, and identify storytelling opportunities through Disney+ on web and mobile platforms.

Problem Statement:
iPhones 14 Pro and newer, feature a new element, called the Dynamic Island, the pill shaped bar at the top of your screen. This Dynamic Island however, is limited in its current capabilities. To be truly dynamic, it needs to more versatile!

Software Engineering Internship

Role: SWE Intern


Timeline: May 2023 - August 2023 (12 weeks)


Tools: Objective-C, XCode, Internal Testing Device


Location: Cupertino, CA


Team: iPadOS/iOS SystemUI Multitasking Experience


Device(s): Mobile

Role: SWE Intern


Timeline: May 2023 - August 2023 (12 weeks)


Tools: Objective-C, XCode, Internal Testing Device


Location: Cupertino, CA


Team: iPadOS/iOS SystemUI Multitasking Experience


Device(s): Mobile

Role: SWE Intern


Timeline: May 2023 - August 2023 (12 weeks)


Tools: Objective-C, XCode, Internal Testing Device


Location: Cupertino, CA


Team: iPadOS/iOS SystemUI Multitasking Experience


Device(s): Mobile

The specifics of this project are confidential, thus the details are not explained ๐Ÿค’

The specifics of this project are confidential, thus the details are not explained ๐Ÿค’

Challenges

  • Learning Objective-Cโ€‹ was a major challenge but fun to do small mini projects early in my internship to try to get adjusted to the language.

  • Reaching out to other teams to understand how to implement my animation framework into another code block to get my design to animate.

  • Building an animation was a really cool experience but physics were involved ๐Ÿคฏ.

  • The Dynamic Island lives within a very complex system so understanding how to navigate that was difficult for sure.

Takeaways

  • Taught myself how to code in Objective-C (๐Ÿค’) and familiarized myself with the complex system that the Dynamic Island lives within.โ€‹

  • First intern and third Apple engineer to work on the Dynamic Island. Programmed the new animation to be called by a specific element.

  • Worked beside the Human Interaction team to design the animation and designed a framework for the animation to be customizable so that it would be appropriate for other uses. 

  • Presented final project in front of 40+ managers and directors at Apple.

  • My introduction to HCI!

  • The picture above is pretty cool ๏ฃฟ

  • Taught myself how to code in Objective-C (๐Ÿค’) and familiarized myself with the complex system that the Dynamic Island lives within.โ€‹

  • First intern and third Apple engineer to work on the Dynamic Island. Programmed the new animation to be called by a specific element.

  • Worked beside the Human Interaction team to design the animation and designed a framework for the animation to be customizable so that it would be appropriate for other uses. 

  • Presented final project in front of 40+ managers and directors at Apple.

  • My introduction to HCI!

  • The picture above is pretty cool ๏ฃฟ

Process


Understanding

Understanding First step is understanding what the Dynamic Island is and how it works for users as well as how the present animations are coded

Understanding

Understanding First step is understanding what the Dynamic Island is and how it works for users as well as how the present animations are coded

Inception

Working alongside the Human Interface team to decide what kind of animation to create. Learning to code in Objective-C to fit the rest of the code base for this project

Iterations

Starting with creating a framework for the animation. Testing it with the Human Interface team to create a customizable, easy to integrate animation. Selecting a specific experience to be enhance by my animation

Iterations

Starting with creating a framework for the animation. Testing it with the Human Interface team to create a customizable, easy to integrate animation. Selecting a specific experience to be enhance by my animation

Presentation

Prepared and presented and demoed animation to 50+ managers, VP's, and engineers.

Presentation

Prepared and presented and demoed animation to 50+ managers, VP's, and engineers.


The specifics of this project are confidential, thus the details are not explained


The specifics of this project are confidential, thus the details are not explained


The specifics of this project are confidential, thus the details are not explained

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TOLANI SMITH

๐Ÿ’ฌ Let's chat:

๐ŸŒ LinkedIn

๐Ÿ“ง tolanism@umich.edu

ยฉ Tolani Smith

TOLANI SMITH

๐Ÿ’ฌ Let's chat:

๐ŸŒ LinkedIn

๐Ÿ“ง tolanism@umich.edu

ยฉ Tolani Smith

TOLANI SMITH

๐Ÿ’ฌ Let's chat:

๐ŸŒ LinkedIn

๐Ÿ“ง tolanism@umich.edu

ยฉ Tolani Smith 2026