HN Showcase
Back to browse
I redesigned Activity Monitor's dock icon to look native

I redesigned Activity Monitor's dock icon to look native

by rokgregoric·Mar 22, 2026·3 points·0 comments
Visit ProjectView on HN

AI Analysis

●MidCozy

Nice visual polish, but it's just an icon — no functional improvement over the default.

Strengths
  • •Notices and fixes a genuine UX inconsistency in macOS system UI.
  • •Clean execution that matches Apple's design language.
Weaknesses
  • •Extremely narrow scope — literally just one icon, no actual functionality.
  • •No distribution method mentioned; unclear how users would install this.
Category
Design
Target Audience

macOS power users who keep Activity Monitor in their dock

Post Description

Hey HN,

I like keeping Activity Monitor in my dock, but the default icon always felt off. It technically shows activity, but visually it doesn’t feel like it belongs in macOS — more like a raw canvas than a proper system icon.

So I rebuilt it.

Same app, same data — just a dock icon that looks and behaves like a native macOS component, with a clean, readable CPU graph.

No new features, just fixing how it looks and feels.

Curious if others noticed this too, or if it never bothered you.

https://x.com/rokgregoric/status/2035638066853908844?s=20

https://x.com/rokgregoric/status/2035641264461304028?s=20

Similar Projects

Productivity●●Solid

Focus windows by scrolling or looking at another monitor

Scroll-to-Focus uses a CGEventTap + AXUIElement to raise the exact window under the cursor, while Eye Tracking feeds webcam frames to Vision and blends head yaw + pupil offset for per-monitor focus — a tidy mix of low-level macOS APIs and ML-ish heuristics. Real-world details are handled too (calibration flow, sound/notification feedback), but expect friction from macOS permissions and the webcam requirement.

WizardryNiche Gem
AquiGorka
104mo ago