On Thoughtful Design: The iTunes’s Downloads tab

I was just updating my podcasts tonight and it hit me. The iTunes Downloads tab is nicely designed. It only shows when either (a) you’ve got something downloading, or (b) you were already on it, watching something download, and then it finished, and you haven’t clicked anywhere else.
This is a good design, because were the tab to disappear right after my downloads had finished, then I wouldn’t know which new podcasts had come in unless I scanned the Podcasts tab (or TV shows etc) for little dots indicating the files had not been heard, and knew which episodes I already had. But it doesn’t become a chore to clean up either, because as soon as I click off the Downloads tab to, say, Podcasts, it disappears (and cleans itself up in the process).

I love it.