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The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

nicholaswindsorhoward.com

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Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#11

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

It seems as if the web has influenced the latest round of GUI designs, especially the 'flat' design trend which has clearly harmed usability when it comes to things like buttons. This is handled better by Android's material design guidelines, but it's still a regression.

The problem with this approach is that the web has no guidelines whatsoever, beyond user-agent defaults. So each and every site does their own thing (whether 'good' or 'bad') and Apple (+ Google, etc.) decides to cherry-pick what is 'popular' or thought to 'look good', seemingly without thinking through the impact on usability. Or, possibly worse, they have considered the usability impact but deem the tradeoff worthwhile.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#13

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

Angostura wrote: post #4
codeulike wrote: post #2

Guidelines from 30 years ago dont necessarily get to remain guidelines. Cos stuff changes. We've been using guis for 20 or 30 years now. We dont need to pretend they have shadows or include a realistic depiction of some related artifact in the icon. People just get it now without all that clutter.

> People just get it now without all that clutter. That's certainly what the proponents of flat design contend. In terms of measuring usability, I'm not so sure that's true. I've seen people hunting for buttons that didn't quite look like buttons

It's not just the fact that "people can recognise a button even if it's flat" that is the issue (I often hear people making this argument) but that the differentiation between what is a button and what isn't (e.g. what is normal text) is reduced in flat design. It is possible to make 'non-buttons' work as buttons, but only if their function is clearly indicated via other means.

This is the beauty of the traditional, three-dimensional, consistently-styled buttons: you get a 'button' by default without having to hint that it's a button using other means.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#14

Post by hollander »

Many of the icons like Safari and iTunes haven't changed that much, just have progressed with current designs. Take a look at the Mozilla icons, or whatever app you're using like Evernote or LibreOffice. Do they remind me of a webbrowser or Office app? Not really. It's just that they are significantly different from other apps. After one or two times use, I remember what it looks like and that's all you need.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#15

Post by fredsted »

I like the minimalistic UI of El Capitan. It gets out of the way, and puts in focus what I really want to look at: the content, Web pages, my code, my photos. My computer is a tool, it's not an artwork I turn on to look at.

Buttons still look pushable, input fields still look editable. The Dock didn't lose any functionality whatsoever by having the 3D effect removed.

In my opinion, the El Cap UI requires just as much talent as the overdesigned (but very pretty) icons and graphics from the previous era. I don't miss the brushed metal and pinstripes, though.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#16

Post by krylon »

One thing I really dislike about 10.10 is that "maximizing" a window will - with a few exceptions - switch it to fullscreen. To maximize a window I need to press Alt while clicking the maximize-button. And there is not even an option to switch this behavior.

On a small laptop screen this behaviour might be preferable, but on a FullHD display, I find it rather annoying.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#17

Post by kalleboo »

dchest wrote: post #10

Above, on the left, you can see the creative, dazzling, H.G.-Wells-spirited Time Machine interface and icon of yesteryear, receding into radiant oblivion (complete with animated stars that drift toward you). Well-crafted, they stirred the right mood. On the right, observe what Apple bulldozed the old Time Machine for: a low-effort cartoony icon in place of the hatch to hyperspace, and a blurred desktop background wit…

My head wasn't, but the fans in my rMBP sure were. If I stayed in there too long it would start throttling down the CPU due to overheating.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#18

Post by CPLX »

I'm not sure how to tell this guy, but I'm over 40 years old and I have been using Apple computers literally since elementary school. At a certain point the reference to intuitive design can be to ones own past, if that past has become sufficiently ingrained and intuitive to users.

I thought the lament about the photo app dropping the icon that looks like a camera was particularly odd. He seems uninterested in even acknowledging the point that most cameras don't look like that anymore, and there are many (most?) full fledged adults who have never used a camera with a large attached lens.

I'd even wonder at this point if there are more people in the world familiar with Apple products than with actual apples that grow on trees, but I digress.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#19

Post by legulere »

fredsted wrote: post #15

I like the minimalistic UI of El Capitan. It gets out of the way, and puts in focus what I really want to look at: the content, Web pages, my code, my photos. My computer is a tool, it's not an artwork I turn on to look at. Buttons still look pushable, input fields still look editable. The Dock didn't lose any functionality whatsoever by having the 3D effect removed. In my opinion, the El Cap UI requires just as much…

> My computer is a tool, it's not an artwork I turn on to look at

Things looking better actually has a positive effect on usability.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#20

Post by Sylos »

Angostura wrote: post #4
codeulike wrote: post #2

Guidelines from 30 years ago dont necessarily get to remain guidelines. Cos stuff changes. We've been using guis for 20 or 30 years now. We dont need to pretend they have shadows or include a realistic depiction of some related artifact in the icon. People just get it now without all that clutter.

> People just get it now without all that clutter. That's certainly what the proponents of flat design contend. In terms of measuring usability, I'm not so sure that's true. I've seen people hunting for buttons that didn't quite look like buttons

The Stock-Android Contacts-app has a pretty big design-flaw like that. When you open up a contact, it shows you a list of the ways that you can talk to this person. So, either call them, write an SMS, write an e-mail etc.

And the Call-button is for whatever reason merged with the SMS-button. It's just one big button of which 4/5 is for calling and 1/5 to the right opens up the SMS-app. There is an icon representing SMS in that 1/5 of the button, but nothing indicates that it's a separate button from the 4/5 on the left.

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