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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

#91

Post by carlosrg »

coldtea wrote: post #77
rekshaw wrote: post #61

Currently, on the same front page on HN there is an article: Humans once opposed coffee and refrigeration: why we often hate new stuff. This applies perfectly to you, dear self-righteous blog author.

By the same logic you can dismiss every critique. Not everything new is an improvement.

Every single article on HN with a little of criticism of Apple gets the same kind of responses and becomes basically a giant appeal to novelty fallacy. You're against progress, it's new so it's better, Apple knows best, etc.

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

#92

Post by Sean1708 »

Shengbo wrote: post #29

I have to disagree with the author. I understand his frustration with some of the icon choices(Photos, Game center, etc.) but most of the things he's grieving for are just tacky. The leopard pattern on the OSX box and the overly cluttered illustration with the galaxy background, glassy surfaced "X", icons and lens flare would look especially stupid in 2016. I'm glad they removed all the silly shadows, 3d effects and…

Also note that he's conveniently forgotten to mention Calculator, Calendar, Contacts, Dictionary, iTunes, Maps, and others that I can't be arsed to list, all of which have managed to get that flat look style while still being an image of their real-world counterpart.

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

#93

Post by 24gttghh »

56k wrote: post #28

This article doesn't make any sense. The use of metaphors worked when people didn't know what a computer was, and the only way to make its UI make sense was to mimic real-world objects. Now, this is no longer necessary. It's been 40 years. While I agree that new macOS icons aren't great (see the Game Center icon), the old ones were silly. I'm 35 and I have probably seen an actual contact book only once when I was lit…

What's wrong with keeping a little history alive?

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

#94

Post by SlashmanX »

phoboslab wrote: post #33
56k wrote: post #28

This article doesn't make any sense. The use of metaphors worked when people didn't know what a computer was, and the only way to make its UI make sense was to mimic real-world objects. Now, this is no longer necessary. It's been 40 years. While I agree that new macOS icons aren't great (see the Game Center icon), the old ones were silly. I'm 35 and I have probably seen an actual contact book only once when I was lit…

> I'm 35 and I have probably seen an actual contact book once when I was little. It doesn't make sense to have a skeuomorphic contact book as an icon for Contacts. There was a rhetoric not too long ago where OSx fanboys would make fun of Windows' interfaces for still using the disk icon as the "save" button. Now that guy is complaining that the photos app icon doesn't look like a Point And Shoot camera, when fewer an…

> Now that guy is complaining that the photos app icon doesn't look like a Point And Shoot camera, when fewer and fewer people use those.

The old icon also had a photo on it though which made it clear it was the Photo's app, even if you don't know what the other thing is in the icon at all.

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

#95

Post by coldtea »

EliRivers wrote: post #83
coldtea wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 40 years ago, the majority of people using computers knew what they were doing. You think that 10 and 20 year olds growing up with computers and even smartphones available for all of their life, know less of computers than people in the past? Even a 7 year old that plays games can almost run circles around a 1980s propellerhead computer programmer in using a GUI. Compared to regular people (e.g. office workers) fro…

You think that 10 and 20 year olds growing up with computers and even smartphones available for all of their life, know less of computers than people in the past? Most of them don't know a thing about computers. It's a magic box with a small selection of shiny buttons on. They use it for passive media consumption. Even a 7 year old that plays games can almost run circles around a 1980s propellerhead computer programm…

>Most of them don't know a thing about computers. It's a magic box with a small selection of shiny buttons on. They use it for passive media consumption.

You'd be surprised.

Except by "know about computers" you mean they known about interrupts, and cache lines, and filesystem design, and other stuff that are completely inconsequential to using their computers.

>Well, they clearly forget by the time they're twenty.

Actually the linked article states the opposite:

>"This current generation of young people has never lived without tech," said Linda Rosen, CEO of Change the Equation. "It's second nature to them." Yet, using technology for social reasons doesn't make a person adept at using it in other settings, she said.

So it's not that they "forgot" something, it's that they never bothered to learn it in the first place, e.g. Excel or whatever. But computers, for what they do like to use them for, are "second nature" to them according to TFA.

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

#96

Post by [deleted] »

Angostura wrote: post #66
56k wrote: post #28

This article doesn't make any sense. The use of metaphors worked when people didn't know what a computer was, and the only way to make its UI make sense was to mimic real-world objects. Now, this is no longer necessary. It's been 40 years. While I agree that new macOS icons aren't great (see the Game Center icon), the old ones were silly. I'm 35 and I have probably seen an actual contact book only once when I was lit…

> The use of metaphors worked when people didn't know what a computer was, and the only way to make its UI make sense was to mimic real-world objects. I disagree strongly. If you were new to a machine, is there anything in the new Photos icon that tells you that it anything to do with images, photos or image manipulation? No. The new icon for Pages is fine by the way,

[deleted]

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

#97

Post by mmustapic »

Angostura wrote: post #66
56k wrote: post #28

This article doesn't make any sense. The use of metaphors worked when people didn't know what a computer was, and the only way to make its UI make sense was to mimic real-world objects. Now, this is no longer necessary. It's been 40 years. While I agree that new macOS icons aren't great (see the Game Center icon), the old ones were silly. I'm 35 and I have probably seen an actual contact book only once when I was lit…

> The use of metaphors worked when people didn't know what a computer was, and the only way to make its UI make sense was to mimic real-world objects. I disagree strongly. If you were new to a machine, is there anything in the new Photos icon that tells you that it anything to do with images, photos or image manipulation? No. The new icon for Pages is fine by the way,

> is there anything in the new Photos icon that tells you that it anything to do with images, photos or image manipulation

Yes, it says "Photos" below it

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

#98

Post by gimboland »

mmustapic wrote: post #97
Angostura wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The use of metaphors worked when people didn't know what a computer was, and the only way to make its UI make sense was to mimic real-world objects. I disagree strongly. If you were new to a machine, is there anything in the new Photos icon that tells you that it anything to do with images, photos or image manipulation? No. The new icon for Pages is fine by the way,

> is there anything in the new Photos icon that tells you that it anything to do with images, photos or image manipulation Yes, it says "Photos" below it

Cool, so we don't need icons at all!

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

#99

Post by mkagenius »

rekshaw wrote: post #61

Currently, on the same front page on HN there is an article: Humans once opposed coffee and refrigeration: why we often hate new stuff. This applies perfectly to you, dear self-righteous blog author.

While in case of re-decorating ones own house with a new color/theme always seem better to oneself.

Maybe people get bored of looking at the same thing for long time at a stretch and hence anything new looks much better to our brains.

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

#100

Post by philjohn »

0942v8653 wrote: post #36

Note: This is my personal opinion! I recently had to use a computer with OS X Mavericks on it (10.9 I think). I was struck by how beautiful the interface was. I'm having trouble finding a good screenshot illustrating this, but compare http://content.gcflearnfree.org/topics/243/2013_new_desktop.... http://download.softwsp.com/sites/12/2015/11/os-x-el-capitan... Everything just looks better on Mavericks. The gradients…

I find the UI in Mavericks overly fussy and cluttered. Horses for courses though, you like what you like.
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