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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

#121

Post by franze »

I'm writing this post form an late 2015 Mac Book Retina (not air, not pro). The mac book stands on a book, a small fan points to it's back so that I can write this. Without this the machine would get to hot, which results into a slower user interaction (think: write a letter, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, letter appears on the screen). On the left hand side a huge adapter (99EUR) is plugged in. It enables me to plug into an USB device and the charger. I do a lot of presentations. so basically the adapter is part of the machine. The color of the keyboard begins slowly to fade. Especially the "S" is now more grey than black. The Max Book is advertised to have a battery lifetime of 8 to 10 hours, I normally get up to 4, sometimes less.

It's garbage!

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

#122

Post by CatsoCatsoCatso »

alex_hitchins wrote: post #76
CatsoCatsoCatso wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me the old yellow colour implies that the notes taken within the app are for easy disposal and will be poorly organised - just like how yellow paper is used primarily for quick throw-away notes and scribbles in reality (at least here in the UK). The Notes app is far better than that, the white it uses now implies a more permanent organised feel which better reflects the app. The texts I store within it are import…

Where do you buy your notebooks? I've never come across yellow paper except in US media. I'd always assumed it was dyed yellow to hide poor quality paper. Is there any truth in this?

I've not had a yellow notebook for a long time, but in my view right now I have 5 stacks of yellow sticky-pads (aka post-it notes), some of which are A5, notebook sized.

When I buy cheap recycled-paper notebooks the paper is often off-white and has a yellow look to it. At least to me; yellow implies disposability or cheapness.

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

#123

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast »

arrrg wrote: post #3

It’s not that important a point, but legal pads are a very US phenomena. I’m German and I have never ever seen a yellow pad like that in person. The current notes icon (with white paper) is much more in line with the note pads you would encounter in Germany. Paper people write on to take notes is typically just white. Maybe bound with a spiral on the left or top (and perforated paper to tear off), maybe glued togethe…

I'm an American and I've certainly seen plenty of white paper pads glued together at the top like the dude complains about.

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

#124

Post by toxik »

carlosrg wrote: post #87
terda12 wrote: post #39

OS X looks better than ever. Yeah I agree with Notepad and Photos icons looking not good but everything else is perfect. I'm typing this on an OSX right now and it just looks great. Worst part of the article by far was > OS X packaging, once very elegant and eccentric (and printed on a physical box), has become thoroughly unremarkable. This is 2016, no one uses CD's anymore. And that leopard print box design looks li…

>leopard print box design looks like packaging for some kinky underwear It's funny witnessing how certain people that a couple years ago considered Apple designs the pinnacle of design and far ahead of everything else using the same arguments today that Windows fans used.

Perhaps it was never about the arguments themselves, but rather their veracity.

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

#125

Post by Symbiote »

CatsoCatsoCatso wrote: post #44
arrrg wrote: post #3

It’s not that important a point, but legal pads are a very US phenomena. I’m German and I have never ever seen a yellow pad like that in person. The current notes icon (with white paper) is much more in line with the note pads you would encounter in Germany. Paper people write on to take notes is typically just white. Maybe bound with a spiral on the left or top (and perforated paper to tear off), maybe glued togethe…

For me the old yellow colour implies that the notes taken within the app are for easy disposal and will be poorly organised - just like how yellow paper is used primarily for quick throw-away notes and scribbles in reality (at least here in the UK). The Notes app is far better than that, the white it uses now implies a more permanent organised feel which better reflects the app. The texts I store within it are import…

> yellow paper is used primarily for quick throw-away notes and scribbles in reality (at least here in the UK).

Is it? I know yellow is the default colour for sticky notes, but for everything else -- at school, university, work, home -- the paper is white.

Ryman stock over 500 notepads. Three have yellow paper, and are described as "Being Yellow in colour [they] may appeal to people with dyslexia as the coloured paper can aid reading and writing in people with this condition".

http://www.ryman.co.uk/stationery/pads-books

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

#126

Post by JustSomeNobody »

franze wrote: post #121

I'm writing this post form an late 2015 Mac Book Retina (not air, not pro). The mac book stands on a book, a small fan points to it's back so that I can write this. Without this the machine would get to hot, which results into a slower user interaction (think: write a letter, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, letter appears on the screen). On the left hand side a huge adapter (99EUR) is plugged in. It enables me…

Why on Earth did you buy it knowing it only had one port if you do presentations often?

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

#127

Post by vacri »

daenney wrote: post #75
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…

Firefox's problem is that it does the whole UI by itself. This basically makes it look out of place anywhere they haven't explicitly put effort into giving it a similar experience. It looks out of place on El Capitan and on macOS Sierra it's downright disturbing. I don't want tab titles in Times New Roman (at least it reminds me of that).

No tab titles in TNR in FF here - sanserif (but can't tell a font by sight). No add-ons apart from NoScript and Flashblock.

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

#128

Post by lloeki »

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 hate how Safari hides the full address in the address bar, for instance.

You have no idea how much this change makes the URL field palatable for regular Joe. Previously: hhtpttpp://faceblablah.com/techmumbo/jumbo?not=h4ck3r. Now: facebooook.com.ru => "wow this really is not Facebook!". I basically witnessed such behaviour change first hand.

> Or, how they removed scrollbars and force people to actually scroll every piece of the interface to check if there's something more to see, while before you could tell just by looking at scrollbars.

No need to scroll, you can check just by resting fingers on the touchpad (except in Chrome) and look at the scrollbars.

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

#129

Post by analog31 »

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. Now, this is no longer necessary. It's been 40 years.

My first computer had a text display and a manual, in 1983. I had no trouble teaching my college house mates how to use it for word-processing.

Everything else that I did with the computer involved text symbols such as GOTO. ;-)

Today, when I use most software, beyond a few familiar icons like the floppy disc symbol, I have to hover the cursor over each icon to figure out what it does. When I learn keyboard shortcuts for those icons, I use them, to reduce eyestrain and wrist fatigue. A great feature would be a single button that reveals all of the icon descriptors at once.

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

#130

Post by tigroferoce »

arrrg wrote: post #3

It’s not that important a point, but legal pads are a very US phenomena. I’m German and I have never ever seen a yellow pad like that in person. The current notes icon (with white paper) is much more in line with the note pads you would encounter in Germany. Paper people write on to take notes is typically just white. Maybe bound with a spiral on the left or top (and perforated paper to tear off), maybe glued togethe…

I was about to make the same comment. Here in Italy we do not have the yellow notepads.
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