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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

#151

Post by cauterized »

pankajdoharey wrote: post #78

I totally agree with the author, in fact much of the hidden functionalities in apps that use to exist is also gone. For instance in earlier versions of previes you could join multiple pdfs into one single pdf by dragging the pdfs into thumbnail preview panel. Now that functionality simply doesn't exist, it seems like they (Apple) have done a rewrite of so many Apps, that they missed out on smaller details.

This is my biggest frustration with OS X these days. They're working so hard to add marginally useful consumer crap like native maps that the power user functionality that attracted me to the platform in the first place is suffering badly. The mail app in particular has gone from nearly-perfect (for my use case) to unusably broken in a dozen obvious ways.

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

#153

Post by Shengbo »

lloeki wrote: post #115
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…

Case in point, just below the article you can find this: http://imgur.com/a/iQe0Z The puzzle background goes contrarian to the text label and makes my eyes/mind jump while trying to read the labels. The first button makes me think of Wikipedia, the second one of Facebook. It's precisely that kind of cognitive dissonance where you read "blue" written in red and get asked to say the color or the word. The last button h…

Yea, I didn't wanna be a dick by mentioning it but scrolling down to that after reading the article just confused me even more about what the author would define as "good UI".

I count at least 2 unnecessary textures, 4(or 5?) different fonts and a color palette that makes no sense to me.

I know some people are enraged about how many "generic 3-column flat UI" websites there are, but give me one of those any time instead of something that can't make a decision over what unnecessary decorations to use around a button that's already cluttered with a background texture and 3d effect.

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

#155

Post by everydaypanos »

I mainly disagree w/ the points he makes, but the "vampiric" screenshot of the sidebar is very hard to neglect. There is something magical that goes away when you take away all the color and replace all the icons w/ glyphs. Especially on places like the sidebar where you interact w/ it too often and 99% of the time you are scanning/looking for stuff.

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

#156

Post by typpytyper »

CPLX wrote: post #18

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 a…

> He seems uninterested in even acknowledging the point that most cameras don't look like that anymore

Digital SLR cameras still very much look like traditional cameras. Why? because the form is optimal for the task at hand - taking high quality pictures.

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

#157

Post by mrcwinn »

I agree with the general sentiment that Apple isn't very good at software, but it's worth remembering they are solving not just for the desktop, but for many platforms. I cannot imagine that ugly 2008-era iPhoto icon on my big flat screen. The thought of that rips into the very fiber of my being and makes me question all that I know about life.

Put another way: relax. Hope things get better!

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

#158

Post by Infinitesimus »

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…

My general rule of thumb for Macbooks: If you want to do anything other thank browse facebook and write word docs, and want the machine to last you for more than 3 years - get a Pro.

Vote with your wallet, if you can replace the Macbook experiment* with a Pro or some other computer, go for it. As it stands, Apple has no incentive to make it better since they have your money anyway unless enough users skip the product

* I'm convinced "the new Macbook" was born because someone lost a bet and had to answer "how bad can we make a computer and still make people buy it?"

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

#159

Post by zer0defex »

uptown wrote: post #138
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. There's an option to show the full URL under Preferences -> Advanced -> Show full web address

And I turn it on EVERY time I setup a new OSX install - I want to bloody well know for damn sure whether I'm on HTTP or HTTPS when I'm on websites and some stupid little lock icon ain't gonna cut it when I'm passing credit card and banking info over the net. A problem further exacerbated by the SSL variants (extended-validation SSL certs causing green text showing company name to appear beside the lock icon - bankofamerica.com compared to news.ycombinator.com for example). This article is dead on the money.

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

#160

Post by ozim »

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,

Yeah you can click it and see what happens, that is what I do when I am on new system. Maybe my grandparents would be scared of clicking some icons. Current new users are kids which are less scared of clicking around and getting to know what this thing does.

Icon can help later in quickly locating this program, but I do not really care what it is. Does firefox, chrome icon or internet explorer show you that it will display websites? Internet explorer icon became "Internet" icon for a lot non technical users I think.

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