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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

#281

Post by yoz-y »

dpark wrote: post #268
yoz-y wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eventually there will be and the icon will have to change then, but I do grant you that now is not the time. Now the question is: should the icons represent something "iconic" or something that most people use?

> should the icons represent something "iconic" or something that most people use? I don't know what you mean by "iconic". If you mean "abstract and without independently-identifiable meaning", then I think in general, no. Icons should be immediately identifiable when possible. The overlapping rainbow paint chips that make up the current photos icon seems utterly meaningless. The camera was meaningful. A stack of pho…

By iconic I meant represented by an object associated with an activity that has the most meaning. (I have some difficulty phrasing this)

For example, in the current world maybe 10% of the people are taking pictures with actual cameras but we still represent the camera as a "box with a huge lens". Few people use land lines but the phone icon is still a banana. To send and e-mail in general we use an envelope but we send way more electronic messages than snail mail.

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

#282

Post by tacon »

zaphoyd wrote: post #216
lloeki wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 eve…

> No need to scroll, you can check just by resting fingers on the touchpad (except in Chrome) and look at the scrollbars. Never knew this, really handy, thanks! Any idea if it is possible on a magic mouse? or only the trackpads?

And there you have demonstrated the entire thesis of the original article.

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

#283

Post by S_A_P »

I think I would switch to windows if I had to look at a vintage OSX version. I think its great for nostalgia to look back at the evolution of UI and not every change is an improvement, but I find the latest versions of windows/OSX to be perfectly usable and nice to look at. I dont need such literal translations of my icons for them to make sense. This argument is kind of bogus anyway- how many times of looking at an icon and clicking it does it take to remember what goes where?!?! I use the application Reason quite often but that icon offers no clue as to what type of application it is. Flat layouts are easier on the eyes and all the shading gradients and other elements required for "realistic" ui are tiring. Completely disagree with this article here.

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

#284

Post by eyelidlessness »

zaphoyd wrote: post #216
lloeki wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 eve…

> No need to scroll, you can check just by resting fingers on the touchpad (except in Chrome) and look at the scrollbars. Never knew this, really handy, thanks! Any idea if it is possible on a magic mouse? or only the trackpads?

For an extra hint, when a view loads with scrollable content (or becomes scrollable as content is added), it tends to flash the scrollbar briefly.

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

#285

Post by beachstartup »

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 only once when I was little

er, what? i'm 32. i and everyone i knew used contact books until i was probably age 20, especially in offices.

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

#286

Post by pbhjpbhj »

56k wrote: post #37
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably there's a setting to use the old icons if you prefer them?

Nope. That would be a branding nightmare.

>branding nightmare //

I sort of understand, but no-one outside my family uses my desktop and when I worked in an office it was just me or the IT support people, so how is it about branding in the general situation. For media stuff everyone is likely to be using the default.

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

#287

Post by shaurz »

Angostura wrote: post #69
56k wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know, Google Chrome's icon doesn't depict a webpage, but I know I can click on it and use it to browse the Web.

The difference with icons for Web browsers is that there really is no real-world equivalent of a Web browser, so producing icon metaphors is not an issue.

A spider web, obviously ;-)

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

#288

Post by leadingthenet »

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…

The transparency is pointless, though I much prefer the look of El Cap.

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

#289

Post by eyelidlessness »

zeveb wrote: post #253
lloeki wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 eve…

> 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. Anyone who does that is uneducated and ignorant; the proper response to that is to educate, not to remove the ability of those who are educated to do other things.

Years of education have been horribly ineffective, which is why phishing continues to work. Meanwhile, the ignorant audience keeps growing. A whole lot of UX work is about making ambiguous things less ambiguous and making the "right" or "safe" choice the default. In those scenarios, the best UX will make the non-default choice available with some additional effort (changing settings, diving deeper), which this feature in Safari absolutely does.

Hang on to your hat, because every other browser has been playing with the exact same feature, for the exact same set of reasons.

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

#290

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Silhouette wrote: post #119
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, not sure on that one. A beautiful interface can be better but I suspect it's better to have an uglier consistent and intuitive interface. I'm a long-term Inkscape user, they recently 'improved' the icons; it all looks wrong (but handsome in a minimalistic, low-visibility of chrome, sort of way) and disturbs my workflow considerably.

A beautiful interface can be better but I suspect it's better to have an uglier consistent and intuitive interface. I'm not sure why the parent comment was downvoted. If the above statement was intended to mean that being consistent and intuitive is more important than aesthetics then that is almost certainly true, in my experience designing and testing UIs. Of course, the ideal is to have it all by using the aesthet…

>Being attractive and being functional aren't mutually exclusive. //

But being fashionable and being functional are often opposing forces.

Seems to me flat web design was a reaction as the antithesis of an over-indulgence in skeuomorphism. We just appear to have thrown out a lot of affordance and visibility in that reaction.

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