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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

#361

Post by emodendroket »

tjl wrote: post #348
tim333 wrote: post #25

I think the greatness of OSXs past UIs is a bit over hyped. I changed from Windows 7 to Mavericks a couple of years ago and still find 7 more intuitive. You can see at a glance which programs are running from the bar in 7 unlike OSX, I still have not figured out the Finder very well and so on. On the other hand OSX seems better engineered in many ways, more stable, faster to respond and so on.

In the Dock Preferences, click the box "Show indicators for open applications". You should get a black dot under (or to the side) of the app icon. I've used this setting for years.

Yeah, but why exactly is it off by default? I can't see the benefit.

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

#362

Post by standardhuman »

lloeki wrote: post #128
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 eve…

On the first point, you can just open Safari's preferences, head to the Advanced tab, and "show full website address." This is one of the first things I do, as I also dislike this behavior. :)

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

#363

Post by HoppedUpMenace »

The older aesthetics reflected an OS that could get everyone excited about its potential, kind of like back in the day when people would look at the graphics depicted on records, VHS covers, video game boxes, ect... Now, nobody draws quite a connection with that sort of art or media so you have something with no soul that conveys the idea that people are just happy with whatever you give them cause they could care less about people making a connection, just that it works and does, at a minimum, what its supposed to do.

A bit off topic... Same idea could be applied to what happened in video games in the past, like Super Mario RPG style transforming into Paper Mario or Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask style being dropped for Wind Waker cartoon like aesthetic, both examples devoid of any human connection built up to that point in previous iterations but it gets the job done as its still the same kind of game.

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

#364

Post by pavlov »

emodendroket wrote: post #352
kenbellows wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that the quill pen was a special case. As you point out, it was an intentional anachronism to communicate a certain point. This was not the case with, e.g., the floppy disk, the notepad, the contacts book, etc. Everyone knew what the quill pen was because it was still frequently seen in portrayals of the olden days when it was used; even today, portrayals of Victorian England in Doctor Who or Revolutionary…

> Young users today essentially just know the image of a floppy disc as "the save button" without any skeuomorphic rationale backing it up. Yeah, but so what? It is, nevertheless, recognizable to nearly everyone. In a world where cars still advertise their "horsepower" and pencils have graphite compound "leads" we can probably live with an icon that is well understood but whose original referent is no longer familiar…

In fact that makes the floppy disk iconic in its own right, not just an icon in the computing sense.

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

#365

Post by freyr »

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,

I agree that the current photos icon is awful, and I actually find myself unable to quickly locate the photos app on iOS. Game Center is pretty bad too, but I never open Game Center.

The rest of the aticle's arguments seem like personal, subjective distaste for flat/minimal design and a yearning for the good ol' days of skeumorphism.

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

#366

Post by BurningFrog »

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.

> the proper response to that is to educate, not to remove the ability of those who are educated to do other things

As a software developer, only one of those things are in your power.

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

#367

Post by 0xffff2 »

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 was spinning (literally)

What would that even look like? On what access can a human head literally spin?

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

#368

Post by rhino369 »

donatj wrote: post #192
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…

This and it's subsequent comments are the weirdest, most unexpected thing in here to me. I'm an American who's worked in offices the last 10+ years and I have stacks and stacks of yellow legal pads from years of note taking in my closet. I think it is probably to do with it being cheap recycled discolored paper that was cheaper to dye than bleach. Might be better for the environment than bleach as well. I switched to…

It's more expensive to die it yellow than bleach it white. And yellow paper is less recyclable.

Some say yellow is better because it doesn't change color over time. I personally prefer yellow, but it's certainly odd.

My law firm in the USA uses white now.

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

#369

Post by dchest »

0xffff2 wrote: post #367
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 was spinning (literally) What would that even look like? On what access can a human head literally spin?

Ha, got me! By literally, I meant in the medical sense (is it called "vertigo"?), not as an idiom (meaning to confuse or overwhelm).

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

#370

Post by Sommer717 »

eddieh wrote: post #226
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 worse than pointless. It is so distracting and ugly, it makes using macOS awful. When scrolling though a webpage (on macOS & iOS) the flickering color of the titlebar always makes me think the display is starting to fail — then I remember it's the stupid transparency.

You can turn off transparency in the system preferences.
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