As a Macintosh user since System 7, I cannot be more in love with the old UIs and UX. I really enjoy the pixel era. Certainly, the introduction to OS X took Apple to a different level, but the OS 9 UI for me will be one of the best examples of the epitome of OS. Good in interactions, colors, details, sound feedback. I will always thanks Apple for such work poured on an OS.
“Origins of the Apple human interface” lecture – an annotated transcription
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Re: “Origins of the Apple human interface” lecture – an annotated transcription
#12Here's what a lot of early Mac OS design actually looked like (System 1 through System 9):
Re: “Origins of the Apple human interface” lecture – an annotated transcription
#13As a Macintosh user since System 7, I cannot be more in love with the old UIs and UX. I really enjoy the pixel era. Certainly, the introduction to OS X took Apple to a different level, but the OS 9 UI for me will be one of the best examples of the epitome of OS. Good in interactions, colors, details, sound feedback. I will always thanks Apple for such work poured on an OS.
Yes, when it comes to icons, pictures, non-trivial logos etc. the "pixel" style has always been the most effective way of coming up with something that will look appealing even with minimal effort. Even on modern screens, a properly-upscaled, pixel-based icon usually looks a lot better than the symbolic, vector-based look you most often see today, while taking a lot less time and effort to create. You can see this very well on other user interfaces from the 1980s and 1990s too, it's not exclusive to the Mac.
(And there's a sensible reason for this, too - the "pixel art" style is unique in letting you set a uniform ceiling on high-spatial-frequency content and subtle color changes within a picture, while preserving unbounded choice within these constraints.)
Re: “Origins of the Apple human interface” lecture – an annotated transcription
#14Complementary to Larry Tesler's talk, see "Busy Being Born" by Andy Hertzfeld on Bill Atkinson's work during this period (some of the polaroids are in the annotated transcript as well):
https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...
(Something I always found interesting about this, is Bill Atkinson's suggestion that some of the window related UI was already in place before the PARC visit. Having a look at the polaroids in question, seeing Smalltalk may have been even a distraction, at least in terms of the design language.)
Re: “Origins of the Apple human interface” lecture – an annotated transcription
#15As a Macintosh user since System 7, I cannot be more in love with the old UIs and UX. I really enjoy the pixel era. Certainly, the introduction to OS X took Apple to a different level, but the OS 9 UI for me will be one of the best examples of the epitome of OS. Good in interactions, colors, details, sound feedback. I will always thanks Apple for such work poured on an OS.
I have a soft spot for System 6, because it is the epitome of the classic, classic version of Mac OS--black and white, minimal, but with all the essential elements of a modern GUI, before all sorts of new complexities started to be added in in System 8 through OS 9.
Re: “Origins of the Apple human interface” lecture – an annotated transcription
#16Another great link if you're interested in Apple's design insights: "Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines" , from 1995 or so. I keep a copy on my desk at work as it's a great conversation piece and full of fascinating HCI insights. You can download a PDF here: http://interface.free.fr/Archives/Apple_HIGuidelines.pdf :) One of my favorite details that seems to be frequently overlooked in modern times is the ellipsis o…
This was also replicated by IBM CUA standard so Microsoft Windows had it from day one, too.
Re: “Origins of the Apple human interface” lecture – an annotated transcription
#17As a Macintosh user since System 7, I cannot be more in love with the old UIs and UX. I really enjoy the pixel era. Certainly, the introduction to OS X took Apple to a different level, but the OS 9 UI for me will be one of the best examples of the epitome of OS. Good in interactions, colors, details, sound feedback. I will always thanks Apple for such work poured on an OS.
Yes, when it comes to icons, pictures, non-trivial logos etc. the "pixel" style has always been the most effective way of coming up with something that will look appealing even with minimal effort. Even on modern screens, a properly-upscaled, pixel-based icon usually looks a lot better than the symbolic, vector-based look you most often see today, while taking a lot less time and effort to create. You can see this ve…
I've been user of Microsoft, IBM's OS/Warp too. I liked a lot Windows 3.1 and the first Windows 95. They showed good level of work, not only in the guts of the OS but also the GUI. But those styles faded once I get back into the mac, with their icon styles, you can change icons on the fly it was so easy. It was part of OS 7, 8, 9.
Re: “Origins of the Apple human interface” lecture – an annotated transcription
#18Another great link if you're interested in Apple's design insights: "Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines" , from 1995 or so. I keep a copy on my desk at work as it's a great conversation piece and full of fascinating HCI insights. You can download a PDF here: http://interface.free.fr/Archives/Apple_HIGuidelines.pdf :) One of my favorite details that seems to be frequently overlooked in modern times is the ellipsis o…
The current HIG still says "Use an ellipsis whenever choosing a menu item requires additional input from the user", but doesn't elaborate on this. Even Apple seems to have abandoned their earlier conventions and mostly just resorts to "use an ellipsis if the control will show another window/dialog".
Apple's guidelines used to make it clear that (a) if the only additional input was a simple confirmation, it shouldn't get an ellipsis, and (b) if the whole point of the menuitem/button was to show a window, then it doesn't need 'more input', so it shouldn't get an ellipsis.
Both of these are violated by the Mac's built-in applications in Mac OS X, which is a shame.
Re: “Origins of the Apple human interface” lecture – an annotated transcription
#19Thank you: to the person who posted the link to my blog; and to all the people who came and checked it out. I'm glad that my transcription efforts have been of use!
Cheers, Riccardo Mori
Re: “Origins of the Apple human interface” lecture – an annotated transcription
#20Another great link if you're interested in Apple's design insights: "Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines" , from 1995 or so. I keep a copy on my desk at work as it's a great conversation piece and full of fascinating HCI insights. You can download a PDF here: http://interface.free.fr/Archives/Apple_HIGuidelines.pdf :) One of my favorite details that seems to be frequently overlooked in modern times is the ellipsis o…
The current HIG still says "Use an ellipsis whenever choosing a menu item requires additional input from the user", but doesn't elaborate on this. Even Apple seems to have abandoned their earlier conventions and mostly just resorts to "use an ellipsis if the control will show another window/dialog". Apple's guidelines used to make it clear that (a) if the only additional input was a simple confirmation, it shouldn't…
Copy&paste from current MacOS HIG: "Use an ellipsis whenever choosing a menu item requires additional input from the user. The ellipsis character (…) means a dialog or separate window will open and prompt the user for additional information or to make a choice."
Maybe you looked at other platform HIG? Can you share examples where the guidelines are violated by MacOS built in applications, please? Not saying it's not happening, just curious.