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Mac App Store UI is so hideous that it makes me want to kick a swan

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Re: Mac App Store UI is so hideous that it makes me want to kick a swan

#31

Post by commandar »

sudont wrote: post #26
mechanical_fish wrote: post #19

If it makes you sad because Apple is no longer devoting thousands of pixels at the top of each window to a big "drag this window" control, you'd better brace yourself, because the next step for many consumer applications is to have windows that cannot be dragged at all. This design looks like an iPad screen to me. Did the implications of Apple's stated mission to "make the Mac more like the iPad" not sink in? The iPa…

I highly doubt that that Apple will remove dragable windows. Their iPad-ification of applications is the full-screen mode that can be toggled. More likely: a bar-wide drag handler that takes precedence over widget clicking.

>Their iPad-ification of applications is the full-screen mode that can be toggled.

The problem is that app UIs are going to pick a paradigm and it's going to feel out of place if you use a different one. The dragbar being replaced is a pretty good example of this.

It's a lot of why I'm not particularly looking forward to Lion.

Re: Mac App Store UI is so hideous that it makes me want to kick a swan

#32

Post by mechanical_fish »

sudont wrote: post #26
mechanical_fish wrote: post #19

If it makes you sad because Apple is no longer devoting thousands of pixels at the top of each window to a big "drag this window" control, you'd better brace yourself, because the next step for many consumer applications is to have windows that cannot be dragged at all. This design looks like an iPad screen to me. Did the implications of Apple's stated mission to "make the Mac more like the iPad" not sink in? The iPa…

I highly doubt that that Apple will remove dragable windows. Their iPad-ification of applications is the full-screen mode that can be toggled. More likely: a bar-wide drag handler that takes precedence over widget clicking.

Sure, that is what I meant. My guess is that this app is giving us an early vision of what apps will look like in the upcoming full-screen mode. When that mode comes out, not long from now, the App Store will continue to look exactly as it does now.

Why design the window twice inside of a year when designing it once will do?

Of course Apple won't take away OS support for draggable windows. That would be silly. What will happen, though, if the new full-screen mode takes off, is that app developers will redesign their windows to be more suitable for full-screen. And that may well involve smaller or nonexistent title bars.

Re: Mac App Store UI is so hideous that it makes me want to kick a swan

#33

Post by commandar »

roc wrote: post #30
smackfu wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, how can you tell if it is single-window or not? iTunes is not, closing it leaves it running. iPhoto is, closing it shuts it down. Both look pretty much the same.

I get the feeling everything not aimed at professionals is going to begin moving toward the single-window and full-screen experiences. Likely in a slow march as opposed to all-at-once, but it seems inevitable to me. Regular people never really took advantage of the MDI anyway. (Not that I blame them, overlapping windows made a mess of everything.)

>(Not that I blame them, overlapping windows made a mess of everything.)

Yet this move is happening exactly as extremely high resolution displays that can easily handle multiple side-by-side windows are becoming commonplace.

Re: Mac App Store UI is so hideous that it makes me want to kick a swan

#34

Post by mishmash »

jinushaun wrote: post #25
raz0r wrote: post #5

The icon is horrible too.

Looks too much like the iTunes icon in the dock. Should've gone with a different color. In iOS, iTunes is purple and the App Store is blue.

They both remind me of the Start menu icon in Windows 7.

Re: Mac App Store UI is so hideous that it makes me want to kick a swan

#37

Post by sudont »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #32
sudont wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly doubt that that Apple will remove dragable windows. Their iPad-ification of applications is the full-screen mode that can be toggled. More likely: a bar-wide drag handler that takes precedence over widget clicking.

Sure, that is what I meant. My guess is that this app is giving us an early vision of what apps will look like in the upcoming full-screen mode. When that mode comes out, not long from now, the App Store will continue to look exactly as it does now. Why design the window twice inside of a year when designing it once will do? Of course Apple won't take away OS support for draggable windows. That would be silly. What w…

That's already happened to some extent. Xcode and Final Cut both run in multi-window yet effectively fullscreen mode, but act as IDEs for their respective workflows. In fact, this IDE mentality could be the new big divisive topic in the Mac world: Coda vs Textmate and Safari and CSSEdit and Versions and... Really, it's the same war as Vim vs Emacs (somewhat), just with GUIs. Does the application need to be full-screen and kitchen sink, or multi-window and able to integrate with others?

I do agree, this could be a nuclear, apocalyptic scenario. But while photo, video and code workflows can be condensed nicely into one app, traditional mac workflows have been multi-window, multi-app in that most common tasks aren't IDE-oriented, and constructed from many different apps running on the Mac platform.

But, to counter your point about app laziness: most mac developers came to the platform to make really good apps. If it was about just throwing something easy out there, they'd have run to Windows or enterprise apps already.

Re: Mac App Store UI is so hideous that it makes me want to kick a swan

#39

Post by guywithabike »

jokermatt999 wrote: post #14
scrrr wrote: post #11

That will not hinder its success, heh. Vanity blogpost. Look at HN, Reddit, ebay etc. to see how much design really matters. OSX is pretty but I'd argue it's not the neat icons that make it a success. Tsts.. Designers and their worldview.

Arguably, HN and Reddit's minimal design are part of their success/charm. They have a minimalist style that doesn't get in the way of posting, and doesn't needlessly change.

100% agreed. I'm sick of self-professed design experts slamming Reddit's design. Reddit has one of the best designs of the sites I use regularly. It's one of my favorites to navigate around and read. That's a lot more than can be said about Craig Grannell's eye melting blog.

Designers need to pull their heads out of their collective arses and realize that design is not just coordinated colors and the latest gradient button trends.

Re: Mac App Store UI is so hideous that it makes me want to kick a swan

#40

Post by guywithabike »

Terretta wrote: post #3

Another change: the red X control quits, not just closes window. iTunes did the horizontal window controls first. If you don't like these, wait till you try Tweetie 2 aka Twitter for Mac. It makes them smaller and black. There's more than enough blank area to drag, enough there could have been a bit more space between the window controls and the nav back/fwd buttons. However, it feels like this is a move towards more…

Twitter's app completely breaks two of the three window controls.

Close --> Actually just hides the app. Expand --> Does literally nothing. Seriously.

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