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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

#71

Post by cubicle67 »

trobertson wrote: post #66
jasonfried wrote: post #51

So what. The actual problem the whole idea is solving is a revolutionary improvement. And this is just v1. The "interface" problem is not custom controls or back buttons. The interface problem is installing software. That's the interface most average people stumble on. That's where computers suck. So yeah, some of the UI in the Mac App Store app feels a bit off, but the stuff that matters - one click install of great…

>The actual problem the whole idea is solving is a revolutionary improvement. Last I checked, this was a solved problem in Ubuntu. What makes it revolutionary now that Apple's done it?

the developers get paid

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

#72

Post by Raphael »

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.

OS X only has one corner for resizing windows, so it wouldn't surprise me.

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

#73

Post by Raphael »

tehjones wrote: post #59

A note on the upper left hand 'control' buttons. Using the graphite theme there are no colours or controls obviously visible, so i didnt even notice the difference. It took a comment on this blog post for me to notice that iTunes has vertical buttons. I hope that is a fair indication how often I even look at those buttons.

You never minimize or close a window?

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

#74

Post by pizzaburger »

danilocampos wrote: post #70
trobertson wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The actual problem the whole idea is solving is a revolutionary improvement. Last I checked, this was a solved problem in Ubuntu. What makes it revolutionary now that Apple's done it?

Most people don't use Ubuntu. Come on, man, it's a Linux Distro – how many of our moms are installing those? Plus there's the whole easy monetization thing for developers. This is like saying Dropbox's functionality was a solved problem thanks to rsync.

Sure it's gaming-specific, but more prior art: http://steampowered.com

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

#75

Post by mishmash »

pizzaburger wrote: post #74
danilocampos wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people don't use Ubuntu. Come on, man, it's a Linux Distro – how many of our moms are installing those? Plus there's the whole easy monetization thing for developers. This is like saying Dropbox's functionality was a solved problem thanks to rsync.

Sure it's gaming-specific, but more prior art: http://steampowered.com

It's one click and a password to buy from the Mac App Store whereas Steam takes five clicks and no password (if you have it set to remember).

Apple's store is no revolution in my book, far from it, but at least they put that Amazon One-click patent to good use and made the process easy.

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

#76

Post by [deleted] »

roc wrote: post #63
commandar wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>(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.

And after multitasking research has shown how poorly most humans handle it. And after computer use research has shown how poorly most humans handle MDI. And after several products from several manufacturers have proven the change to focused-single-task to be not only palatable, but even preferable and popular . MDI is a great thing for a certain class of people. And I'm talking about a trend in software for everyone…

[deleted]

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

#77

Post by commandar »

roc wrote: post #63
commandar wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>(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.

And after multitasking research has shown how poorly most humans handle it. And after computer use research has shown how poorly most humans handle MDI. And after several products from several manufacturers have proven the change to focused-single-task to be not only palatable, but even preferable and popular . MDI is a great thing for a certain class of people. And I'm talking about a trend in software for everyone…

>And after several products from several manufacturers have proven the change to focused-single-task to be not only palatable, but even preferable and popular.

And these devices have all had relatively small displays with totally different input methods, which is my entire point. It's the same mistake that was made in the early days of mobile devices in reverse. I don't believe that interface paradigms are one-size-fits-all. Totally modal interfaces ala iPhone/iPad make sense when you have to maximize display efficiency, but they don't make anywhere near as much sense when you have 20"+ displays with megapixel level resolutions to work with.

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

#78

Post by raz0r »

mishmash wrote: post #34
jinushaun wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I haven't thought about that yet, but you are correct.

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

#79

Post by _b8r0 »

benatkin wrote: post #62
_b8r0 wrote: post #57

Just tried it. What I don't understand is this: To manage apps on my iphone/ipad/ipod I use iTunes. In iTunes I go to an app store if I want to install a new app on those devices. To access what I perceive to be essentially a form of the same store but for Mac software, I use a dedicated application that now forms part of the Operating System's update management. This makes no sense to me. Does this mean that we'll s…

Certainly. Every time I see a major iTunes update I'm surprised they haven't fixed it. The pimple's ready to pop.

I hope so. I don't mind iTunes as a music player on a Mac. It's as a central point of navel lint I have the problem.

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

#80

Post by statictype »

jasonfried wrote: post #51

So what. The actual problem the whole idea is solving is a revolutionary improvement. And this is just v1. The "interface" problem is not custom controls or back buttons. The interface problem is installing software. That's the interface most average people stumble on. That's where computers suck. So yeah, some of the UI in the Mac App Store app feels a bit off, but the stuff that matters - one click install of great…

The one-click install without having to dick around with disk images and dragging icons from one part of a window to another is great.

But there's still lots of polish that it lacks.

It puts every app in the dock. What happens when someone wants to remove the app and tries to do so by dragging it off the dock?

The app still resides in the Applications folder but the user thinks it's gone. Now if he wants to download it again and goes back to the App Store the app is still marked as 'Installed' even though he thinks it's gone.

If he knows to look in the Applications folder and then tries to drag it to the trash, you get a UAC dialog asking for the root password.

So, they've partially solved the App install experience but not fully. The interface still has rough edges, which I'm sure they may eventually get right.

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