Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

aentan.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 48 posts

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#21

Post by gfodor »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #14

I think it's great to dig into this stuff, but I disagree with almost everything in this article. A 4 pixel grid is too fine to serve the purpose of a grid. I mean, you could do a 1 pixel grid, and everything would line up, but what's the sense in that? Grids are only visually meaningful when the base unit is a perceptible size. The author is striving for harmony, but grids are only one source it. The left margin in…

I think you've nailed it. Apple's focus on typography, spacing, and proportion puts it directly at odds with the notion that a UI can always be fit snugly into a fixed width grid pattern.

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#23

Post by gfodor »

num1 wrote: post #11

I'm not a designer, so maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about. But @Aen, you sound like an idiot to me. On grids. A grid is a fantastic idea for a newspaper, or even for an iPad, where you have large elements which need to all be aligned. However, your eyes are not trained to jump around in pretty pixel increments, your eyes jump to what they want to look at. In other words, fuck "rhythm." When horizontally alig…

You'll notice that if you replace the word "rhythm" in the OP with "grid" the whole thing sounds a lot less sexy and hence a lot less interesting.

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#24

Post by exogen »

ugh wrote: post #18
aen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Content height is unpredictable so even with a baseline grid, you will still get half-visible content most of the time. I was just lucky in my example :D

But what’s the value of not having a remainder? I don’t quite understand. I can understand the value of not ending up with a remainder in print but on screens?

I, too, thought this was a pretty weak claim.

People can resize their browser windows to whatever dimensions they want; does that mean using any kind of grid or rhythm on the web is hopeless? Of course not.

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#25

Post by num1 »

aen wrote: post #19
num1 wrote: post #11

I'm not a designer, so maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about. But @Aen, you sound like an idiot to me. On grids. A grid is a fantastic idea for a newspaper, or even for an iPad, where you have large elements which need to all be aligned. However, your eyes are not trained to jump around in pretty pixel increments, your eyes jump to what they want to look at. In other words, fuck "rhythm." When horizontally alig…

I'd say fuck rhythm too if I'm not a designer. But I am and it's my job to look at things others don't look at. You can look at a 4-pixel rhythm as 8-pixel, 16-pixel or 32-pixel. 4 is just the lowest basic unit. Maybe I'm wrong but right or wrong isn't the point. Making people think and talk about something is.

"I hope once Lik­ables and Denso goes live they will be proof for the production-worthiness of the 4-pixel rhythm. I also hope that Apple will see this and per­haps recon­sider the visual pro­por­tions of UI in future iOS versions." doesn't match what you just said ;)

What I'm saying is that "You can look at a 4-pixel rhythm as 8-pixel, 16-pixel or 32-pixel. 4 is just the lowest basic unit" doesn't improve upon our situation. The lowest basic unit is called a pixel. Grids make everything look consistent; but when the only requirement is that you snap to 4-pixels, things aren't going to look consistent, because you have far too much flexibility.

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#26

Post by contrast »

Design to me is a mix of art and science. This article is simple math. It's hard to take such a design philosophy seriously without any supporting evidence to explain why the human brain doesn't find some simple concepts intuitive:

- Things are different at the edges - Objects with text underneath are taller than ones without - Temporary features (pop ups etc) at the forefront of attention are a different size to things in the background - Things inside a clear frame might follow different, contrasting proportions to those outside

I'm not a designer but I am a drummer. Rhythm-by-the-numbers is boring. Good rhythm plays around the edges, and within the same beat (say four to the bar) people enjoy different beats laid on top (say, three beats). You can speed up and slow down, emphasise boundaries by adding a little extra time to the last beat of the bar, etc. Is visual design any different? Don't designers use the word "rhythm" precisely because it is a good metaphor?

None of this says Apple that has got it right. But the criticism just doesn't seem to have an aesthetic foundation.

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#27

Post by CubicleNinjas »

As the owner of a design firm, and a designer for UI for the past ten years, I think this article misses the point. Grids are a means to an end. That end is functional and visually pleasing usability.

The samples in this article show less functional, less visually pleasing UIs.

Post reply on HN