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Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

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Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#853
post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. I was kind of slowly preparing myself that I might be switching to android and it seems this might be the final straw. Will wait until Sept to see how new iphone and google pixels will look like but most likely I will do the transition (even though been developing for iOS for more than 10 years.

Sure, it's reasonable to consider a switch. But while Android devices have come a long way in terms of physical design, capabilities, UI/UX, etc, out of the box Apple still offers a more comprehensive, user friendly and privacy focused security solution: lockdown, tighter controls of hardware/software integration, etc. So there's that.

I was a diehard Android person for years, and I really really wanted to like it. Even when it dropped calls, failed to even show incoming calls, apps crashed regularly. This was a Google phone on Google Fi, unaltered and supposed to be the "pure" Android experience. My final realization and the impetus for the switch was that Android is an app ghetto; Good apps are designed for iOS first, and half-assedly ported to Android. Android's store has so much trash in it as to make it impossible to find a real app that isn't malware.

I switched to iOS and despite its flaws, the experience is so much better.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#854
post #552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

macOS (I'm still on Sonoma tho): System Settings -> Accessibility -> Display -> Reduce Transparency. (I also recommend Reduce Motion, but YMMV - some animations are really helpful.) iOS: Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size -> Reduce Transparency. You're welcome.

Everyone affected by this will know to look for those deeply nested setting, right? Or will the 70 year old with bad eyesight just stop being able to use their phone? Or use it a lot less, or be frustrated and stressed by it? A lot of people don’t bother fiddling with their settings and just take what they’re given. I’m not just thinking of myself here. I’m concerned that a lot of people who don’t consider themselves…

On Mac OS the first significant thing on screen after turning it on for the first time are the accessibility settings with screenshots and animations to explain every option. You can also access those options with the Spotlight search, typing "tran" will give you the "reduce transparency" toggle directly in the search results without having to open settings first (though to be fair the search indexing is a bit lacking, like on iOS - the animation toggle is called "reduce motion" and so it can't be found via typing in "animation").

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#855
It’s going to be really interesting to see how this UI paradigm pans out. I think this captures a shift toward the extreme in responsive, fluid, convergent, whatever-you-want-to-call-it, design.

We’ve had books/scrolls for thousands of years, laid out in beautiful proportion, and now it has all melted in the oven!

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#856

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also disable animations on iOS. When switching between screens, there’s just a long pause instead of the animation. These pauses drive me crazy, it’s simply not possible to configure the device to be responsive.

I'm just as annoyed by this, but from what I understand, the animations are used to hide loading times, so the delay is not optional.

That explanation makes no sense in this case. The workspace transition animation takes a full second, on extremely performant devices that can keep up their pace up until the OS swaps around 15GB, at which point animations start lagging so they actually make it even worse. Meanwhile a Linux setup will switch workspaces instantly. Same for Windows 11 if you turn off animations, by the way.

This animation slows every transition by one second including entering and leaving fullscreen mode, because on Mac OS fullscreen works by moving the window to a new workspace. There is no justification for this.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#857
post #148

Oh no. It looks like every button and menu is now a translucent layer, so that any noise from the background shows through and muddles the text. This seems like an accessibility nightmare. Translucent layers generally make software unusable for me. In the video, I saw several instances that would be really really bad for me, where I’d be straining to understand the text. Looks really cool and futuristic though. Just…

It’s going to be really interesting to see how this UI paradigm pans out. I think this captures a shift toward the extreme in responsive, fluid, convergent, whatever-you-want-to-call-it, design.

We’ve had books/scrolls for thousands of years, laid out in beautiful proportion, and now it has all melted in the oven!

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#858

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They did still have a lot of AI features, just not AI chat. Users can now use AI in Shortcuts, developers can use the various on-device models, I assume the call and text screening uses AI. Those are a few things off the top of my head. We need to some thinking the start and end for AI is a text field with a submit button.

The AI features they promised 1 year ago are still not here. And they are not even close to shipping it. End of story as far as i’m concerned. But yes, it is nice to see some incremental AI improvements with suggestions in various apps, etc. Better than nothing.

To be fair, they did say it was going to be a decade long arc to move to more AI stuff.

We have a lot of other options for generic AI chat, so I’d rather them get it right than rush out something that isn’t any good.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#859

So, it's official: I'm now old. I have seen the new that became old become new again. This reminds me a lot on the visual we were saying for Windows Longhorn before Vista was released, peak Apple being their usual trailblazing self.

My thoughts exactly. On windows we turned off most of this in exchange for speed. And then when I went to turn it back on, it did not look good anymore.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#860
post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d bet there’s a toggle that dramatically increases opacity or eliminates transparency entirely while keeping the shading and gloss. If it exists I’m sure it’ll be popular.

Probably, but they tend to also make for an ugly look, like the “Increase Contrast” setting in iOS. The other way around would be better: Have an accessible down-to-earth default, and a secondary “fancy visuals” mode for those who want that.

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