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Scott Forstall leaves Apple

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Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#181

Post by shrikant »

nostromo wrote: post #101

Does anyone but me here listen incessantly to podcasts? The latest Podcasts App from iTunes is a skeuomorphic mess. It has a superfluous animation of a reel-to-reel player of course. But it utterly fails at its most basic task: playing a goddamn podcast. But don't take my word for it, it has a 1.5 star rating on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/podcasts/id525463029 Not to mention crashes... Apple used to make…

It's horrifying bad. Even the app that I use for my (relatively) ancient Nokia N8 (Podcatcher) is miles better than Apple's Podcasts app. The SO complains about it all the time.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#182

Post by sigzero »

snowwrestler wrote: post #152
matheusalmeida wrote: post #50

Given that 50% of the posts talk about skeuomorphism and honestly I didn't know what it was, here's the definition from Wikipedia: "A skeuomorph, or skeuomorphism is when a product imitates design elements functionally necessary in the original product design, but that becomes ornamental in the new product design" .

It's a new word for an old concept: a decorative anachronism. Obvious examples from outside the world of computing include stone pillars in front of important buildings, and rivets on jeans. It's abused here on HN as short-hand for app decorations that people don't like, like the infamous leather treatment on the calendar. But there are plenty of "skeuomorphic" aspects to iOS that I never see anyone complain about (a…

I don't think it will all go. I think the stuff like faux leather interfaces will though.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#183

Post by GuiA »

mmahemoff wrote: post #136
GuiA wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The academic field behind UI design is HCI (Human Computer Interaction), so HI makes more sense :)

And before HCI it was MMI (Man-Machine)...so the term evolves.

Do you have any references for that? HCI has been in use since the late 70s (I believe it originated at Xerox PARC, since the earliest literature I can find using it is from there), and is now the de-facto standard term for all major conferences/publications. On the other hand, searching "MMI" on the ACM digital library only returns it as an acronym for various more-or-less related things.

Maybe MMI is a mistranslation from other languages? This Danish site [1] uses it, and I know the used French term is "Interaction Homme Machine", which I can easily imagine being translated to Man-Machine Interaction

[1]: http://www.eit.ihk-edu.dk/subjects/mmi/intro.php#0

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#184

Post by chj »

mlchild wrote: post #52

People's reactions to this announcement are overly focused on Forstall's assumed support for heavy skeumorphism (and their excitement at his departure as lead proponent). I think his record as head of iOS since its inception is a much more salient issue. Forstall led development of the fastest-growing, most popular computing platform of the past decade or so with, to be sure, a few notable screw-ups, but mostly incre…

Forstall did a great job bringing Mac OS X and its Core Technologies to a mobile device. Let's not forget that.

As a side note, I do hope iOS will become more open under a new leadership.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#185

Post by [deleted] »

mlchild wrote: post #52

People's reactions to this announcement are overly focused on Forstall's assumed support for heavy skeumorphism (and their excitement at his departure as lead proponent). I think his record as head of iOS since its inception is a much more salient issue. Forstall led development of the fastest-growing, most popular computing platform of the past decade or so with, to be sure, a few notable screw-ups, but mostly incre…

[deleted]

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#186

Post by travem »

ok_craig wrote: post #172
mukaiji wrote: post #33

Just to be clear, he's not "leaving." He got fired. He got fired because after the map fiasco became apparent, he refused to send out an apology or sign his name to the one Tim Cook sent. (internal knowledge)

This makes me wonder - who at Apple decided it was necessary to make their own maps app? It's easy to blame Forstall for a crappy product. But if someone else was responsible for mandating the change, assigning him the project, and pushing an impossible deadline, maybe it's more their fault.

The guy was an SVP, passing the buck isn't really an option at that level. It's about ownership.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#188

Post by bennyg »

smegel wrote: post #162

Can everyone saying "it's unfair to dump him due to Maps, because mapping is hard" realize it has nothing to do with the quality of the application, but the quality (or lack thereof) of the PR and management of customer expectations. If Apple had come out 3 months before iPhone5 and said "Look, we really need to divorce ourselves from Google Maps as we can't be relying on an arch-competitor for such an important serv…

I don't know about that PR move you suggested. It's not very becoming of the market leader to publicly express that their own product that hasn't launched yet, and won't for 3 months, is buggy and incomplete - and to be patient with them while it gets fixed. I don't agree that calling it the best ever was such a great move, but that's what Apple does.

In a couple years, it won't matter what happened with the Maps launch. It'll be great by then. And nobody will be talking about it - just like 0 "average consumers" talk about antennagate.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#189

Post by mmahemoff »

GuiA wrote: post #183
mmahemoff wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And before HCI it was MMI (Man-Machine)...so the term evolves.

Do you have any references for that? HCI has been in use since the late 70s (I believe it originated at Xerox PARC, since the earliest literature I can find using it is from there), and is now the de-facto standard term for all major conferences/publications. On the other hand, searching "MMI" on the ACM digital library only returns it as an acronym for various more-or-less related things. Maybe MMI is a mistranslati…

It's mentioned here for instance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_interface. I always got the impression it was a term emerging from the military in the 1940s-50s, when they began to study the ergonomics of cockpits, flight control systems, etc.

Re: Scott Forstall leaves Apple

#190

Post by ok_craig »

travem wrote: post #186
ok_craig wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This makes me wonder - who at Apple decided it was necessary to make their own maps app? It's easy to blame Forstall for a crappy product. But if someone else was responsible for mandating the change, assigning him the project, and pushing an impossible deadline, maybe it's more their fault.

The guy was an SVP, passing the buck isn't really an option at that level. It's about ownership.

I understand. I'm just wondering if he put himself in that position or if someone else did.
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