The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#1

Post by helb » Tue, Jul 26, 2016, 8:02 AM UTC

The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline
nicholaswindsorhoward.com

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#2

Post by codeulike » Tue, Jul 26, 2016, 10:31 AM UTC

Guidelines from 30 years ago dont necessarily get to remain guidelines. Cos stuff changes. We've been using guis for 20 or 30 years now. We dont need to pretend they have shadows or include a realistic depiction of some related artifact in the icon. People just get it now without all that clutter.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#3

Post by arrrg » Tue, Jul 26, 2016, 10:33 AM UTC

It’s not that important a point, but legal pads are a very US phenomena. I’m German and I have never ever seen a yellow pad like that in person. The current notes icon (with white paper) is much more in line with the note pads you would encounter in Germany. Paper people write on to take notes is typically just white. Maybe bound with a spiral on the left or top (and perforated paper to tear off), maybe glued together at the top.

Maybe internationalization was a consideration here? Yellow paper doesn’t read as anything recognizable internationally. (Yellow sticky notes are probably internationally known, though.)

My overall point would also be that taste colors opinions in this case. Or taste at least leaks into them. I think it’s important to be very careful with that and to try and avoid to let taste color too much of what you think. (My taste is very different from that of the author and as such I think many of his points are just plain wrong-footed. There certainly are some good points in there, but taste plays too much of a role.)

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#4

Post by Angostura » Tue, Jul 26, 2016, 10:35 AM UTC

codeulike wrote: post #2

Guidelines from 30 years ago dont necessarily get to remain guidelines. Cos stuff changes. We've been using guis for 20 or 30 years now. We dont need to pretend they have shadows or include a realistic depiction of some related artifact in the icon. People just get it now without all that clutter.

> People just get it now without all that clutter.

That's certainly what the proponents of flat design contend. In terms of measuring usability, I'm not so sure that's true. I've seen people hunting for buttons that didn't quite look like buttons

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#5

Post by abrbhat » Tue, Jul 26, 2016, 10:41 AM UTC

The change appears to be a part of the broader trend towards flat design from realistic design in the UI community. A balanced point of view: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2013/12/infographic-flat-des...

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#6

Post by onion2k » Tue, Jul 26, 2016, 10:42 AM UTC

I agree with the author that OSX has lost a lot of it's personality, but I don't agree with the notion that this is a bad thing. I don't want my OS to have much of a personality. It's a tool for getting things done. The less I see of the OS the better.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#7

Post by greenimpala » Tue, Jul 26, 2016, 10:43 AM UTC

I really agree with this - I thought it was me getting slower but every time I open finder or Dock I have to spend that split second extra effort to discern between the "Applications" folder or "HD" icons etc.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#8

Post by zelos » Tue, Jul 26, 2016, 10:45 AM UTC

The removal of colour from the icons in the Finder sidebar is the change that feels the most clearly anti-usability to me. It clearly makes the items harder to distinguish and has no benefits that I can see apart from fitting in with the flat design concept.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#9

Post by Lio » Tue, Jul 26, 2016, 10:45 AM UTC

codeulike wrote: post #2

Guidelines from 30 years ago dont necessarily get to remain guidelines. Cos stuff changes. We've been using guis for 20 or 30 years now. We dont need to pretend they have shadows or include a realistic depiction of some related artifact in the icon. People just get it now without all that clutter.

I get this argument and I appreciate clean flat GUIs but I also feel without the shadows on buttons they've lost a bit of the affordance and visibility that used to be promoted as important when I studied GUI design.

The classic example of good interface design, I was taught, was the "call lift or elevator" button. The theory goes that no one needs to be shown how to use a lift twice. You see it once and just know what every other lift button does even if they look slightly different.

I realise that that skeuomorphism needn't necessarily map to the computer world but _something_ seems to be forgotten in the current trend for flat, non-skeumorphic designs.

Re: The Apple Goes Mushy Part I: OS X's Interface Decline

#10

Post by dchest » Tue, Jul 26, 2016, 10:46 AM UTC

Above, on the left, you can see the creative, dazzling, H.G.-Wells-spirited Time Machine interface and icon of yesteryear, receding into radiant oblivion (complete with animated stars that drift toward you). Well-crafted, they stirred the right mood. On the right, observe what Apple bulldozed the old Time Machine for: a low-effort cartoony icon in place of the hatch to hyperspace, and a blurred desktop background with flat grey controls in place of a fantastic portal to the past. To me, this "update" to Time Machine stands as one among many sad and uncaring obliterations of the heart Apple used to have.

My head was spinning (literally) every time I used old Time Machine, so I'm glad they removed this silly animation.