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New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

aentan.com

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Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#31

Post by r00fus »

I don't think the new proportions are better.

For example, the first comparison http://cl.ly/9RHh if you look closely, the list on the left has a slight left indent, whereas the list on the left (new dimensions) is aligned directly with the buttons above it.

The original list looks "better" to me, as it coveys a subtle sense of depth that the redesign removes. The Likeables app look very WP7-metro to me and alien to the iOS platform. Not saying it's worse, but would work better in a properly tiled OS system.

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#32

Post by ary »

saurik wrote: post #7

Yeah, despite the hype, Apple doesn't pay /that/ much attention to this stuff: they mostly succeed at these design issues because their direct competition is ludicrously incompetent at it ;P. (Seriously: Android needs to hire a UX designer, although I will say that 3.x is getting much better.) If you want a really awesome example, here's one that I noticed when I was first developing Cydia a few years ago, and had to…

> Seriously: Android needs to hire a UX designer, although I will say that 3.x is getting much better.

You're not familiar with Matias Duarte then?

http://allthingsd.com/20100527/exclusive-palm-loses-mobile-d...

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#33

Post by saurik »

ary wrote: post #32
saurik wrote: post #7

Yeah, despite the hype, Apple doesn't pay /that/ much attention to this stuff: they mostly succeed at these design issues because their direct competition is ludicrously incompetent at it ;P. (Seriously: Android needs to hire a UX designer, although I will say that 3.x is getting much better.) If you want a really awesome example, here's one that I noticed when I was first developing Cydia a few years ago, and had to…

> Seriously: Android needs to hire a UX designer, although I will say that 3.x is getting much better. You're not familiar with Matias Duarte then? http://allthingsd.com/20100527/exclusive-palm-loses-mobile-d...

I was familiar with him, but I was not up-to-date on the fact that he was now is working for Android... that is AMAZING!

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#34

Post by jpadvo »

vaporstun wrote: post #8

"If you divide 480 by 44 you get a remain­der of 20. Divide by 11 and you get a remain­der of 9. 460 can­not be divided into equal parts of 11 nor 44. The ver­ti­cal rhythm is corrupt." I would actually argue that the remainders are a good thing. When viewing a list, they act as a nice visual indicator that there is more content below. If the last item directly lined up with the bottom of the screen, it would not be…

I think this gets at a key misunderstanding in the post. The purpose of a grid is not to align everything to pixel perfection, but to assist in generating an interface that communicates well and is attractive. Departures from the grid sizing can have a variety of benefits:

1) Visually distinguish navigational elements from content 2) Account for visual weight of different elements to create a stronger perception of rythm 3) Give some warmth and life to the design so it doesn't feel sterile and robotic 4) Indicating continuation of content (as you very nicely explain)

As the Dalai Lama said, "Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively."

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#36

Post by VladRussian »

i'd rarely say this, yet this is the case where i see the genius of Jobs (rumored to be himself choosing/approving designs) - this proposed alternative, 4-grid one http://aentan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/alternateUI.png just looks completely "lifeless", boring. Slight asymmetry, non-proportionality, oddity, etc... are the attributes of life.

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#38

Post by program »

drdaeman wrote: post #35

It was surprising that there are pixels involved. I thought in a world where we have all sort of displays, varying with both size and pixel density, using pixels to measure size of GUI elements is out-of-date.

In iOS all UI measures are expressed in points and not in pixels. Saying 44 pixels is simply wrong. In the iPhone 4 the screen has the exact same size of the 3G but a scale factor of two so every point is two pixel.

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#39

Post by ggchappell »

jpadvo wrote: post #34
vaporstun wrote: post #8

"If you divide 480 by 44 you get a remain­der of 20. Divide by 11 and you get a remain­der of 9. 460 can­not be divided into equal parts of 11 nor 44. The ver­ti­cal rhythm is corrupt." I would actually argue that the remainders are a good thing. When viewing a list, they act as a nice visual indicator that there is more content below. If the last item directly lined up with the bottom of the screen, it would not be…

I think this gets at a key misunderstanding in the post. The purpose of a grid is not to align everything to pixel perfection, but to assist in generating an interface that communicates well and is attractive. Departures from the grid sizing can have a variety of benefits: 1) Visually distinguish navigational elements from content 2) Account for visual weight of different elements to create a stronger perception of r…

> As the Dalai Lama said, "Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively."

FWIW, this appears to be a misattribution.

http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/hoaxes/dalai.asp

Re: New Visual Proportions for the iOS User Interface

#40

Post by tiddchristopher »

contrast wrote: post #26

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 thi…

One of the things vertical rhythm's used for is making two parallel columns of text align with each other at regular intervals. From my limited knowledge of music, every measure of a song, the song's elements align. In a design, every measure (baseline), the design's elements align. By align, I don't mean with some arbitrary measure, but with the other elements.

Here's a quick example I made: http://i.imgur.com/NEc92.png

You do make a good point: When you get into single-column layouts, like a solo in a song, having mathematical vertical rhythm is irrelevant.

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