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Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

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Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#881

Post by llm_nerd »

llm_nerd wrote: post #206
wmf wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean Aero Glass from Windows 7? Metro is a flat design that looks nothing like this.

I assume they might be talking more to the "universal design" aspect. Though Apple has long had a universal design across platforms. Not always in lockstep, but visual traits and behaviours and traits and appearances end up in all of their platforms, which even if it wasn't logical from a design perspective, there is loads of shared code so it's inevitable. But really a lot of what they showed today reminded me most…

As a followup on this, it's notable that Apple has changed the title of the linked post to "Apple introduces a delightful and elegant new software design", making the subtitle "A universal design across platforms brings more focus to content and a new level of vitality while maintaining the familiarity of Apple’s software"

Everyone was keying on the universal design thing, and the seeming importance of "introduces" as if this is a first, and it was such an odd thing for Apple to denote given that they have been using a universal design for a long, long time.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#882

Post by tempodox »

SirMaster wrote: post #875
dimal wrote: 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…

Fortunately you can turn off the transparency in accessibility options. https://preview.redd.it/zzxh77iv906f1.png?width=2358&format=...

+1. I wish they would concentrate more on bug fixes instead of adding “features” you have to turn off to make the OS usable.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#883

Post by tempodox »

srg0 wrote: post #848
highwaylights wrote: post #441

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironic that it's the 20th anniversary of this other design masterpiece: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Scree... I don't know that a redesign was called for at all. I guess they needed to show something if Siri still isn't ready, but this is just not it. I'd have personally hoped for them to beef up iCloud+ but I know it doesn't sell devices to the general user.

That's probably driven by some kind of an AR headset. AR can't properly render solids, so it is stuck with having everything transparent. Now it won't look worse than everything else.

Because everything else looks worse instead. That's one way to solve it, I guess.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#884

Post by debo_ »

adastra22 wrote: post #766
stalco wrote: post #397

I installed it. I really wanted to love it but it’s bad. It’s very busy and the proportions in the Settings app are awful. It’s on the “cozy” side of things (as opposed to “compact”). This means you see less options at one time on the screen and have to scroll more around the OS to get where you need to. As for accessibility… It’s hell. Have a look: https://imgur.com/a/6ZTCStC

That screenshot is utterly unreadable. It makes my eyes hurt. For the young people out there, I'm not exaggerating or being metaphorical. Literally pain in my eyes as they try (and fail) to focus on the appropriate UI elements. I was going to upgrade to an iPhone 16 this week. I might be checking out Google or Samsung devices instead.

You might want to look at the new design language that Android is going for:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43975352

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#885

Post by tempodox »

andrekandre wrote: post #601
RollingRo11 wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently replying from my iPhone 16 pro (granted, not old by any means) on the iOS 26 dev beta. MOST things actually feel smoother/snappier than iOS 18. Safari is a joy to use from a performance perspective. It’s in beta so ofc I’m getting a ton of frame hitches, overheating, etc. but my summarized initial thoughts are “it’ll take some getting used to, but it feels pretty fast”

> It’s in beta so ofc I’m getting a ton of frame hitches, overheating how is battery-life?

Since overheating was already mentioned, I give you one guess how that affects battery life.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#886

Post by tsimionescu »

mulmen wrote: post #808
tsimionescu wrote: post #746

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because AR glasses, by definition, overlay an interface onto the real world that you are seeing through the transparent glasses. VR glasses like the VisionPRO can add a video stream of your surroundings, but they are physically opaque and thus don't suffer from this limitation.

But why does the interface have to be transparent? Why can't it just be opaque then disappear when not needed and/or be placed in the periphery?

If we're still speaking about AR glasses, no current technology can make the images more opaque than the screen itself. So if the screen itself is transparent, whatever you draw on it with light will be at best as opaque as the screen - so, still transparent.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#888

Post by SirMaster »

thesuitonym wrote: post #329
dimal wrote: 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…

I'd argue that it doesn't even look that cool or futuristic. Kind of looks like Windows 7. That said, Windows 7 had an option to turn off all the translucency, so hopefully Apple ripped that idea, too.

There has been a reduce transparency option in iOS and it has this effect on the new OS.

https://preview.redd.it/zzxh77iv906f1.png?width=2358&format=...

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#889

Post by dkarl »

slt2021 wrote: post #282
austinl wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is also likely a performance nightmare. Funny that they mention that "new hardware has enabled us to..." which means that this will perform poorly on old devices. At a previous company, we were forbidden from using translucency (with a few exceptions) because of the performance cost of blending. There are debugging tools we'd use fairly often to confirm that all layers were opaque.

these performance hungry "improvements" are forcefully introduced to legitimately slow down older devices and force the device refresh across the user base. I have been using 8 year old iPhone just fine, but features like these over time will make the experience slower and slower and slower, until I am forced to refresh my iphone

More likely it's a result of pressure to ship highly visible "improvements," combined with a lack of ideas that could improve the experience in a meaningful way. What do you do in that situation? Ship an obvious UI update that wouldn't have performed on the last gen hardware.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#890

Post by azinman2 »

adastra22 wrote: post #767
azinman2 wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple Maps is actually great now.

Depends on your region. It is fantastic in Cupertino. It is literally unusable in Japan or Taiwan. Literally--it will fail to get directions or even find your destination (typing in English or the local language).

Really? I’ve had it work very well in Japan for me. Taiwan I’ve never tried.
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