iamwhoiam Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 MS' standards are almost nonexistent. I won't mention Windows 7 because it is unreleased. Look at Vista instead. Consider applications in Vista. None of them works in the same way as any other. Only one of them (Notepad) uses the "native" built-in appearance (i.e. the one most easily available to third-party software). Many of them have features in common: opening and saving files, typing words, editing properties, and yet somehow they conspire to all do so differently. It is a total mess. These aren't just minor failures of consistency, either. The people responsible for these applications have deliberately chosen to give the platform's standard look and feel the finger. That's bad enough for standalone applications; it's even worse when some of those applications are part of the platform itself. There isn't even any kind of internal consistency. The Explorer Window and the IE window look, at first glance, to be similar; similar graphical style for the forward/back button, for example. But they're not. The spacing is different; the drop-down arrow in the IE window has more space around it than the counterpart in Explorer. Even when the same nonstandard concept is used, it's done differently. Windows Live Messenger, Internet Explorer, and Windows Media Player all have a "hidden" menu bar. The menu bar is still there, just not visible by default. And each one of them exposes its menu bar in a different way, doing essentially the same thing gratuitously differently. It might well be that getting rid of the menu bar is a good idea?but there's no justification at all for making them all similar-but-different. Taken alone, these are all fairly minor things. Put together, the interface is just completely shambolic. It looks amateurish. The quirks of each new interface have to be learned anew. This slap-dash approach to look-and-feel gives the impression of a platform that no one really cares about. That same contempt for norms and standards inflicts third-party applications. And, really, why shouldn't it? If Microsoft can't be bothered to make Windows applications that feel like Windows applications, why should anyone else go to the effort? And even if a developer does want to go to the effort, what's he meant to take his cues from? Should he copy IE? WMP? Explorer? Notepad? Office? Visual Studio? To add insult to injury, it's wasteful. Explorer and IE may look similar, but they're different codebases. The code to give that kind of no-menu window with an address bar and a search box and this and that, it's not shared between the two. It might have been at one time. But now it's not. So there's twice the development effort to create and maintain these applications. What could have been done once now has to be done twice. And again for Word, and Outlook, and Visual Studio, and Visio, and Expression Blend. Each time I have to learn a new UI, some team at Microsoft had to write a new UI and test a new UI and maintain a new UI. That's not a good use of their time, when they could have done it once. Mac OS X is by no means perfect in this regard, but it's nowhere near as bad. Applications like the Finder and iTunes establish certain norms and conventions, and third-party applications do a pretty good job of following these (or adapting them to new situations). There aren't OS X applications where the menu bar works totally differently. Apple hasn't produced a different UI style for each and every application. Sure, they do have more than one style?the "pro" apps (Aperture, FCP, etc.) use a darker scheme than normal apps?but there's still an order of magnitude more consistency and coherence on OS X than on Windows. Apple cares about appearances and Apple provides strong GUI models to copy. The result? Third parties produce good-looking applications that work like the OS they run on. And accordingly, users demand that their applications conform to the overall look and feel of the platform. That's been a major gripe of mine for years and years. They always hammer home guide lines to follow when developing code and UIneverer follow any of their own rules. I've stuck with older applications from Microsoft and others for the simple fact that they have a 'native' interface to them. Look at Office 2007. You'd think than an application suite would be 100% unified in the way it looks. Hell, each of the applications included in O2K7 aren't even consistant with the same application. They skin one part and leave other parts as native. I'm not a big fan of Apple, but I do think their UI is nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PyX Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 I would be more than happy with the MobileMe elements though. With the pictures you posted, I completely agree. Better than illuminous and that other black interface. Black, for an OS, is certainly not a good choice. MS was wrong by choosing that colour, maybe it even pushed them using so much transparency everywhere, so that we don't notice that everything's-so-black-it's-imposible-a-company-designed-that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 I would be more than happy with the MobileMe elements though. wow....that looks really good, I hope they'll use them for the OS too :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTD Posted January 19, 2009 Author Share Posted January 19, 2009 Those MobileMe elements are very elegant, I have to admit. Apple has plenty to draw from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeR Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 I do like the MobileMe UI elements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sundayx Veteran Posted January 19, 2009 Veteran Share Posted January 19, 2009 Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomis_nehc Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Still love the Tiger look the most. Leopard is fug to me. The posted link to the possible UI is fug to me as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Death Proof Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 apple is awesome & whatever they will create is gonna be uber good looking & functional, that's all we need to know PERIOD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rudy Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 apple is awesome & whatever they will create is gonna be uber good looking & functional, that's all we need to know PERIOD i would disagree with that comment..... *points to early OSX and OS9* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTD Posted January 21, 2009 Author Share Posted January 21, 2009 i would disagree with that comment..... *points to early OSX and OS9* But even the early OS X was better than OS 9 and other iterations of the old "System" series. But that might not be saying much. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+John. Subscriber¹ Posted January 21, 2009 Subscriber¹ Share Posted January 21, 2009 I'm looking forward to this if it turns out to be true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillz Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 But even the early OS X was better than OS 9 and other iterations of the old "System" series. But that might not be saying much. ;) Hardly. Mac OS X lost basic functionality like DVD burning that even Mac OS 9 had. It was also far slower and buggier until at least the first few point releases of Jaguar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Decryptor Veteran Posted January 22, 2009 Veteran Share Posted January 22, 2009 I know right. I thought I was the only one who can't stand iTunes scrollbars. They're terrible. This is totally what Snow Leopard is going to look like:... That's not much better I would be more than happy with the MobileMe elements though.... They're ok though, I'd hate to see the UI mismatches if the UI changes to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PL_ Veteran Posted January 23, 2009 Veteran Share Posted January 23, 2009 This is totally what Snow Leopard is going to look like: Bad menu bar, remember how transparent it was in the Leopard beta? And the complaints? Other than that...I think I'd like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suspiria Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Possible Mac OS X Snow Leopard UI screenshot? This UI only seems natural given iTunes and the iLife apps... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Menge Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 Possible Mac OS X Snow Leopard UI screenshot? i saw that linked on DaringFireball and i LOLed :p i can't wait to see some new screenshots of snow lewie, though :) edit: i like how they updated everything to match Leopard, except the "Special" menubar item and how "Desktop" is misspelled, too :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTD Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 Nix that black menu bar and I could totally deal with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giga Veteran Posted January 24, 2009 Veteran Share Posted January 24, 2009 Possible Mac OS X Snow Leopard UI screenshot?This UI only seems natural given iTunes and the iLife apps... Wow. Looks amazing.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoL Veteran Posted January 24, 2009 Veteran Share Posted January 24, 2009 I would be more than happy with the MobileMe elements though.http://localhostr.com/files/cf3257/Picture%202.png http://localhostr.com/files/13cb37/Picture%201.png http://toki-woki.net/blog/wp-content/uploa...ileme-chops.png SuperDocker actually uses them: http://localhostr.com/files/5cdc85/Picture...%2020-03-56.png That is a lot better than the current iTunes UI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTD Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 That is a lot better than the current iTunes UI. Except for that gradient here: http://localhostr.com/files/5cdc85/Picture...%2020-03-56.png Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thealexweb Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 This is totally what Snow Leopard is going to look like: Ouch what is that? It's looks dreadful. Also on a separate note it reminds me of Linux for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikonizer Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 Ouch what is that? It's looks dreadful. Also on a separate note it reminds me of Linux for some reason. It probably reminds you of Linux because most UI's in Linux distros have a big and bloated appearance about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reimroc Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 Aqua was amazing, but designs always move on. I think Marble is the next logical step. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonathan84 Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 This is totally what Snow Leopard is going to look like: It looks a lot like Windows Vista and WMP11. And people here would always point out how ugly that was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTD Posted January 24, 2009 Author Share Posted January 24, 2009 It looks a lot like Windows Vista and WMP11. And people here would always point out how ugly that was. That looks absolutely nothing like Vista, and thank God for that. http://blog.windowsvistamagazine.co.uk/res...led-windows.jpg http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsme.../11/design.aspx And we don't exactly know what the UI in Snow Leopard will look like. But you can bet it will be as far from Vista-like as Albuquerque is from Afghanistan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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