Is Time Machine's User Interface over the top?

I personally LOVE the interface for Time Machine and have done ever since I first saw the videos for it. It's just cool; with those windows positioned in 3D space, being able to "fly" through them and the little touches such as the stars moving towards you in the background.

I want more of this in Leopard. I want more animations. I want more transparency. I want more graphical effects. But I know it's a matter of personal taste - some people just don't like over the top graphical snaziness.

But having used Compiz/Beryl in Linux and Aero in Vista, I do! So what do you lot think; does the average Mac user yearn for more of this type of interface? Or has it crossed the line and simply become garish?

Personally I can't wait to see what developers come up with when using Core Animation. I've been programming with Windows Presentation Foundation in Vista and it makes impressive looking user interfaces a lot easier to implement than before. It's just a pity that there seems to be hardly any new applications that make use of it - Windows developers have been given such a great tool and yet are not taking advantage of it. I have a feeling that Mac developers are gonna come up with the goods though ...

I haven't had chance to start learning Core Animation in great detail yet (I've been learning Cocoa and Objective C as I've only had a Mac for 6 weeks!) but I've already got some great ideas and I can't wait to implement them.

seanneko said:

To be honest, I'm disappointed that Leopard still doesn't have any sort of animation when opening/closing windows. OK, maybe flames is a bit too excessive, but Vista's fade animations work well.

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I COMPLETELY agree with you on that point mate, in fact it's something I forgot to put in my original comment. The Dock Minimise animation is a great visual clue to where your window just went so you know where it is when you need to access it again.

When you have a lot of windows on screen at once and you open a new one it's easy for it to get lost amongst the rest, especially if an application automatically opened it without your input. In Linux and Vista much needed focus is brought to the new window opening thanks to various animations. But in Mac OS it just seems really static, like there's something missing.

I mean when you open a Finder folder on the desktop there's a cool scale effect to show the new window and where it came from. Why isn't it possible to do the same for all types of windows? Are there any 3rd party apps that can do this? Even on the Dashboard there's the famous ripple effect (although that feels too over the top even for me!).

Even a simple fade would be better than nothing, although I bet Apple could come up with something new and exciting.

thesdx said:

For example, with System Restore, my mom had a hard time understanding exactly what it did and how to use it. With Time Machine, it makes perfect sense to her. Go back in time, get a lost file, and bring it back. I think Time Machine's UI is just perfect.

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That's the same appeal of the iPhone, the Nintendo Wii and the DS. People who are normally easily scared away from technology suddenly finding themselves drawn towards it.

And you know what those three products have in common? They were all advertised in a way on TV that showed them (shock horror) actually being used! No need for clever, stylised, movie style adverts (read PS3) where you don't even know what's being advertised until the product name comes up at the end. These adverts showed exactly how you'd be using the products and that's why so many, non-gamers for example, that I know were doing 180's and wanted to get into gaming.

Same for the iPhone. My sister saw the iPhone adverts and then went into a store to play around with the interface herself (when she was in America), telling me how natural it felt And she was someone who only ever cared about how small a phone looked! Of course the iPhone was cool as well with all its transitions and animations, and that sounds just like Time Machine. Functional but with that added pazazz to draw people in and actually want to use a new technology, or an exisiting technology wrapped up in a nicer way.

I just wish Apple showed their other products actually being used in their TV adverts. If Windows users had seen some of the cool features of Tiger a lot of them may have switched a lot earlier. I never even knew about Expose or that Mac OS's desktop was hardware accelerated until I started reading reviews of Vista. I just assumed that Mac OS was just like every other OS and Apple never advertised in a way to tell me otherwise. Imagine if they showed all the new features of Leopard in the same way they did for the iPhone. That'd bring in a whole new set of customers ...