What do you think will come after the "Aqua" UI?

[ultmtfloydian]

Hopefully this is in a good place in the forum (if not let me know). We're now approaching the logical end of OS X at this point with the next version 10.9 (unless they proceed directly to 10.10). I wonder what they're going to call the next UI. It would be really disappointing for Apple to slowly phase out the Aqua look completely to go with an iOS type of hybrid thing. Though at this point they are changing a lot of the elements of the UI in combination of both Lion and Mountain Lion. Maybe they'll make a few more major improvements between 10.9 and whatever, and bundle it together as a new one. You think they'll give the next complete UI style a name? I'm very interested what others think.

 

[pdjudd]

We're now approaching the logical end of OS X at this point with the next version 10.9 (unless they proceed directly to 10.10).

Says who??? Version numbers are not decimals - if Apple was to change their branding it wouldn't be because they needed something after 10.9.

 

[ScottishCaptain]

What do you think will come after the "Aqua" UI?

The iOS UI.

-SC

 

[ultmtfloydian]

Says who??? Version numbers are not decimals - if Apple was to change their branding it wouldn't be because they needed something after 10.9.

That's true. I figure that may be an option to just keep going with it as well. Apple is usually really good with these types of things so they'll come up with something interesting.

 

[kmj2318]

A lot of the aqua style has been gradually leaving anyway so it's probably going to continue. I would love to see some mockups of what people think a more iOS style would look in OS X

 

[ultmtfloydian]

A lot of the aqua style has been gradually leaving anyway so it's probably going to continue. I would love to see some mockups of what people think a more iOS style would look in OS X

Yeah that's what I was talking about. They're slowly moving away from it to make it seem like it's a bit unnoticeable. To be honest, it looks more like a Aqua Steel type of theme opposed to an Aqua one now just by the new elements you can see in ML and iCloud . But your right, an iOS OS X (or iOS X as some have dubbed it ) type of UI mockup would be extremely interesting.

 

[laudern]

Agreed. There is not much in the way of Aqua anymore in OS X. I think it will just keep on going down the minimalist road

 

[tkermit]

Agreed. There is not much in the way of Aqua anymore in OS X. I think it will just keep on going down the minimalist road

In some apps at least, there's indeed barely any Aqua left (after 10 years of UI evolution):

 

[ultmtfloydian]

In some apps at least, there's indeed barely any Aqua left (after 10 years of UI evolution):

Yeah it's more of an evolutionary incremental change. It's very interesting considering looking at the transition between Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X was as dramatic as it was, and now it's not so much the case. Instead, it's incremental changes in the later OS X versions. Considering they changed the Dock and the Menu bar in Leopard, they changed a good majority of the interface elements such as the buttons, comboboxes, ect., and then in Mountain Lion, they redid the Dock once again with a shiny metal look. So maybe it is something to do with metal. Maybe Liquid Metal (like the iPhone 5 rumors ). I don't know. It seems like they do changes to the UI immediately opposed to saving them for big overall releases.

 

[swingerofbirch]

We're pretty much full circle back to Platinum.

I'd like something easier on the eyes. Maybe something where the active are you're working in is bright, but the rest of the display is dimmer.

Sometimes when my eyes are tired I hit command-option-control-8. If you haven't before, you're in for a treat.

 

[Aodhan]

Thanks for posting that picture of the old mail client. I forgot how pretty Aqua was. And look at those icons! Those were the days.

Although I don't care for Metro much, I will say I like that Windows 8 is no longer attempting to simulate metals or glass or wood or leather, etc... They went out and created something entirely new and interesting. It's time for Apple to make some bold decisions about its OS design philosophy. It will probably become closer to iOS, which is meh for a desktop in my opinion.

 

[ultmtfloydian]

It does seem like it's making a full circle back to Platinum. But it's vastly improved obviously. That's why I'm hoping they'll go a different direction very similar to their actions on the part of OS 9 to OS X. My actual real prediction is that if any major changes occur, they may make it look like the iCloud applications you would see when using the web version.

 

[sireShonBohn]

Thanks for posting that picture of the old mail client. I forgot how pretty Aqua was. And look at those icons! Those were the days.

Although I don't care for Metro much, I will say I like that Windows 8 is no longer attempting to simulate metals or glass or wood or leather, etc... They went out and created something entirely new and interesting. It's time for Apple to make some bold decisions about its OS design philosophy. It will probably become closer to iOS, which is meh for a desktop in my opinion.

I like texture in my UI. I'm not a fan of flat blocks of color. Metaphors for real life mean something. I agree some things are a tad corny in OSX considering the time period is 2012 and not 1990's when leather everything was big. But the idea of having texture on clickable or touchable objects makes sense to me.

Of course it has to be done right, it can't just be a corny wood texture thrown onto a button, you know, it has to look like an artist shaped it not some clueless programmer.

With the advent of Retina I really think texture will emerge as a major design element. It's just a waste of resolution to have a flat block of color.

 

[theineffablebob]

I like texture in my UI. I'm not a fan of flat blocks of color. Metaphors for real life mean something. I agree some things are a tad corny in OSX considering the time period is 2012 and not 1990's when leather everything was big. But the idea of having texture on clickable or touchable objects makes sense to me.

Of course it has to be done right, it can't just be a corny wood texture thrown onto a button, you know, it has to look like an artist shaped it not some clueless programmer.

With the advent of Retina I really think texture will emerge as a major design element. It's just a waste of resolution to have a flat block of color.

The Condescending UI
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/9/2616204/the-condescending-ui

 

[Watabou]

Wasn't there a rumor of a "marble" UI before Snow Leopard was out? Maybe they are still working on that?

 

[hafr]

We're pretty much full circle back to Platinum.

I'd like something easier on the eyes. Maybe something where the active are you're working in is bright, but the rest of the display is dimmer.

Sometimes when my eyes are tired I hit command-option-control-8. If you haven't before, you're in for a treat.

The keyboard shortcut seems to have been deactivated in ML, and I can't find it... I can only find a checkbox to toggle it.

 

[sireShonBohn]

The Condescending UI
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/9/2616204/the-condescending-ui

Pretty interesting post.

Texture means something though. Even a 1:1 relationship means something, it tells you what something is, where to look for things, how to understand this interface in the same intuitive way you understand a physical object. To be angry about 1:1 (I totally see where he's coming from though) is equivalent to being angry about the physical world.

The metaphor to reality matters in a UI because the physical world has intuitive rules. When you can figure out how to accomplish computing tasks inside of those metaphors such as using pinch to zoom, then you've made something intuitive.

One thing you'll notice in Apple's newer gesture actions is that the user usually has control over the animation itself. So it's not just a symbol that results in an action, but control over the transformation of "space" on the screen, its completing the bio-feedback loop between your intent, your action or touch, and seeing the result of your intent. This makes it memorable, because this is how people learn in the most basic way. It's how we learn to walk, ride a bike, drive a car. We have an intent, we act, and we see and feel the result of that action as we do it. How many tries does it take to remember that turning the wheel of a bike too sharp causes you to fall? One, we learn that instantly. (I did that when I first rode a bike.)

We are built to understand this basic quality of the world, that it has dimension. Why should we hide from that in an ugly abstract space of contrived shapes and words?

 

[Watabou]

The keyboard shortcut seems to have been deactivated in ML, and I can't find it... I can only find a checkbox to toggle it.

It's under System Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts.

 

[hafr]

It's under System Preferences -> Keyboard Shortcuts.

Thank you.

 

[D-a-a-n]

Pretty interesting post.

Texture means something though. Even a 1:1 relationship means something, it tells you what something is, where to look for things, how to understand this interface in the same intuitive way you understand a physical object. To be angry about 1:1 (I totally see where he's coming from though) is equivalent to being angry about the physical world.

The metaphor to reality matters in a UI because the physical world has intuitive rules. When you can figure out how to accomplish computing tasks inside of those metaphors such as using pinch to zoom, then you've made something intuitive.

One thing you'll notice in Apple's newer gesture actions is that the user usually has control over the animation itself. So it's not just a symbol that results in an action, but control over the transformation of "space" on the screen, its completing the bio-feedback loop between your intent, your action or touch, and seeing the result of your intent. This makes it memorable, because this is how people learn in the most basic way. It's how we learn to walk, ride a bike, drive a car. We have an intent, we act, and we see and feel the result of that action as we do it. How many tries does it take to remember that turning the wheel of a bike too sharp causes you to fall? One, we learn that instantly. (I did that when I first rode a bike.)

We are built to understand this basic quality of the world, that it has dimension. Why should we hide from that in an ugly abstract space of contrived shapes and words?

Man you should work for apple..