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Aesthetically, what is Apple doing to themselves?

M

milky23

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 23, 2005
161
0
It seems to me that Apple is making some poor aesthetic choices when it comes to the design of their UI with the upcoming release of Leopard.

The most glaring to me was the modification of the dock and the introduction of angled/tapered edges. Was this change for the mere sake of change? I see no functional improvement to tapering the edges, and to my eye, the change looks amateur.

Apple's decision to switch Front Row over to the AppleTV interface is also a disappointing change. AppleTV's interface looks like a few Apple designers discovered Photoshop layers and went crazy with poorly implemented transparencies and gradients. I sure hope they didn't use the icons from AppleTV too, because Front Row's original icons are superior.

How about the new transparent dock? I'm worried that, much like Vista, getting the wrong colors behind it will make it look like mush. Things end up looking far busier as weird contrasts form depending on the background.

The new finder uses strangely capitalized letters on the side and odd color choices (much like iTunes). Again, to my eye, the old Finder looks more aesthetically pleasing (whether it is more functional or not is not what I'm discussing in this post).

Also, am I the only one who thinks the new Apple website is tacky? Strange gradients, cluttered elements, my eyes feel visually assaulted after visiting.

Anyway, these are just my thoughts, for whatever they are worth. Just want to know if anyone else feels similar, and I don't mean to come across as elitist.
 
I love the all-black all-cornered menu bar, but I don't see the point in the transparency. It just seems too much like Vista, which is never a good thing.

As for the Dock, I think, while beautiful, it won't fit in. The 'stage' it's on is great looking, but what if you have an app maximised? And I wonder how they've implemented this new design into a Dock on the left or right of the screen...

PS: anyone else notice the cool glowy things to symbolise an open app?
 
Calm down, let's talk about this in a month or better yet, when Leopard is released.

It just seems to me, that everyone is going nuts before even trying it out.
 
The angled dock makes sense. First, because it's now lower than the icon tops, it takes up less screen space. It will also be less visually weird when the stacks interface is used. I don't see why this would be a problem when having the dock on the side. We already know from bouncing icons that gravity exists on all edges of OS X screens, so there is no need to fear the the icons will slide off and collect at the bottom.

The background also leaks through the current dock, this isn't really a gigantic change.

Transparent menu bar: What. Ever. The menus themselves have the same partial transparency they always did, this is all in all a really, really minor change.

Front Row more like Apple TV: This is a good thing. Apple UIs have been going in all sorts of contradictory directions over the past several years, it's about time they started paying some attention to the consistency that made the Mac's reputation way back when.
 
The dock doesn't have tapered edges. It's supposed to be a flat surface extending into the desktop, thus the reflective features. At first I too thought it was silly to make a lame change like the angling but now that I saw the demo on the Apple website, it looks awesome.
 
cowm007 said:
The dock doesn't have tapered edges. It's supposed to be a flat surface extending into the desktop
Click to expand...
Which is why it'll look really stupid if you keep your Dock at the side, as I always have. I see no point whatever in the transparent Menubar: I want to be able to read it as easily as possible.
 
I've got to admit, and I say this without having watched the keynote video yet which will probably make me change my tune, I'm in no hurry to run out and install Leopard on all our machines.

I'll check it out, play with it for a good amount of time in Apple stores, and switch when I'm comfortable.

Tiger is just such a brilliant OS, I love it so much. I wont go forwards only to go backwards. Time will tell!
 
I think the new interface is sexy. Huge improvement over brushed metal, aqua, etc. It seems much easier on the eye to me. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to use it to find out what I really think when October comes around.
 
i love the site design, but i do share the sentiment that they should have kept the Front Row icons for Apple TV and the new Leopard Front row. It is much more sophiticated where as the icons on AppleTV look too simple.

As for the dock, I can't wait to get rid of it, I am not loving the IMPLEMENTATION of the 3d. I like the idea of a 3d dock but it looks rather ugly.

The semi-transparent menu bar..... I think they took the cue from all the hacks to get rid of the menubar and did that. I don't like how they are doing it. i wish we can set the transparency.

The stacks at an angle.... why? I wish they kept it simple. :(
 
Steve puts the new dock on the side in the keynote, and it looks great. Better, even.
 
SpaceJello said:
The stacks at an angle.... why? I wish they kept it simple. :(
Click to expand...

This is just a slightly educated guess, but the hand and arm's normal and most natural movement (using a mouse) is in an arc, making it easier if the stack is at slight angle. This is just a guess of course, but I wouldn't put it past Apple to have thought about something as minute as this.
 
while i think i'd still use a customized theme when i upgrade to 10.5, i think leopard's UI still looks better than tiger's.
 
people sit and moan, "oh my we have had the same GUI in the last 4 revisions of this system I want something new"

Now it's, "oh I don't like it, it seems they just made it look different"

Well you wanted different, you got it.
Personally I like it. I am not the biggest fan of the vista style menu bar, but really all the other stuff is nice.

I bought an :apple: TV because I like the interface better then front row. Now I could have just got that mac mini.....
 
I'm also not sure whether I like the new look or not. I think it all looks very amateurish and, dare I say it, a little Vistaey. The reflecting, tapered dock and transparent menu bar just look a little tacky IMO, and are useless eye-candy that serves no useful purpose. The dock now looks like the crappy fake docks you can get for Linux or Windows.

But it may just be because it's so different from what I see in front of me. Does anyone know when Apple are putting the keynote up for us all the get a good impression of what it's like in use?

EDIT: However stacks look awesome!
 
It's already up.


You all bitch now, I don't like it either (alotta people hated iTunes 5) but we all get used to it, then eventually grow to like it more.

I think panther had the UI spot on, up til now.

Vista is gaining in popularity, mainstream consumers love fancy visual effects and shiny/transparent things - it makes computers seem somewhat magical.

This means alotta people will like it, and those who don't, will get used to it.

No functional UI improvements, in fact, some clashes with apple's own HI-Guidelines (That's not new *cough* mail 2.0 *cough*) so it shouldn't affect the way we play.

but god damn if front row isn't hideous. I think the iTV should have used front row. Maybe it was getting a little too Sony-XMB for apple?

(I still hold that the XMB is the best media access layout. Ps3 definitely has the upper hand over Xbox360 there) - i may have become a little distracted :p
 
I like a lot of Leopards new features - I can see good use of "stacking" in the dock for example. But the reflection in the "dock floor" is just soooooo corny :eek: - I really hope that can be turned off. Also that floor makes the dock take up more space which I also thing is stupid.
 
Am I the ONLY person who was impressed???? :confused:

The reflective dock looks great, but for me that doesn't make much difference since I keep it hidden below the screen most of the time cause I don't need it. The addition of 'the cool lighting thing' is a way better than the little black arrow that indicates open applications in Tiger, and is the dock actually transparent, or is it just lightly reflecting the picture above it? I can't tell.

I thought the aesthetic changes that they made were really well done, they haven't gone 'shiny-crazy' like MS did in Vista and I can honestly say I was impressed with the new Desktop as well as the new finder (that one might be erring on the side of revolution) along with all the new features that brings, coverflow willbe excellent for flicking through stuff.

Then there's quicklook, but we're not talking about that, :p .

Seriously though, this has been the first OS upgrade since I switched (my first mac was a 2nd Gen G5 iMac in July 2 years ago) and I'm really impressed with what Apple has come up with in the space of 2 years. I don't know if you guys are used to greater things, but the redesigned Finder, Quicklook, Time Machine and Spaces are all well worth the price of the upgrade!

Boy that was a tangent, sorry guys. :eek:
 
Remember that we have no idea which of these features are going to be forced on us, and which we can change. We've always had a customizable dock, maybe now we will have a "classic" and a "brand new shiny 'pick this one'" option. That way we can try them out and eventually give in to the fact that we probably prefer the new one.

Steve was dressing to impress at the keynote, showing all available new features of Leopard, so don't completely freak out (although I do admit I'm a little skeptical...).

EDIT: PS, i just discovered resizable text boxes in Safari 3. Crazy stuff!
 
haven't gone 'shiny-crazy' like MS did in Vista
Click to expand...

Transparency (in a menu bar that you have to read) and reflections? I have to disagree, to me it seems like they have gone "shiny-crazy" in some sort of effort to outdo Vista.

Yes the stacks look great and seem very useful, but everything else looks tacky and serves no particular purpose. I especially dislike the new dock and ZOMG reflections. Pointless, looks tacky and far less elegant than the current offering.

The thing I like about 10.4 is that all the eye-candy serves a purpose and isn't simply there to pimp out the OS. The coverflow in the new Finder typifies my problem with the new Leopard look, as it's utterly useless for finding what you need quickly. In a music application it kinda makes sense for albums (although I don't use it), but in the Finder? I don't want to spend all day scrolling through massive icons with flashy animations just to find a word document or something.

I want simplicity and elegance from 10.5, not the "wow" of Vista.

EDIT: And speaking of which, where are all the "top secret" features that Steve was worried Vista would steal? If anything it seems the other way around, with 10.5 stealing the eye candy from Vista.
 
When i personally saw the new finder i wanted to throw up, its absolutely DISGUSTING, its the worst design ive ever seen IMO

They better let us have a way of setting it back to how it looks in Tiger, besides that i do agree the dock looks like it was changed just to be changed
 
01jamcon said:
This is just a slightly educated guess, but the hand and arm's normal and most natural movement (using a mouse) is in an arc, making it easier if the stack is at slight angle. This is just a guess of course, but I wouldn't put it past Apple to have thought about something as minute as this.
Click to expand...

Thats exactly what I thought, and why I'm glad they've made it curved. For me, at least, its easier to move the mouse up in a slight arc, than just straight up.

I am really excited about Leopard.
 
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