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Lol, so you're saying that a keyboard with a travel height that's higher than the height of the entire macbook works better than whatever Apple's using? No **** sherlock, but we don't want laptops with a height of 5cm... It's a laptop so you always have to compromise compared to a desktop setup weather that is with the keyboard, or the mouse/touchpad or the size of the screen.
I like hyperboles, but the crazy large trackpad and crazy thin machine are just a London bridge too far.
My perfect MacBook keybaord was the MBAir’s - and I can type half a document on the flimseyboards before running mad. Then I buy another Maxxon BT wherever I am (its height is 2 cm instead of 5)
When I’ve collected more than 50 of them I’ll probably deposit them to the nearest AppleStore so they can bother Ive to the max with that pile.
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Hmmm

Does Angela Ahrendt understand what IS EARTH day ??

Maybe she thinks it just wearing green ??

I mean seriously , some people think Obamacare and ACA are 2 different things !!

I mean Angela is a fashion expert , what does she know about going green ? They design clothes and then uses enough energy to power a village to showcase their “new” designs ...

Can some one ask Angela point blank , DOES she know what is Earth Day ??
Don’t make it too hard for her with Earth Day - she’s from another planet.
 
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Yes that's noble and all, but imagine the water used by washing those 6-9 shirts.... Unless they are truly being disgusting, like the flip flop guy.

So you're basically saying it would be more economical to go ... shirtless? :)
 
Apple Store employees are confusing... In pictures and stores they seem happy and excited in the news the complain about wages and other issues
 
Funny, very few of others' rants against Apple I've read here would I consider to be bashing. Most seem to be deserved critiques by those who prefer Apple products, centering not on nit-picking but moreso on questionable priorities and seeking solutions to non-problems. I would tend to agree that any significant money spent on green t-shirts or blue t-shirts or fake or real trees in stores or different table layouts by Mrs. Ahrendts is wasted money worthy of criticism. I've been in dozens of slightly different Apple stores and not one helped or hurt my shopping or buying process. Misplaced priorites IMHO as Apple softens and loses its razor-sharp focus compared to ~10 years ago and prior, and worthy of the occasional jab & critique. How many times in life have you had the time of your life in a dive bar where you'd want to wash your hands if you accidentally touched the floor or underside of a table? Apple adds way too much fashion into unnecessary "priorities" nowadays, be it green t-shirts, or adding more greys & whites to stores, or removing all semblance of inspired design from their software, or creating an all-glass maze of office spaces where workers are accidentally walking into glass walls & doors. In the least, it's misplaced spending that's raising the costs of hardware we buy. At worst, it's resulting in over-redesigning and minimalization for change for the sake of change.

I think most critiques are well deserved, here as I type using OSX Mavericks, the last pretty OSX as far as I'm concerned, and with my MacBook Air, the last best-overall-balanced computer Apple's made. :)

Great post. I agree - criticism is OK. I was more focusing on those accounts who you can completely tell they hate everything apple and spend their entire day bashing Apple fans. But your post is a post I agree with 100%. Most posts are not blatant bashing. Agreed about the Tees. I say shirtless! :) And agreed about Apple losing its razor sharp focus - I miss it too. I am the first to complain about how easy it is to upgrade my 2011 Mac Mini and how they made it 3x more difficult in my wife's 2014 Mac Mini. :p
 
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So you're basically saying it would be more economical to go ... shirtless? :)

Not in the least, just saying if you're providing 2-3 shirts for an employee to wear during the work week, they'll have to do laundry twice to make it through (if they want clean shirts). I work at a K-12 school and have a uniform, but I'm given enough to make it through the week without washing. Surely the most valuable company in the world could help with that...

I'm an apple guy, but the past few years I've become less of one due to the "pomp and circumstance" over product.
 
I like hyperboles, but the crazy large trackpad and crazy thin machine are just a London bridge too far.
My perfect MacBook keybaord was the MBAir’s - and I can type half a document on the flimseyboards before running mad. Then I buy another Maxxon BT wherever I am (its height is 2 cm instead of 5)
When I’ve collected more than 50 of them I’ll probably deposit them to the nearest AppleStore so they can bother Ive to the max with that pile.
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Don’t make it too hard for Angela with Earth Day - she’s from another planet.

Again 2cm is more height than the entire macbook is and also again people don't want a laptop that's 3cm in height because of the keyboard travel. Which is what Ive would tell you. But it's easy to stand on the sides complaining and comparing non-comparable things with each other.
 
Again 2cm is more height than the entire macbook is and also again people don't want a laptop that's 3cm in height because of the keyboard travel. Which is what Ive would tell you. But it's easy to stand on the sides complaining and comparing non-comparable things with each other.
Whole issue could have been solved with 3..5 mm increase of thickness
 
"Apple bashing" in any variety is strange to me. It's a consumer electronics and computer company. It would be like seeking out ways to shame owners of Bose headphones or Hyundai Sonata's. Isn't it a personal choice? I, too, have used Windows since 3.11, and I've built hundreds of custom PCs. Around 2007, I decided to try a Mac because of the Intel architecture and dual boot support. This gave me an opportunity to try something new without jumping the familiar ship. Since then, I've bought into the Apple ecosystem owning several iPhones, iPads and other devices. However, as a designer, I still spend most of my time at a desktop. The petty nuances between modern phones are largely uninteresting to me, and I only continue to own an iPhone because it works more fluidly with my Mac and iPad. On the totem pole, it rests very low, which is why I'm still sporting a 6.

Ultimately, I'm confounded by Android and Apple users slinging mud at each other over personal consumer choices. Competition breeds better and more varied choices for buyers, and that's a healthy prospect for everyone, isn't it? I understand intimately that if I choose PCs and Androids over Macs and iPhones I have better customization, more flexibility, and a more open system. It just so happens that I prefer the UI design of Apple's garden, a closed and safer system, and a company that is far less invasive in terms of privacy than say, Google. The only criticism I despise is the notion that Apple users are all wealthy morons who are neither tech savvy enough to understand their alternatives, or too easily duped by sensual marketing. I understand the differences quite well, but I have specific tastes, and I have a preference.
 
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Is it just me, or does it seem a bit odd to celebrate Earth Day by creating and shipping tonnes of product half way around the world?

Necessary evil. China has the largest accessible cache of the rare earth metal needed to make computer components and they refuse to let anyone export raw material. So companies are forced to have the chips made in China even if they assemble else where.
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That's gonna be good for the earth buying new t-shirts to wear for a week.

They tend to wear them for more like a month. But I agree that it doesn’t seem very ‘green’ to do even that. They should just switch full stop. Not even to the holiday red. This green stands out pretty well, it’s not a bright garish color it seems and not as dark as the navy. Just make it the new uniform color
 
Ultimately, I'm confounded by Android and Apple users slinging mud at each other over personal consumer choices. Competition breeds better and more varied choices for buyers, and that's a healthy prospect for everyone, isn't it?

Especially since iOS looks more and more like Android since 2013. :mad::(:eek:
 
iOS looks like iOS to me. Android looks like Android.

I'm jealous you think they look different. Ever since iOS7, iOS has looked like a me-too follower mashup of the flat design of Windows Phone OS and the flat, lower-contrasty Material Design of Android, both of which needed to differentiate themselves from the world-class iOS (that back then "looked like iOS" to me) before iOS7.
 
I'm jealous you think they look different. Ever since iOS7, iOS has looked like a me-too follower mashup of the flat design of Windows Phone OS and the flat, lower-contrasty Material Design of Android, both of which needed to differentiate themselves from the world-class iOS (that back then "looked like iOS" to me) before iOS7.

If I remember correctly, one of the lead designers was ousted (or resigned) from the days of iOS 7 and before. You have to understand, it's less about Apple copying than it is Apple following design trends. Look around, everyone has shifted toward large negative spaces, flatter designs, and less clutter. As a designer, I can tell you most certainly these are design trends which have manifested across the UI spectrum. I recently booted up an old 2008 iMac running some ancient version of OSX, and the textures were more pronounced, the icons were more detailed, and none of it much looked like the modern design we have today.

It can be debated which design aesthetic is better, but these are largely interpretive choices that companies make. I used to be the Creative Director for a company called 321 Studios back in 2001-2003, and one of my responsibilities was the UI design in software (a terribly different time). When choices are made in software UI design, it's largely driven by the interpretation of consumer demand and what they expect to 'see'. There's a continual effort to simplify, strip away unnecessary detail, and focus deeply on minimizing the UI experience. It was not uncommon for a Chief to drag an ignorant consumer into my office and demand that I work with them to meet their simple needs on our next version of software. This was not at all appealing to me, but it opened ideas into how average users of technology are attracted to software they otherwise feel intimidated by. It's not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it's a piece of the pie.

I do think iOS and Android look similar, but I too notice the differences. Perhaps the differences are less pronounced than they used to be, but they are still clear to me. As I mentioned before, my heart lies in the desktop experiences, and comparing, say Windows 10 to Mac OS is still vastly different in aesthetic and appeal. One could argue Microsoft has adapted ideas from Apple in this arena. Ultimately though, all companies should be deeply invested in simplifying the UI experience of their software and devices because consumers demand it, and design has shifted the playing field and the rules.
 
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If I remember correctly, one of the lead designers was ousted (or resigned) from the days of iOS 7 and before.

From what I read (and which I know we can trust only so far), Forstall was ousted partially because he & Jony didn't get along, and Jony was rising in power. Jony, the guy whose idea of a Christmas tree for the warmest holiday and most-loving time of year is a lonely undecorated uncluttered tree in a wash of cold silver harshness. LINK I don't know but certainly am curious to know whether or not Forstall worked on iOS7 or if he called it straight out for the pile of unnecessary changes it was, and then p.'d off Jony.

You have to understand, it's less about Apple copying than it is Apple following design trends. Look around, everyone has shifted toward large negative spaces, flatter designs, and less clutter.

Do you believe that Apple followed a trend? I feel Apple is, for better or for worse, the main trendsetter that everyone ELSE follows and not vice versa. Samsung phones physically morphed to look like iPhones, along with their software. Look back to the lawsuits of ~2008. Laptops started looking more like MacBooks.. As far as I recall, and I could be wrong, Windows and Windows phone's Metro Design appeared well before iOS7. I distinctly recall seeing the awful, flat, white/blue Windows Metro UI and thinking it was a mock-up or parody, but that it made sense for MicroSoft to come up with something different than Apple's iOS. Well how more perfectly different can you get other than to create the most bland, white, boring and unintuitive UI imaginable? I also recall the emergence of flat design, especially from Google, arising well before iOS 7, where to me it stuck out like a sore thumb as an example of lazy, uninspired, and overly simple boring doing design. Cue Steve Jobs dying, and Jony's penchant for minimalism and anti-clutter, and Jony's petulant disavowing himself of certain UI cues that "Someone Else was interested in, not me" (I so wish I could find an article I read where Jony scoffingly separated himself from certain admittedly rather cheesy woodgrain/felt design cues, saying something like "they weren't MY idea..."), and voila, the perfect recipe for a completely unnecessary flattening and decluttering of iOS, although with the baby and the bathwater, Jony & team also threw out many intuitive and pretty design cues that made an Apple product an Apple.

I hardly think the world was ready for something and Apple picked up on it... Rather, Jony was ready to have things his way and the world had to deal with it, followed by all the lemmings designers around the world following Apple's lead for better or worse, changing things to follow this imagined-needed decluttered & large negative spaced flat change for the sake of change.

By your argument, the world should soon be stirring for something completely new & different than flat, negative space, decluttered simpleness. iPhone OS/iOS lasted around 8 years from ~2005-2013, and 2021 is right around the corner. That is really scary to me, personally.

As for the overnight reinvention of every nook and cranny of iOS7... I left Microsoft for Apple in 2005 because Apple had a consistent design language that just hit it out of the park and they stayed with what worked. Smooth, basic, uncluttered, and super, super intuitive and super attractive. Just the right amount of extra detail and gingerbread to reflect a quality, polished and well thought out product. The games of radically reinventing their OS every 5 years was left to Microsoft, where each reinvention to me always was MSoft admitting they really blew it last time...so try THIS now instead! Then after 2013 Apple joined into that game with iOS, for the worse in my opinion.

As a designer, I can tell you most certainly these are design trends which have manifested across the UI spectrum. I recently booted up an old 2008 iMac running some ancient version of OSX, and the textures were more pronounced, the icons were more detailed, and none of it much looked like the modern design we have today.

It can be debated which design aesthetic is better, but these are largely interpretive choices that companies make. I used to be the Creative Director for a company called 321 Studios back in 2001-2003, and one of my responsibilities was the UI design in software (a terribly different time). When choices are made in software UI design, it's largely driven by the interpretation of consumer demand and what they expect to 'see'. There's a continual effort to simplify, strip away unnecessary detail, and focus deeply on minimizing the UI experience.

I've read words like that often and I still don't understand what's meant by "minimizing the UI experience." Not that I think iOS6 was the perfect do-all end-all that should never have iterated further, but looking beyond some cheesy wood grain, stitching, and podcast reel-to-reel player interfaces, what of any one aspect of the pre-iOS7 and pre-Yosemite OSX UI "got in the way?" I would contend that much of the new decluttered interface gets in the way much more than before. Much worse IMHO are the new stripped-down interface features with certain commands hidden out of site behind hamburger menus, and/or certain commands hiding behind a word with no actionable cues, a 50-shades-of-grey presentation where you can no longer tell the difference between content and commands (which often leads to frustration for me and many I know), or pages completely taken up by unnecessarily large images where you have to scroll with 10 finger swipes to see what's on one page (when you used to see it all on one screen at once, which was perfectly efficient...)

It was not uncommon for a Chief to drag an ignorant consumer into my office and demand that I work with them to meet their simple needs on our next version of software. This was not at all appealing to me, but it opened ideas into how average users of technology are attracted to software they otherwise feel intimidated by. It's not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it's a piece of the pie.

If you're still speaking of your early 00's experience, then I understand. But the world had a pretty darn good example of how a UI should be in the form of iOS & OSX until around 2013. So those times you recall where during the build-up when people were figuring things out. We've figured them out good, but then veered and lost the plot for the sake of fashion and forced change.

I do think iOS and Android look similar, but I too notice the differences. Perhaps the differences are less pronounced than they used to be, but they are still clear to me. As I mentioned before, my heart lies in the desktop experiences, and comparing, say Windows 10 to Mac OS is still vastly different in aesthetic and appeal. One could argue Microsoft has adapted ideas from Apple in this arena. Ultimately though, all companies should be deeply invested in simplifying the UI experience of their software and devices because consumers demand it, and design has shifted the playing field and the rules.

Consumers demand it, or a very small but loud population of pitchfork & torch bearers who gave Jony enough juice to create a bunch of change for the sake of change? I knew of not a single user desiring something new back in 2012. But I know an awful lot of frustrated users now (family & friends) when a certain iOS app is iOS7'd away from a previous great app...when it's morphed into an all-blue-all-white lots of wasted space on the screen with functions-hidden-away-behind-taps-and-hamburger-icons. Just to night (I swear to God) my mom was yelling at her iPad since her Acorn TV app was redone without her realizing it a few days ago...in place of their previous efficient layout where you could see many episodes of a season on the screen at one time, now you can only see one episode on the iPad screen at a time and you have to scroll, scroll, scroll to see the entire season. Before you could see it in one screen view. Before you could see a little marker indicating which episodes you watched. Now there's no more marker. Decluttered. And not for the better.

I contend much if not all of the current flat design decluttered iOS and OSX fad is for the benefit of the designers, not consumers. Just like architect students seem to love the blocky, brutalist, stretch-designs while regular people love just love centuries old architecture that has depth and took real design talent to create. If Apple really listened to consumers like some believe they do, this ridiculous all-glass design for the one object we carry around even more than the thoughts in our head would have received at least some type of durability/fragility improvement in the past 14 years, instead of mostly focusing on continually stripping way pixels and ports and the things that make something beautiful and fun and easy to use.

The main thing is, if a radical change occurred from within as I say, or as a result of outside influences as you say, then doesn’t make sense that we should be seeing a radical change again in a few years? Will that be good. I bet no — we’ll be back to Microsoft’s merry go round.
 
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I contend much if not all of the current flat design decluttered iOS and OSX fad is for the benefit of the designers, not consumers. Just like architect students seem to love the blocky, brutalist, stretch-designs while regular people love just love centuries old architecture that has depth and took real design talent to create. If Apple really listened to consumers like some believe they do, this ridiculous all-glass design for the one object we carry around even more than the thoughts in our head would have received at least some type of durability/fragility improvement in the past 14 years, not by continually stripping way pixels and ports and the things that make something beautiful and fun and easy to use.

I like to tell clients I work with that design is half art and half science. We have to inject some of ourselves into it, but it's not a free-for-all plunge into our artistic egos (despite the characterization). I think the current styles are a bit bland and could definitely use a fresh perspective. I can tell you this will most certainly happen because design is ever-evolving. Often times we borrow from past methodologies and recycle them. Apple has traditionally had a very good handle on this, and if you look back, they were pioneers with the iPod, the iPhone, and even the many variations of Mac computers both inside and out. They still are. They're iconic. Without it, Apple would look less sophisticated, less savvy, and less attractive. Design is at the heart of Apple. Without careful attention to it, they wouldn't have achieved the level of success they enjoy today.

I do believe Apple followed design trends, but so too did they use them to enhance the UI experience. Since iOS 7, Apple has clearly tried the 'less is more' approach in design. Did they create that? No, of course not. At least, not in so far as that designers haven't considered this approach before. Apple just did a better job of marrying what their vision of technology looked like with that consistent aesthetic. It's a tightly controlled brand. It's feeling rusty lately because their leadership in this area is lacking a critical personality and versatility, and they're resting on their laurels quite a bit. However, you don't fix what isn't broken. Apple is a highly successful company today. Tomorrow? Well, who can say for certain?

I think we're hitting a stagnant patch both in design and consumer technology a bit. You're going to see a range of personalities and opinions about design. I won't argue that the laziness is really an extension of the ego at that company though. Apple was doing its best when it was against the ropes, in my opinion. That's the company I signed on with when I switched 11 years ago. Today, I am very happy with my iMac and iPad Pro. Those are my favorite products and both function well for my needs. The alternatives with Samsung, Microsoft, Google and others are just not my cup of tea -- neither in aesthetic or general business practices.

With respect to minimizing the UI experience, it's a complicated (but necessary) execution. This is how designers make technology more accessible. We can argue about which app or which OS does it better, but the effort is usually motivated by the same conditions: to settle the consumer's interpretation of data that might confuse or overwhelm them. The more we clean up the interface, the less confusing and inaccessible it appears. Those choices can often come often at the expense of function, and therein lies the problem. The goal should be to enhance the user experience to better serve the consumer’s needs, hasten choices, and remove doubt or confusion. There are great examples of both ends of the spectrum. I wouldn't argue with you that Apple did just fine prior to iOS 7. I miss the crisp details and dimension of the home screen, and the colorful icons that distinguished each app and function. On the flip side, I appreciate the efforts of iOS 7 and on (despite the awful tone of green that pervades). It lightens and tidies the UI experience from my perspective. My brain is less overwhelmed. Detail can be beautiful, but so too can it crowd the mind.

What's unfortunate perhaps is the lack of options when design trends spread too far and wide. Excessive adoption will often crowd out choices and leave consumers (such as yourself) wanting more and feeling abandoned. Those are all fair and valid points that the market should respond to if you happen to represent an affecting margin. I just disagree that Apple's taking enough wrong turns to navigate me personally back to the likes of Microsoft. Speaking of which, I thought your characterization of their releases ('oops, try this instead') was spot on.

Ultimately, I believe it's important to separate good and bad execution of minimalism. I've built my entire design career around minimalism, so perhaps I'm not the right person to agree with you on its merits. There are many examples of both good and bad design that share simple design aesthetics. You can't throw it all out because someone executes poorly anymore than you can advocate for unnecessary detail and clutter in each and every situation. If you look back at design history, esp. the era of the 50s and 60s in America, you'll see fabulous examples of minimalism and elegant design that spanned the entire Western culture. Those influences are still felt today. Designers often will cross the road and tap into fashion, film, music and other areas to find influence. Listen to Gymnopédies by Satie and tell me that there isn't beauty in minimalism. Look at the work of Carl Andre, Hiroshi Sugimoto or Ellsworth Kelly. Much of abstract art is rooted in simple geometry and minimalist styles. It may not be your cup of tea, but it's affecting and enjoyed.
 
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The Apple team monitors the birth of the iPhone RED. Celebration!
 
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This photo must be from iOS6. There's way too much contrast in that photo and not enough bland whiteness and greyness. Otherwise, how confusing and inefficient would it be for customers to deal with stores like that.... Today's Apple customers do not NEED anything so engaging and warm.

How long until they add this above and to the right of the front doors:

Apple Store


Also the wood-grainy-looking tables are way too cheesy, so life-like and warm-looking. How long until they replace them with:
View attachment 758090

And green shirts? How confusing! How inconsistent! They should only be white or blue, like Jony Ive would commandeth!

Consistent! Unobtrusive! Clean!

View attachment 758091 View attachment 758092

Those bookshelves in the back! They LOOK like bookshelves!!!!?! And with no Gradient! :mad::eek: How can Jony allow that!

It better not be too long till they are fixed to look properly consistent with iOS/OSX:

View attachment 758093

And the green EXIT sign in the rear...they better change that to flat blue ASAP or else risk people dying from confusion if ever called upon to exit hastily.

It was nice to see that photo and be taken down memory lane. Now back to your regular Apple programming.
You feel better now?
 
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You feel better now?

Yes I Do! And I’ll feel even better when good, intuitive design returns again. I’m happy to keep whining as I keep gathering fans who feel the same way I do, hopefully slowly creating more voices to turn preferences into actual feedback to Apple. Thank you for asking !
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Ultimately, I believe it's important to separate good and bad execution of minimalism. I've built my entire design career around minimalism, so perhaps I'm not the right person to agree with you on its merits. There are many examples of both good and bad design that share simple design aesthetics. You can't throw it all out because someone executes poorly anymore than you can advocate for unnecessary detail and clutter in each and every situation. If you look back at design history, esp. the era of the 50s and 60s in America, you'll see fabulous examples of minimalism and elegant design that spanned the entire Western culture. Those influences are still felt today. Designers often will cross the road and tap into fashion, film, music and other areas to find influence. Listen to Gymnopédies by Satie and tell me that there isn't beauty in minimalism. Look at the work of Carl Andre, Hiroshi Sugimoto or Ellsworth Kelly. Much of abstract art is rooted in simple geometry and minimalist styles. It may not be your cup of tea, but it's affecting and enjoyed.

Well written and thought out response. The only problem I have is that my critiques are not just about minimalism. There’s also a bunch of unnecessary maximalism in iOS and today’s websites in general. It’s not so much about design in an academic sense, it’s more about simply how easy things are to work with now versus earlier. Why oversized pictures throughout, requiring a website to take up 10 panels instead of one or two, resulting in a ton of additional scrolling just to get a sense of what’s on the page before even using it? I recognize much of your observations, but whether something is minimalized or maximized from before, to me the proof is simply in the usage. Too often having to hunt to do something that was obvious before, too often having to press for scroll 2 or 3 times to do with used to enacted in one tap, too often running into completely reimagined apps that are so dumbed down, simplified, and spread out that they are frustrating for me and family members to use. Maybe for certain users, the joy of seeing and interacting with and figuring out something new far outweighs any lost efficiencies. Not me, unfortunately. Plus I truly believe the root of most of today’s design (or reduced functionality & challenging intuitiveness) in iOS, OS X, and websites that I call awful is the result of changing for the whims and preferences of the designer for the designer, not for the user...

Before, “things just worked” better. Now, designers want to tell you about how today’s design works better.

As long as the designer has control and the user cannot reskin iOS or OS X, many who feel like me are just screwed at the moment and need to patiently wait. Hopefully one of the next changes for the sake of change returns towards efficient, well thought out, intuitive design again since change is unavoidable. :)
 
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For design, it was an iconic era that's still borrowed today; which was my only point. Minimalism pervades in modern eras, and it's highly influential.

One potentially interesting point to ponder is that minimalism gets its value because it’s minimalistic by comparison to other things. A very basic looking, slab-sided piece of architecture in the middle of century-old gothic office buildings is interesting only because a strong differentiation can be made to detail-heavy gothic and other older architecture. Imagine a downtown consisting of nothing but brutalist architecture. It’d be quite maddening, i’d think. Too much plainness to where not one thing is left to shine and stand out.

10 years ago, when I made the switch over to Apple, I rather enjoyed how the minimalistic hardware almost sneakily hid the rich, detailed, well thought-out and super intuitive software inside. The minimalistic aspect to the hardware was appreciated and allowed to stand out because of the available comparison to the software interface that was not minimalistic by any stretch. And I’m not talking about missing green felt or wood grain, I’m talking about highly intuitive UI cues with high-contrast graphics that could be read in the sun and where certain commands were more blatantly differentiated from the background so as to stand out and not be lost amongst the white/gray “content,” wrapped in a package that looked like real design talent was required to create it. Come iOS 7, material design, flat design, and most responsive website design today which are minimalistic to the max compared to 5 years ago, and it has just become overkill, as far away from well-balanced design as you can get and instead, too narrowly focused and stripped away to where it feels like you’re eating bread and water not only for breakfast, but lunch and dinner. Apple nailed it with the initial generations of click wheel iPods and unibody Mac books...No Intel Inside stickers, no VGA ports, no redundant trackpad belowthe keyboard and blue button pointer within the keyboard, no unnecessary fluff. Just a minimalist package so that the magical software experience inside could shine. Once everything went minimalist across the board — the hardware, the operating systems, the websites, the apps, the UI features, supposedly based on the customers needing this and supposedly for some benefit by the interactions tools blending seamlessly into the content, Apple and others who followed Apple completely lost the plot imho. Nothing looks designed as if talent and care was given to it, rather, it’s just a sea of blandness. That’s my major beef. Minimalism has gone too far to where nothing shines, like it’s a crime for something to be obvious and intuitive and to stand out.
 
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One potentially interesting point to ponder is that minimalism gets its value because it’s minimalistic by comparison to other things. A very basic looking, slab-sided piece of architecture in the middle of century-old gothic office buildings is interesting only because a strong differentiation can be made to detail-heavy gothic and other older architecture. Imagine a downtown consisting of nothing but brutalist architecture. It’d be quite maddening, i’d think. Too much plainness to where not one thing is left to shine and stand out.

10 years ago, when I made the switch over to Apple, I rather enjoyed how the minimalistic hardware almost sneakily hid the rich, detailed, well thought-out and super intuitive software inside. The minimalistic aspect to the hardware was appreciated and allowed to stand out because of the available comparison to the software interface that was not minimalistic by any stretch. And I’m not talking about missing green felt or wood grain, I’m talking about highly intuitive UI cues with high-contrast graphics that could be read in the sun and where certain commands were more blatantly differentiated from the background so as to stand out and not be lost amongst the white/gray “content,” wrapped in a package that looked like real design talent was required to create it. Come iOS 7, material design, flat design, and most responsive website design today which are minimalistic to the max compared to 5 years ago, and it has just become overkill, as far away from well-balanced design as you can get and instead, too narrowly focused and stripped away to where it feels like you’re eating bread and water not only for breakfast, but lunch and dinner. Apple nailed it with the initial generations of click wheel iPods and unibody Mac books...No Intel Inside stickers, no VGA ports, no redundant trackpad belowthe keyboard and blue button pointer within the keyboard, no unnecessary fluff. Just a minimalist package so that the magical software experience inside could shine. Once everything went minimalist across the board — the hardware, the operating systems, the websites, the apps, the UI features, supposedly based on the customers needing this and supposedly for some benefit by the interactions tools blending seamlessly into the content, Apple and others who followed Apple completely lost the plot imho. Nothing looks designed as if talent and care was given to it, rather, it’s just a sea of blandness. That’s my major beef. Minimalism has gone too far to where nothing shines, like it’s a crime for something to be obvious and intuitive and to stand out.

I understand what you're saying here; I do. I even agree in part maybe Apple has shifted too hard toward minimalism in every corner of their products. Point taken. However, to reiterate an earlier point; none of it drives me back to the modern alternative:

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I understand what you're saying here; I do. I even agree in part maybe Apple has shifted too hard toward minimalism in every corner of their products. Point taken. However, to reiterate an earlier point; none of it drives me back to the modern alternative:

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That is worse. When I first saw Microsoft metro design, I honestly thought it was an unfinished mock up or joke. Talk about spaghetti on the wall and a hope and a prayer for success…
 
How many total visitors does Apple get to all stores worldwide?

How many per day?
How many per year?
Is there a breakdown somewhere per store?

Does Apple keep this information somewhere on the website? If so I can't find it, appreciative if anyone can give clear up to date details? Thanks so much.
 
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