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Apple's Designers Clashing Over 'Tacky' Software Skeuomorphisms

kalsta said:
Have you tried looking up the word 'metaphor' in this dictionary of yours?
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I just did! It says...

The Dictionary said:
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.”
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So choking the chicken, flogging the dolphin, tiptoeing over tulips, and rubbing the little man in the boat are various metaphors for masturbation! HOLY CRAP!

This is why I like Macrumors. I learn things here.
 
Ive is right. It is distasteful. They stand out like a sore thumb. Game Center is ugly. Calendar is ugly.
 
divinox said:
XP? By far the ugliest of interfaces the Windows-world has ever seen? The thing you instantly switch back to "classic" after a fresh install? Why on earth should Windows go back to that?
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I think Metro is uglier than XP. :) When I first started using Metro I thought about Windows Groups flat icons :). If windows users want to go back to the days of simple user interface XP does the job nicely. Metro just takes you all the way back to the beginning.
 
Renzatic said:
Bah! Transparent effects make everything awesome. It's like the lens flare of the UI world.
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Thanks for the laugh… to both your comments. :)

Actually, I don't mind a bit of transparency if restrained and appropriate. But there was nothing restrained or appropriate, or even mildly congruous about Aero in my opinion. It looks like it was designed by a room full of executives who each wanted something different—and all got what they wanted!
 
Fresh Pie said:
I completely agree. I love how Apple's skeuomorphic designs are called irrelevant, yet the Windows 8 Metro UI is given praise. How are street signs more relevant than, say, a calendar or billiard table? :rolleyes:
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Metro drawing on the way street signs allow users to navigate information spaces is not the same as metro being skeuomorphic.
 
divinox said:
XP? By far the ugliest of interfaces the Windows-world has ever seen? The thing you instantly switch back to "classic" after a fresh install? Why on earth should Windows go back to that?
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I still like "Classic" the best, but Windows 7 is close. And Vista is worse than XP design-wise. I'm surprised Windows didn't just die out after such a bad OS. Maybe people stayed at XP easily since nothing was Vista-only.
 
kalsta said:
I beg to differ. Vista Aero takes the ugly interface cake. Microsoft must have actually hired some graphic designers after that, starting with Windows Phone 7.
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Vista was quite ****** too, i'll give you that. Especially with these tacky widgets slapped to the side. Windows 7, on the other hand, is quite nice.

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faroZ06 said:
I still like "Classic" the best, but Windows 7 is close. And Vista is worse than XP.
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As noted above, W7 is nice. A bit too flashy for my taste, but hey, trends are trends. When done well, WP7 makes everything look plain stupid though. Too bad most seem to fail miserably adapting the design language though. Unfortunately, i think people will have an even harder time with W8.... unless MSFT does a kick ass job doing a ton of conceptual templates for people to use and get inspired by.
 
I kind of like the way Calendar & Game Center look. I wouldn't call myself "old", but I'm old enough to know what a real, physical day calendar is, what a game table is like etc. Makes these apps more "real" and accentuates what they're trying to do. Plus, although I might be in the minority, I think it makes them more aesthetically pleasing. I don't want each app to be some generic window with the brushed aluminum border.
 
faroZ06 said:
I still like "Classic" the best, but Windows 7 is close. And Vista is worse than XP design-wise. I'm surprised Windows didn't just die out after such a bad OS. Maybe people stayed at XP easily since nothing was Vista-only.
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you call 7 great and vista crap when for the most part they have the same design. 7 has mostly under the hood changes and very few UI changes to it.

People stayed with XP because Vista got a bad rep early on and a vast majority of the problems were 3rd party related. By the time 7 came around most of those issues had been fix.
 
chaosconan said:
I think Metro is uglier than XP. :) When I first started using Metro I thought about Windows Groups flat icons :). If windows users want to go back to the days of simple user interface XP does the job nicely. Metro just takes you all the way back to the beginning.
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Done right, Metro is great. Done not so right, its hideous. Therein lies MSFT challenge, as i see it.

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Rodimus Prime said:
you call 7 great and vista crap when for the most part they have the same design. 7 has mostly under the hood changes and very few UI changes to it.

People stayed with XP because Vista got a bad rep early on and a vast majority of the problems were 3rd party related. By the time 7 came around most of those issues had been fix.
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The difference isn't big, but it is enough. Sometimes things are really in the details. Vista, to me, is over the top. Thats why i dislike it.
 
guzhogi said:
I kind of like the way Calendar & Game Center look. I wouldn't call myself "old", but I'm old enough to know what a real, physical day calendar is, what a game table is like etc. Makes these apps more "real" and accentuates what they're trying to do. Plus, although I might be in the minority, I think it makes them more aesthetically pleasing. I don't want each app to be some generic window with the brushed aluminum border.
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Oh, believe me, you won't find many of us praising brushed aluminium either! That was where it all started to go wrong—with the introduction of the brushed aluminium Quick Time 4.0 Player interface!
 
Skeuomorphism makes the UI look really clean and inviting in most cases, like the voice recording app and Garageband. Calendar now has an annoying interface, but this guy shouldn't be complaining about skeuomorphism in general. There's usually nothing distracting or cheesy about it. If he had it his way, you'd probably see iOS looking like Mac OS 9 Mobile Edition.
 
See the comparison.
Left: Windows XP (game like icons)
Middle: Windows 7 (obese icons)
Right: Metro (child like icons)
 

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nerdflower said:
Never minded the Skeuomorphism style, games use that plenty. But there is a line between good and bad, the big black flap in Reminders on iPad is bad, its just completely useless, it even blocks your view, and for what, to keep paper from falling out? Really??
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Yep...in notes too, but only in landscape! One of the ugliest piece of software i have ever seen :(
 
Rodimus Prime said:
People stayed with XP because Vista got a bad rep early on and a vast majority of the problems were 3rd party related. By the time 7 came around most of those issues had been fix.
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I hated Vista so much that I didn't even bother trying to install 3rd-party stuff since I knew I would later destroy it and upgrade to XP. There's nothing 3rd-party about IE opening itself and then constantly alerting me about the Information Bar even after I opted out of being told about it. After installing 1st party updates that I didn't want to be installed, it restarted without asking me first, which closed some stuff that did not have a way of stopping the shutdown to ask me if I want to save.
 
"I feel like [Apple] has concentrated too much on mimicking the visual skeuomorphic approach rather than concentrating on the actual functionality."

Nailed it. Functionality > gimmicks.
 
It may have made sense a few years ago to make it look like it's physical counter-piece. To me those old desk calenders are/were something old people use so I say ditch them.
 
D.T. said:
You mean this?
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A "Remind Me" date and a due date are slightly different. If you go to iCloud and create 2 reminders with and without an alert you get two different things in Reminders.

Create one reminder in iCloud, set a due date, but do not set an alert. In Reminders you get a due date field.

Create another reminder in iCloud, set a due date, and set an alert, you now get a "Remind me" with "On a day" checked and a date below it.

It seems to me that depending on how you set up your reminder, it could affect the number on the alert badge in iOS... I may be wrong about this being the cause though. But I often have several Reminders that are past due, but a lower number is in the badge. It's annoying, but it might just be a misunderstanding on my part.

I believe there may be other subtle differences too. Point is, why does Reminders in iCloud work differently than on OS X than it does on iOS... each progressively losing functionality. Pretty weak, IMO.
 
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