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Apple's Designers Clashing Over 'Tacky' Software Skeuomorphisms
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I'm gonna guess it's because it looks like diarrhea sprayed across the screen, not because Ive doesn't like it.Thinking about it. I'm wondering if most people are "saying they hate the little touches" Simply because Ive doesn't like them. I wonder if everyone would instantly change their tune if Ive had said he really liked it.
I really like the touches though, as I said in a previous comment I love old things and I think it really works well the incorporation of modern and old.
I'm a huge fan of the little details as well... just not gaudy, half-a^^ed designs. Lion and Mountain Tweaks... both free... replace the leather look in Calendar and Contacts. There's also a few theme modifications out there that add color back into some of the side pane icons. This gray, desolate wasteland is not very appealing.
In all honesty, the way the Calendar app looks doesn't really bother me (although I don't like it), but the Game Center looks really, really, really tacky, as if a drunk designed it...
Black on white has too much contrast. It's easier on the eyes with a weaker black, like dark gray.
That's one of the main reasons I switched to BusyCal instead. I can't stand the design of iCal. For me it's not so much the skeuomorphism (Like said before, Garage Band looks good), it's the so very non-apple ugly design that looks like some third party software for Windows XP from the late 90's.
Reminders don't strike me as being a skeuomorphism though, but I tend to agree with your thought process.
Forstall wants it and Ive doesn't; wonder who will win.
Especially compared to game center
Game Center is the most useless app ever made.
I had to read that 3 or 4 times before I understood what it meant!
Still, it's good to know that there are some people in Apple standing up for those of us who find this visual mess distasteful, if not downright ugly. Sobering that Jobs aligned himself with that idiot Forstall though.
I don't think these kind of interfaces are too bad if done in moderation. For example, in iCal, I don't mind the leather, although I have to admit that the activity summary seen there just looks plain bad. Either they have to go all in with the skeumorphism, or steer clear from all of it.
I mean... What's up with the sudden iOS-style rounded (and dotted!?) buttons and gradients there, when the "all-day events" view to the right is all square, flat, and subtle, like a more "real" lined paper? Ewww. There are no gradients crap in an actual, physical calendar.
So either do skeumorphism or don't. But don't mix! And if you do, pay a lot of attention to details. For example, they also dropped the ball in iCal with the page flips that are too slow to not get in the way.
Summarized, I think they take less risks if they just don't do it, and stick with standard OS X design guidelines. It's harder to make something annoying that way, although an excellent skeuomorph app can succeed, in my opinion.
I mean... What's up with the sudden iOS-style rounded (and dotted!?) buttons and gradients there, when the "all-day events" view to the right is all square, flat, and subtle, like a more "real" lined paper? Ewww. There are no gradients crap in an actual, physical calendar.
So either do skeumorphism or don't. But don't mix! And if you do, pay a lot of attention to details. For example, they also dropped the ball in iCal with the page flips that are too slow to not get in the way.
Summarized, I think they take less risks if they just don't do it, and stick with standard OS X design guidelines. It's harder to make something annoying that way, although an excellent skeuomorph app can succeed, in my opinion.
I think the argument is between a unified, functional (read minimalist) design and variety. Treating a computer interface like a computer interface is a great exercise in disposing of unnecessary functionality, and can look fresh for a short while, but can get a little tedious when programs start to all look the same. Otherwise the world might not have moved on from Braun or Bauhaus produkts, instead of retrovisiting them. The skeuomorphism is just a change of pace, and adds a little visual interest and memorability to some of the more mundane programs. Whats the big deal, as long as functionality isnt compromised? If gizmodo hadn't started bitching about it and looked up a definition of skeuomorphism on their spellchecker, this ugly assed word wouldn't have been assaulting our consciousness for the last 12 months...
I'm glad to see there are people inside Apple criticizing This. I've been saying this for months, it's just incredible that a company like Apple would allow this design to go out.
It would have been very strange if the fine designers at Apple didn't find this to be worse than horrible.
It's like going back to some windows apps in the 1990s, with some elements mimicking a real object, like a leather agenda, and the programmers telling you "look, we use so many colors in the palette that we can make it look real!"
It would have been very strange if the fine designers at Apple didn't find this to be worse than horrible.
It's like going back to some windows apps in the 1990s, with some elements mimicking a real object, like a leather agenda, and the programmers telling you "look, we use so many colors in the palette that we can make it look real!"
Anyone pointing to Windows 8 or Windows Phone 7/8 as the way to go for design in the future obviously hasn't been paying attention.
Windows Phone has gone over like a lead balloon, party because it's "authentically digital" UI. Geeks may like it because it's new, but normal users hate it.
Windows Phone has gone over like a lead balloon, party because it's "authentically digital" UI. Geeks may like it because it's new, but normal users hate it.
FYI Calendar in ML doesn't do the page flip when using the buttons or doing 3 finger swipe, or keyboard shortcuts.
I hate it, hope the designers win and not the architects.
Find My Friends app is one of the worst contenders for this approach.
Find My Friends app is one of the worst contenders for this approach.
Put Ive for a while on the software department, the hardware is pretty much all the same for a few years now, and that is fine. Let him clean up the iOS mess. EEEK: if you shove up a website in Safari, you can peek through your iPad and see the denim of your pants. How tacky!
And please put the current Skeuomorphism fans in the team with Foster to design the new Apple Loop-the-Loop building. It can seriously use some fancy pants all over. Now it looks like a crematory.
And please put the current Skeuomorphism fans in the team with Foster to design the new Apple Loop-the-Loop building. It can seriously use some fancy pants all over. Now it looks like a crematory.
The whole GUI needs an overhaul
I hate the look the ical and contacts the whole skeuomorphism thing just doesn't work. It looks tacky and just doesn't fit with the rest of the OS.
However, I'm also tired of the current OS X brushed look. I think it's time for a change.
I hate the look the ical and contacts the whole skeuomorphism thing just doesn't work. It looks tacky and just doesn't fit with the rest of the OS.
However, I'm also tired of the current OS X brushed look. I think it's time for a change.