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Apple's Website Redesigned With New Drop-Down Menu Bars and More

That's actually a nice improvement, even though the menu text is a bit too small for my taste.

Let's hope that this is a sign that Apple will start to clean up the huge UI mess they have created in recent years. Like the iPad Books app which is a usability disaster.
 
Tozovac said:
Curious, what specifially needs fixed? What's broken?

We should never want an interface redesign unless it's focused on fixing something that's broken, and even then those changes should be incremental, since Apple should be starting from a best-in-class platform well-honed from decades of learning.

Any wholesale change to a website or operating system or app is either:

A) an admission that you really had it completely wrong top-to-bottom before, so look at THIS! (the Microsoft Windows way of doing things and something Apple should never have to do).

B) an admission that you needed something fresh for the sake of something new (iOS7 cough, cough)

For me, I'd like a little of A) in the OS and iOS, semi-wholesale changes to fix certain vague and poor interface elements forced into practice by iOS7 and Yosemite and clinging on today, and which haven't been slowly reversed/fixed like some interface elements have been fixed over time (after Jony was booted)!
Click to expand...

No, those are not the only reasons why product design decisions are made.
 
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thealkimist said:
No, those are not the only reasons why product design decisions are made.
Click to expand...

They aren't the only reasons, but I contend that most other reasons can be binned into either of those categories.

Given that Apple (used to be) is heralded as the "it just works" kingpin, seamlessly blending function with form, what other major decisions would drive a wholesale interface change that don't fall into function or flash/marketing, where, I contend the focus should always treat function first.

Good function supports good marketing; good marketing needs good (or improved) function.

Good marketing with reduced function is pointless.
 
Tozovac said:
They aren't the only reasons, but I contend that most other reasons can be binned into either of those categories.

Given that Apple (used to be) is heralded as the "it just works" kingpin, seamlessly blending function with form, what other major decisions would drive a wholesale interface change that don't fall into function or flash/marketing, where, I contend the focus should always treat function first.

Good function supports good marketing; good marketing needs good (or improved) function.

Good marketing with reduced function is pointless.
Click to expand...

This isn’t a wholesale change, albeit it’s a significant one concerning discoverability of product lines. And most product decisions are not wholesale changes at all, so they don’t really fit into either buckets you’ve established. But you can fit any product changes under the banner of establishing “value”, which is also a very loaded term that needs to be explained in each context.

But to go back to this particular update on Apple, this is a change that seems to me, to address discoverability issues for accessibility reasons - a domain that also goes very deep and wide in the world products and services.
 
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thealkimist said:
This isn’t a wholesale change, albeit it’s a significant one concerning discoverability of product lines.
Click to expand...

I agree!

thealkimist said:
And most product decisions are not wholesale changes at all, so they don’t really fit into either buckets you’ve established.
Click to expand...

I agree with the first part of your sentence above, but you accidentally misinterpreted me; I wasn't bin all changes into two buckets; I binned wholesale changes into those buckets. When a developer tosses out all the bathwater and baby together wholesale, why else could it be other than to A) attempt to fix a major bunch of wrongs, or B) introduce something new and fresh, often wildly new and fresh in an attempt to attract customers?

My best example of A) is Microsoft Windows before before ripping off OSX into Windows 10 and 11.

Example of B) are fashion; musical groups reinventing themselves to stay fresh; McDonald's trying pizza; Jony Ive's iOS7 which didn't necessarily fix anything broken but was a platform for him to express his minimalistic ideals.
 
Much better site. Makes it easier to find things. The last few years if I wanted to see what the cost of something was, it felt like i had to scroll all the way down (And all their scrolling effects) just to find it.
 
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Their website is still awful. Too cluttered and at the same time confusing to navigate like it’s so hard to get to the accessories of different products and switch between them.

Also what on earth is this navigation. It doesn’t end. Too many clicks to finally see the price of a product as well. They need to merge the product info page with the buy now page basically turn it back into an actual store like 2008.

I basically navigate their page via google search results 😅
 

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I like it but what's missing is some highlight-mouse-over effect when you move with cursor over the text options.
 
Oh boy, this redesigned navigation is super annoying (if you use the website like before).

E.g. If you just want to click on any of the main tabs like "Mac" or "Watch", then wait for the page to load, then move your curso to any of the icons below, the moment you reached e.g the "MacBook Pro" icon suddenly the navigation bar expands. Worst case you click and it redirects you somewhere else… Usability nightmare!
 
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Canubis said:
Oh boy, this redesigned navigation is super annoying (if you use the website like before).

E.g. If you just want to click on any of the main tabs like "Mac" or "Watch", then wait for the page to load, then move your curso to any of the icons below, the moment you reached e.g the "MacBook Pro" icon suddenly the navigation bar expands. Worst case you click and it redirects you somewhere else… Usability nightmare!
Click to expand...
Amen. I can't stand when a page shifts after clicking something and you have to refocus your attention.

These changes reek of a designer (or marketing) looking for something to change under the guise of "improvement" instead of actually fixing something that was broken.
 
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A really bad update. It was so much easier to use before. Apple with Jony Ive had made products and services that looked and felt so much better than now. In 5 years apple is like Samsung. Just boring
 
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This new flyout navigation finally managed to get me so annoyed I needed a way to get rid of it.
I am sure there are better, more foolproof solutions, but here is my quick & dirty way of getting rid of it in Safari.

Paste below code into some text file and save it on your disk, e.g. as SafarCustomCSS.css.

Then go to Safari > Settings > Advanced > Stylesheet. There browse & select your newly created css file on your disk.

CSS: 
.globalnav-flyout-scroll-container {
    display: none !important;
}

#globalnav-curtain {
    display: none !important;
}

#globalnav {
    background: var(--globalnav-background) !important;
}

Caveat: as the custom css file will apply to ALL websites opened in Safari, the above snippet may possibly break functionality on other websites as well (though just incase they use same CSS class and ids as mentioned in the code above.)


Edit – safer solution: if you have the excellent Stop The Madness or a similar extension to add custom CSS to a page, you can limit the above CSS change to only apple.com – so no other websites will be affected. Just copy above CSS code into the "Custom Elements" section for www.apple.com:

AppleFlyOverFix.jpg
 
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Canubis said:
This new flyout navigation finally managed to get me so annoyed I needed a way to get rid of it.
I am sure there are better, more foolproof solutions, but here is my quick & dirty way of getting rid of it in Safari.

Paste below code into some text file and save it on your disk, e.g. as SafarCustomCSS.css.

Then go to Safari > Settings > Advanced > Stylesheet. There browse & select your newly created css file on your disk.

CSS: 
.globalnav-flyout-scroll-container {
    display: none !important;
}

#globalnav-curtain {
    display: none !important;
}

#globalnav {
    background: var(--globalnav-background) !important;
}

Caveat: as the custom css file will apply to ALL websites opened in Safari, the above snippet may possibly break functionality on other websites as well (though just incase they use same CSS class and ids as mentioned in the code above.)
Click to expand...
I much prefer the fly-out navigation, and if this has potential to break other websites, there’s literally zero benefit of using this.

I don’t know why you hate it but you’d be better off getting used to it instead of intentionally breaking Apple’s website along with other websites.
 
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evelynmarie3 said:
I much prefer the fly-out navigation, and if this has potential to break other websites, there’s literally zero benefit of using this.

I don’t know why you hate it but you’d be better off getting used to it instead of intentionally breaking Apple’s website along with other websites.
Click to expand...
Well great for you that you like it and thanks for telling me how to use MY computer. 😅

I explained few posts above just one of the usability flaws of the new flyover navigation. It’s easily getting in the way of things one may want to click. Eg click on iPhone menu item and then try to click on any of the iPhone icons. Suddenly the flyover will appear out of nowhere and block your click. Possibly even kidnap your click and lead you somewhere else.
 
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Canubis said:
Well great for you that you like it and thanks for telling me how to use MY computer. 😅

I explained few posts above just one of the usability flaws of the new flyover navigation. It’s easily getting in the way of things one may want to click. Eg click on iPhone menu item and then try to click on any of the iPhone icons. Suddenly the flyover will appear out of nowhere and block your click. Possibly even kidnap your click and lead you somewhere else.
Click to expand...
That behavior does not happen for me on my computer. Are you sure it’s not a bug exhibited by the use of an older version of macOS and Safari? Newer versions of Safari support newer CSS rules and features that aren’t supported on older browser versions and could potentially cause problems like rendering or display issues, or even issues where display elements could accidentally trigger when using said older browser versions.

Reason I’m saying this is because I saw the edit you made on the post I originally replied to, in order to mention Stop The Madness, and I saw that you’re using a pre-Big Sur version of macOS, where it still had the less thick and more gradient-y button controls.
 
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