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Aqua To See Leopard Refresh?

Most of Apple's pro apps use a darker UI, which I find more pleasing and less strenuous on the eye.

I've tried UNO and ShapeShifter to apply a darker theme to the general OS, and largely have been pleased with my hacks to change the Aqua interface a little darker so it isn't as lickable. Aqua is so 2000. pfft :p

shapeshifter.png


Illuminous (name and concept) sounds like a worthy successor to Aqua from what I've read, so far. It's time for a UI change anyway, so I'm giving this rumour a 7/10.
 
spicyapple said:
Most of Apple's pro apps use a darker UI, which I find more pleasing and less strenuous on the eye.

I've tried UNO and ShapeShifter to apply a darker theme to the general OS, and largely have been pleased with my hacks to change the Aqua interface a little darker so it isn't as lickable. Aqua is so 2000. pfft :p

shapeshifter.png


Illuminous (name and concept) sounds like a worthy successor to Aqua from what I've read, so far. It's time for a UI change anyway, so I'm giving this rumour a 7/10.
Click to expand...

Now this looks pretty nice. Combine that with the darker look of the pro apps and the dark scroll bars seen on the Leopard preview page and it really would be a sweet GUI change.
 
Diatribe said:
Now this looks pretty nice. Combine that with the darker look of the pro apps and the dark scroll bars seen on the Leopard preview page and it really would be a sweet GUI change.
Click to expand...

I don't really like the look of it. Looks toy-ish. The buttons on the window are too small and too far apart. Also, nitice how the rounded window corner butts up against the menu bar and doesn't totally fill the screen as would a window in Window XP. Apple needs to fix these things with the Leopard release.
 
MacVault said:
I don't really like the look of it. Looks toy-ish. The buttons on the window are too small and too far apart. Also, nitice how the rounded window corner butts up against the menu bar and doesn't totally fill the screen as would a window in Window XP. Apple needs to fix these things with the Leopard release.
Click to expand...

I was actually talking about the menu not the buttons. I am not too fond of them either. As for the window corner, isn't this the way it is right now?
 
Its funny - there are elements of iTunes 7 I dont like (the scrollbars, uppercase fonts in the sidebar etc), but has anybody tried to go back to iTunes 6? Wow. It looks a hot mess compared to the smooth, refined look of 7. Even just the buttons. Check out Play Forward and Back compared to the old kind. The glossy old buttons look childish.
 
Aqua To See Leopard Refresh?



Relatively unknown Apple Gazette is claiming that Apple will be replacing Aqua with a new user interface supposedly dubbed "Illuminous," which will be previewed at MacWorld 2007. Recent developer builds have yet to display a vastly new user interface, however Steve Jobs did mention when he previewed the OS at this past year's WWDC that several of Leopard's features were going to be kept "Top Secret".

While we don't know much about Apple Gazette's accuracy, LoopRumors has made mention of a "streamlined theme" which would include additional UI enhancements (transparency, animated icons, etc). LoopRumors has had a mixed rumor record in the past, but has recently had claims of a iChat AV (videoconferencing) version of the iPhone corroborated by AppleInsider (note: we're not so sure the unit will see the light of day anytime soon, as AppleInsider's source had mentioned that a working prototype was not seen).

In February of this year, Monster.com had advertised a job posting with Apple's Mac OS X User Interface Group seeking a senior visual interface designer "to conceive, design and develop future enhancements to Aqua."
 
Thought so. I wouldn't call that a scrollbar, though; it's more of a Page turner/navigation element.

I hope scrollbars don't all look like that in Leopard - yeesh...
 
I would classify AppleGazette relability in the same category as anonymous forum post... which means very little credibilitiy.

arn
 
spicyapple said:
Most of Apple's pro apps use a darker UI, which I find more pleasing and less strenuous on the eye.

I've tried UNO and ShapeShifter to apply a darker theme to the general OS, and largely have been pleased with my hacks to change the Aqua interface a little darker so it isn't as lickable. Aqua is so 2000. pfft :p

shapeshifter.png


Illuminous (name and concept) sounds like a worthy successor to Aqua from what I've read, so far. It's time for a UI change anyway, so I'm giving this rumour a 7/10.
Click to expand...

I like this a lot, except for the tiny C/M/R buttons in Safari. I suspect though if anything changes about Aqua, that the last thing they would change is the menu bar. Why? Because in the history of the Mac OS (excluding the Public Beta of OS X), the menu bar has only significantly changed 3 times: once to add icons on the right side, once to add a Help menu, and once to add the Application menu. Through all that time, the most significant color change was to make selection a slightly different color, and you could change it back to black or dark gray very easily. There's something to be said for consistency; Apple's not going to throw away 26+ years of a white menubar with black text on a whim.
 
i think the 'time machine' application shows a bit of what leopard's interface will have. note the 3d buttons at the bottom of the application, how they give a new dimension rather than simply flat like we're used to. I think we'll see more of this 3d space (not the literal picture like time machine has) but real use of depth in Leopard. I think that's the key, more 3D depth and a change to the current flat metaphor we are used to.

that would blow away Vista, which currently is barely up to Tiger standards.

imagine a finder that had a folder view with a 3d (with depth) view of the folder tree on the right or left side, the current folder viewable in the current tab.... there are more options with added dimensions.
 
*hopes for a black UI*.

But let the user choose if he or she wants to use it. Personally I think black UI's are much nicer on the eyes than white/gray/beige ones.
 
Time Machine is probably one of the fugliest interface examples from Apple in a LONG while. If all of Leopard resembles that programmer-gone-designer-"hey look at all my cool drop shadows on thin text and 3d" non-sense, it will be the first 10.x update that I DON'T pre-order.
 
stoid said:
Time Machine is probably one of the fugliest interface examples from Apple in a LONG while. If all of Leopard resembles that programmer-gone-designer-"hey look at all my cool drop shadows on thin text and 3d" non-sense, it will be the first 10.x update that I DON'T pre-order.
Click to expand...

Somebody has the positive attitude down. :D :p
 
Diatribe said:
Somebody has the positive attitude down. :D :p
Click to expand...

Indeed, show me some screenshots, or hell for now I'll even take the word of an ADC Select member that has installed the new seed to confirm the new interface. Until this is verified in ANY way, I'll be a bit skeptical. I just saw some shots of Vista's black aqua, and it was a bit ugly, I hope that Apple does much better if they go to a black UI. We do need a refresh, brushed metal is getting old.
 
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