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GarageBand doesn't follow Apple's HIG
- Thread starter Dj64Mk7
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casperes1996
macrumors 604
Oh it does, but it's far, far from the first time Apple has broken their own design rules.
casperes1996
macrumors 604
The same thing with buttons has been there in a few versions of iTunes, though as I can recall right now, it's OK in the latest version. Then there's the Remote app, which has always been a bit of a mess. If you open an iTunes Library with it on the iPad (not sure about iPhone), the design is still that of the pre-Yosemite days, destroying the feeling of it all being a cohesive ecosystem. Then there's the WWDC app. Again, I think it's fixed now, but at some point there was a search button both at the bottom and at the top at the same time.
casperes1996
macrumors 604
Wasn't what I was thinking of actually, but there may be things in there too. I was thinking of some of the pop up messages - like if you go to buy a song on iTunes, there was a version where the "Buy" button simply said "OK". Though I think that was a beta version.
maflynn
macrumors Broadwell
Agreed, Apple has in the past not adhered to its own guidelines.
I mean in some apps, you close the main window the app closes, in others the app remains even after the window was closed. While I enjoy a nicely designed user experience, is not completely consistent.
casperes1996
macrumors 604
Yeah. Though I feel like for the most part they do well in this respect. Most their apps stay open when the windows are closed and for those that don't it more often than not feel logical, in that the application window was the only logical way of interacting with the app, whereas me closing all windows to Safari, might still mean I want to interact with Safari, like opening a new window, but just wanting the other ones gone or what do I know. But agreed it's not consistent.
The HIG have no single rule that states when applications should quit. The guideline is: if the application cannot do anything sensible for the user when the main window is closed, then it should quit. Closing the last window is just one possible reason why an application should quit, but not the only one. Safari should not quit, because the user might want to open another window. System Preferences should quit, because the main window is the sole functionality of the application. Activity Monitor should not quit despite having just one main window, because the user might want to leave the program running so that it can gather statistics over a period of time.
There are obviously some edge cases. Mail, for instance, should probably quit, because the user can assume that it will fetch new emails in the background just like Contacts and Calendar do. It does not, because Apple has not built Mail that way. On the other hand, Mail should stay open, because the user might want to compose another email quickly. iTunes should probably quit, but then the user cannot use the play controls on the keyboard anymore. It is a balancing act between user expectations and functionality.
There are of course many examples where Apple actually flaunted the guidelines. The new app designs in iOS 10 for instance are a concurrent example. On the Mac, it was particularly annoying with iTunes in the past. Even the aesthetics: they had this really odd, bright gradient in the toolbar at some point, rather than the flat grey colour. In one version they even placed the window buttons vertically. They used these blue–grey, opaque scrollbar handles instead of the ‘lickable’ toothpaste ones. These were so omnipresent there that many people here actually thought that Apple would change the Aqua design itself to match them, and called it ‘marble theme’.
There are obviously some edge cases. Mail, for instance, should probably quit, because the user can assume that it will fetch new emails in the background just like Contacts and Calendar do. It does not, because Apple has not built Mail that way. On the other hand, Mail should stay open, because the user might want to compose another email quickly. iTunes should probably quit, but then the user cannot use the play controls on the keyboard anymore. It is a balancing act between user expectations and functionality.
There are of course many examples where Apple actually flaunted the guidelines. The new app designs in iOS 10 for instance are a concurrent example. On the Mac, it was particularly annoying with iTunes in the past. Even the aesthetics: they had this really odd, bright gradient in the toolbar at some point, rather than the flat grey colour. In one version they even placed the window buttons vertically. They used these blue–grey, opaque scrollbar handles instead of the ‘lickable’ toothpaste ones. These were so omnipresent there that many people here actually thought that Apple would change the Aqua design itself to match them, and called it ‘marble theme’.
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