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macOS 15 System Settings to Get Design Overhaul
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I'd love it to look like the old pref menu again, but I know it won't. So maybe let us customise it?
Agree and for many of my customers they've kept to Monterey rather than Sonoma
This is probably never coming back, but I miss the System 7 simplicity of "control panels are just files". You literally had Macintosh HD : System : Control Panels, and in that were the settings. Then you had the Apple Menu which was mostly literally just a bunch of aliases (Macintosh HD : System : Apple Menu Items; so simple), and by default, it had an alias to Control Panels, so you automatically had a submenu to those, and could go → Control Panels → Battery or whatever. And then you got your battery settings.
(Leaving aside whether "settings" or "panels" or "preferences" is the best name.)
The Mac OS X System Preferences app pretended to be a little bit like a folder, with an icon view, and then in 10.1 they added sections, then in 10.9 they removed the sections labels as they had become a bit arbitrary. iOS also never really figured out how to meaningfully group that stuff into sections. Surprisingly hard UX problem. (Windows 11 also has this problem. Ultimately, "System" is the "everything else goes here, I guess" category.)
But, I think one of the biggest regressions 10.0 gave us is that simplicity, where much of the system was literally just a bunch of files, organized rather neatly (since 7.0) into folders.
(Leaving aside whether "settings" or "panels" or "preferences" is the best name.)
The Mac OS X System Preferences app pretended to be a little bit like a folder, with an icon view, and then in 10.1 they added sections, then in 10.9 they removed the sections labels as they had become a bit arbitrary. iOS also never really figured out how to meaningfully group that stuff into sections. Surprisingly hard UX problem. (Windows 11 also has this problem. Ultimately, "System" is the "everything else goes here, I guess" category.)
But, I think one of the biggest regressions 10.0 gave us is that simplicity, where much of the system was literally just a bunch of files, organized rather neatly (since 7.0) into folders.
Tend to agree, as it seems to dumb down otherwise quality computers.
Could be like this - more panels! Well an actual organisation shuffle is needed... but it's the UI that bugs me. File sharing is Buried under general (!?!) > Sharing > File Sharing > then a tiny pop up to make the changes.
Should be Slide outs. Forgetting actually putting sharing on the front menu... if could be like this rough mockup
None of this model pop up rubbish. Part of the main design of Mac over Windows was the ease of settings. You didn't have to open make sure you click that apply button to everything. You make the setting and it's done ( bar no going back settings - like emptying the trashcan ) and these model pop ups are sneaking back in. Awful things.
Should be Slide outs. Forgetting actually putting sharing on the front menu... if could be like this rough mockup
None of this model pop up rubbish. Part of the main design of Mac over Windows was the ease of settings. You didn't have to open make sure you click that apply button to everything. You make the setting and it's done ( bar no going back settings - like emptying the trashcan ) and these model pop ups are sneaking back in. Awful things.
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Wait wait… are you still on macOS Sierra? It was quite a stable release (I loved it on my 2010 MBP), but it’s a bit outdated…
The new System Settings is a hot mess. My displays are wider than they are tall yet there's no way to display the setting icons in a more horizontal grid, just a dumb list sorted/organized in a way I don't like. So stupid. Not everything has to look like an iPhone.
I don’t mind the new design of system preferences (or system settings as they call it now).
What I have a problem with are performance issues on small tasks (Mac OS just isn’t optimised for the hardware found in macs), bugs and glitches (of which there’s a lot) and other things that are hindering productivity.
There should be more data privacy also and more control of what apps are actually doing in the background on your computer.
What I have a problem with are performance issues on small tasks (Mac OS just isn’t optimised for the hardware found in macs), bugs and glitches (of which there’s a lot) and other things that are hindering productivity.
There should be more data privacy also and more control of what apps are actually doing in the background on your computer.
While I certainly wouldn’t call that “vital” information, more like information absolutely no one should ever be looking at it because all it does is fuel misunderstanding and paranoia …the UI point is taken.
Passwords has certainly always been in a weird state. They keep adding more features to it, elevating it to a level of importance that requires its own app …not buried within Safari’s preferences or System settings.
More than anything though I wish they would just “finish” this Passwords feature so that I don’t have to use both iCloud Keychain and pay for 1Password. Neither one of these password solutions is 100% reliable. Neither one of them prompts you to save a new password 100% of the time, nor prompts you to autofill in 100% of apps or websites.
If you go to View in the top menu when you have System Settings open, you get an alphabetical list of all of the setting headers...I didn't know that until just now myself. We can also use the Search bar to look for the setting, which admittedly sometimes still doesn't get you to the setting, but that's a quick way to get to what you are looking for in some cases.
I used to find that the old system preferences window with a grid of icons was always hard to find what setting I was looking for and then reading the above article and looking at the current setting icons I thought, maybe they should look at the colors of the icons to indicate the groupings, like maybe "Accessibility" is blue so maybe it should have been up with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Network, but then I thought that would make it harder to quickly identify them because they are all similar colors haha. But certain things like "Appearance" and "Displays", "Wallpaper" and "Screen Saver" to me make logical sense to be be grouped together.
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Yep. Not sure we need four layers, but the current two simply aren't enough and don't make sense on the Mac. This isn't an iPhone; we have plenty of horizontal space.
People who do not like new MacOS Settings. They are Boomers. Stuck in 1990s
Logical design and usability have nothing to do with a persons birth date.
Logical design and usability is a science that you could research if you were so inclined.
No, the old Settings was not very good either, it is just that Apple made it worse instead of better.
Makes one wonder where did all of the usability engineers go? Guess that is not a key skill under Cook's leadership.
It looks like every few years, Apple re-arranges Settings. The issue with discoverability has never been fully resolved.
At this point, some items that are buried in ways that don't fully make sense although someone who know where those settings are coming from (e.g., based on iCloud) can understand why they are put there.
At this point, some items that are buried in ways that don't fully make sense although someone who know where those settings are coming from (e.g., based on iCloud) can understand why they are put there.