Steve Jobs Defends New iTunes 10 Icon Against Criticism

[GanleyBurger]

I always HATED that old Icon.
As basic as the new one looks,
I can find it instantly now.
They could have added an "i" inside the music notes or something.

 

[slicecom]

Why didn't Apple just do this!?

 

[TitoC]

So as a designer of 20 years, did you steal the silver outer ring from the Pop Cap games logo or do you work for PCG?

So as someone who prides himself on his ignorance did you NOT see where I credited the ACTUAL person who created the logo I was referring to? Or are YOU actually proud of your inability to read?

P.S. As someone who has seen and designed plenty of logos and designs in his lifetime, an "outer ring" (wow, how original - I know) came waaaaay before Pop Cap games ever existed. That's like saying using black as a color is restricted because someone ELSE used it first. Get a grip and do some reading and research before you rant. It might help with that little bit of patronizing gunk stuck on your teeth.

 

[droid15]

The new icon looks better anyway in my opinion.

 

[droid15]

Couldn't have said it better myself. I don't think it's worse either -- I like how they got rid of that CD.

Exactly and if you don't like you new icon just find a pic of the old one and change it to that.

 

[DakotaGuy]

Reply from Steve Jobs

I sent Steve Jobs an email yesterday and he replied back to me. I understand his reasoning for the color going away from the Library menu. I can't say I completely agree, but I understand that the focus should be on the album artwork and not the little Library icons. Anyhow with that said, I think it is really cool that he reads and sometimes responds to people's emails. It means that he does care what people think and even if he disagrees he is still taking the time to gather ideas from people.

Email reply is attached.

 

[tkingart]

This might have been posted before, but no way am I going to backtrack through the 34 pages of fanboi rage over this non-issue (keeping the new icon myself). However, I do like what this guy is getting at:

http://dribbble.com/shots/52294-iTunes-Icon

http://cl.ly/9b345dc3ea625045fffe

This icon is a step in the right direction, but lose the CD, and incorporate a film frame behind the music note, as a step closer.

Stay away from circles Apple, some of us are afraid the Finder icon is going to be the next, at which point you may as well just add a Windows logo to it.

I expect a lot more from Apple than a blue circle. if Apple can't do better, then they need to start hiring artist with both talent and the vision to make something within the standards you've set for yourselves. Get back to "human" real-world representation icons, instead of cold geometric shapes.

 

[manu chao]

I sent Steve Jobs an email yesterday and he replied back to me. I understand his reasoning for the color going away from the Library menu. I can't say I completely agree, but I understand that the focus should be on the album artwork and not the little Library icons.

That is all nice and well if you use the artwork in the list view, if you do not, your usability got reduced for a possible improvement in usability for other users.

This is typical Apple: 'We think album list view is the best, but we are gracious enough to let you keep using list view although we will compromise it for the sake of overall consistency and simplicity. Be glad we did not take list view away completely.'

Jobs said some time ago in an interview that once you add a feature it is very hard to take it away again.

 

[Schtumple]

Why didn't Apple just do this!?

Honestly, I did wonder that, considering the System Preferences app got the same cogs icon from the iPhones settings app, why not iTunes?

 

[iCole]

I like the new icon. It's clean, simple and does the job.

I also must say that i've gotten used to the new iTunes. The grey doesn't bother me anymore, i actually think it looks cleaner. The only thing that i still find silly is the placement of the stoplights. Either redo the whole OS with those stoplights or just leave them that way. It doesn't really serve a purpose.

edit : http://static.maniacalrage.net/bucket/itunes/10/ a nice comparison, itunes 10 actually looks less toy like than 9 and more in line with the OS in general

 

[nelmat]

Now that's a horrible icon.

I disagree, the new quicktime icon is beautiful.

 

[morespce54]

I don't (really) mind the changing of the iTunes icon...

But changing the iTunes UI?
Seems like it took years for iTunes to catch up with the "consistent" UI Design of other Apple softwares.

...Now it's "all over again"?

 

[snakelda]

I love the way the message was sent with the intention of changing apples mind and Steve just replies with a short,but effective "We disagree".lol.

 

[bruno7]

Well, I've changed the icon already and I've replaced those gray icons with color ones. I also managed to change iPhone's capacity bar with the old style one.

But I just cannot stand the overall design especially iPhone's tabs - summary, info etc.

And I really loved the old list view with album art on the left that could be resized to whatever size. Now there is this tiny artwork that I almost cannot see...

And where are all those vertical lines between columns?

Apple probably went for a cleaner look but I think that this time it was a step backwards.

 

[tkermit]

Now there is this tiny artwork that I almost cannot see...

Oh come on now - that's a little hyperbolic, don't you think (see attachment)

And where are all those vertical lines between columns?

Gone - just like in the Finder (and Mail.app etc.)

Apple probably went for a cleaner look but I think that this time it was a step backwards.

We disagree.

 

[TheSlush]

Think the new iTunes logo is hard to look at?

How about this x-ray of an abused child's broken limb?

I realize we are all on a Mac-centric website, but for crying out loud, given everything terrible that exists in the world today, perhaps we should all exude a little perspective and be grateful that we are fortunate enough to bitch about freaking digital artwork.

Now that kid hasn't just been abused, he's also been exploited to make a self-righteous, sanctimonious, obnoxious point.

 

[midiac]

exactly. I actually used one of these to replace the new one. And here is one of his that I changed to blue that I might use . . .

OK. . .How do I get that Blue version??

 

[PeterQVenkman]

I'm a PC, and the iTunes 10 icon was my idea.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I think the logo you show is very pretty and well designed but waaay too detailed and complex.

Well done Apple!

And speaking as someone who has actual taste, my opinion is you are absolutely wrong. Apple's logo sucks compared to the one shown. Pretty (whether complex or not) is much preferable over bland. I couldn't care less how complex an icon is as long as the end result LOOKS GOOD in the dock. If it does, it wins (the purple logo there wins) and if not, it SUCKS. Apple's new logo does not suck, IMO (I think it is an improvement over the old one which is even more boring), but it's very boring compared the example shown here and therefore a failure. Apple could do much better. An average 5th grader could design a logo that looks better than the one Apple used and that is no exaggeration in the slightest.

Based on iTunes 10's others changes (getting rid of color icons), I would say whomever is in charge is COLOR BLIND. Black and white serves no purpose except to make the entire interface look DATED. If they had at least improved the icons to make them look better in the process and like some great marble set of statuesque beauty, I might be OK with them. But they did NOTHING but simply drag the saturation slider in Photoshop (or equivalent software) to black & white and called that an upgrade. It's HORRIBLE and the SAD thing is Steve Jobs is too blind to see it. Black & White went out with the '50s. The original Mac interface was AWFUL looking. Color was the BEST thing that ever happened to a Mac. Having personally come from the C64/Amiga realm, a lack of color is like working with a monochrome monitor....HORRIBLE. Ever see a game in B&W? UGH. Give me 24-bit color or better and NOTHING ELSE. Black and white interfaces effectively cut the shading range down to VGA modes (256 shades maximum).

iTunes is an interface to play music and movies and the like. It should be effective and efficient. Shrinking speaker play buttons so you can no longer see what speakers are selected is a step BACKWARDS and that is the other huge blunder managed in iTunes 10. They replaced a perfectly FUNCTIONAL button that lists what speakers are enabled with a TINY one that you have to click on to see what's enabled. That combined with the B&W interface makes the whole experience feel like I just bought a Mac Classic and iTunes just went back to version 2.0. I don't know who is in charge of these changes, but they should be fired for them (and I don't mean the icon).

I sent Steve Jobs an email yesterday and he replied back to me. I understand his reasoning for the color going away from the Library menu. I can't say I completely agree, but I understand that the focus should be on the album artwork and not the little Library icons.

That just tells me Steve Jobs is BLIND. If he honestly believes that color icons detract from album artwork, HE IS BLIND. They're not even in the same part of the interface for goodness sake! Then there's the fact that he just came that conclusion after almost a decade??!? WTF!? The sidebar icons MATCH *OSX* itself's standard interface but seeing as he decided to IGNORE THAT COMPLETELY and make vertical traffic light instead of the STANDARD horizontal one just shows that Steve Jobs is a hypocrite. OBEY our visual standards, but I'll do whatever the frak I feel like.

Show me ONE person that LIKES vertical traffic lights for window buttons or even one that HONESTLY prefers black and white icons over color ones. Steve's taste is akin to saying that the Atari 2600 had great graphics!

 

[HelveticaNeue]

Show me ONE person that LIKES vertical traffic lights for window buttons or even one that HONESTLY prefers black and white icons over color ones. Steve's taste is akin to saying that the Atari 2600 had great graphics!

I always disliked the coloured icons. I didn't necessarily think they had to be greyscale; however, I found the colours didn't look harmonious beside one another. I was happy when I saw them become monotone in the update. I also like the vertical traffic lights. Saves a little room, looks a little different and the only one I really use is still in the same place.

 

[tkermit]

I always disliked the coloured icons. I didn't necessarily think they had to be greyscale; however, I found the colours didn't look harmonious beside one another. I was happy when I saw them become monotone in the update. I also like the vertical traffic lights. Saves a little room, looks a little different and the only one I really use is still in the same place.

I also really like the fact that the header - or whatever it's called - is now symmetrical with equal space above and below it. In fact, most of the buttons and UI elements in the header and footer are perfectly symmetrical as well. If you look at the evolution of the iTunes design, they've actually been working towards this, and now we're finally there. How cool is that???

 

[LagunaSol]

Show me ONE person that LIKES vertical traffic lights for window buttons

This seems a particularly trivial nit to pick. Seriously, how many people knowledgable enough to care even use these window buttons anyway? Cmd-H to hide, Cmd-Q to quit. Are you really mousing across your huge display for basic window control? Keyboard shortcuts all the way. Vertical, horizontal, I really don't care - and I doubt most others care either. Heck, having the playback control buttons in the top left corner seems less than ideal if you're in the mood for UI gripes.

I never cared much for the pastel colored icons either (on a baby blue background no less), so the gray theme doesn't bug me. *shrug*

Personally I'd like to see iTunes go to a darker pro look (despite being a consumer app) like GarageBand. And they can put the window buttons in a triangular formation for all I care.

 

[dejo]

And speaking as someone who has actual taste...

Someone's full of themselves...

 

[DakotaGuy]

This seems a particularly trivial nit to pick. Seriously, how many people knowledgable enough to care even use these window buttons anyway?

I always use these buttons and I am sure I'm not the only person that does.

 

[zeemeerman2]

This seems a particularly trivial nit to pick. Seriously, how many people knowledgable enough to care even use these window buttons anyway? Cmd-H to hide, Cmd-Q to quit.

It always bothered me. Why using Cmd-H to hide iTunes, when Cmd-W does the same thing (other than release the focus from the app). I even use custom keybinds to let it be in more sync with the rest of my apps. (kinda, depending on how you look at it)


Cmd-N: Opens the iTunes window (like when you open a new window in finder or pages) (Replaces Cmd-Option-1)
Cmd-W: Closes the iTunes window (like when you close a window in finder or pages)
I never even use Cmd-Q, except for things like updates etc... and I'm happy with it.

* reminds me, in the two years I use a Mac, I never ever hide something. If I don't need something for a while, I usually minimize it to the dock (especially for Word documents) or overwrite it with another window (especially for FireFox).


Well,... come on people, please complain a bit more. A bit more and we reach the 900st post! And with a bit luck and some encouragement of the MacRumors admins, the 1000st poster get a reward!