I think some of the updates are a clear improvement, but in some cases there's still problems. I've thrown together some quick comparisons to explain this better, and to hopefully change your minds on the outcome.
Events Preferences (Top is present / Bottom is proposed changes): http://cl.ly/4t6t Note: The 'Do Nothing' action is 1.5 only, and didn't have an updated counterpart I really don't get how these weren't deemed as an improvement over the previous. The old ones are big images that scale down pretty badly, which in turn end up blurred and hard to distinguish what you are actually looking at. The black Adiumy on the alert icon could be anything. Contact list icon looks pretty bad as well. The old Adiumy is also still present in the application. Get Info Pane: http://cl.ly/4tSs Same as the above - blurry icons. The chalkboard icon could say anything and the user wouldn't know. The icon, and therefore tab could be for anything. First icon should ideally be a contact card, but a better scaled one. Preferences: http://cl.ly/4sWe This is where the idea of consistency isn't happening. The 'Status' and 'Events' icons stand out so easily as belonging somewhere else. The outlines on the Status icon are way too high in contrast to stand in line with the other icons, and the Events icon is an entirely different style all together. Message View: http://cl.ly/4sG8 Couple of icons which are styled different that could be updated: 'Add Contact' (my own icon from years ago!) has a different style of shading that doesn't sit well with the other icons 'Add Group Chat Bookmark' has an entirely different design style Chat Transcript Viewer: Didn't provide screenshot as it seems fine, especially with the recent 1.5 UI changes. I think the proposed delete icon compliments the other icons better in scale, but I assume you prefer using the system default where possible? Anyway, if you want to attract the users that like pretty UIs, having consistent icons is a great start. Picking one set, and therefore one style is the best way forward for a better looking Adium in my opinion.
