On Sep 3, 2010, at 9:18 PM, Kevin Callahan wrote:
> I'd rather look at a spreadsheet.
>
> I hate to say that about an Apple app because I essentially look at Apple
> design as the apotheosis of UI.
>
> WTF happened?
You read my mind, Kevin! I was actually about to make a similar post.
When I switched to the Mac almost 9 years ago, the interface looked downright
lickable. But the last couple of years, there has been an inexorable trend
towards making everything very gray and minimalist. I think as far as
human-computer interaction principles go, a lot of this has been a step
backwards. Major folder icons (Applications, Downloads, Photos, etc.) that all
look exactly the same with only slightly grayer embossed designs to distinguish
them, file icons with very similar-looking live previews, and now iTunes has
lost virtually all the color and lines from its entire interface.
I find this quite a bit more difficult to use because of the lack of obvious
visual cues. I cannot discern what I am looking at without really having to
stare. This is a big change from years ago when I could see a folder's or an
icon's color/shape with only a cursory glance and know what it was. I'm not
sure what's going on here, but all of this loses on the interface design front.
Apple, please bring the lines back to iTunes and put some color -somewhere- in
the interface. All the fields run together now and it is harder to organize the
information when looking at the window.
While we're at it, I would be in favor of bringing back the older-style Finder
icons so major system folders like Applications and Documents look like
something unique. The only location where these folders are distinguishable
from each other is in the Finder sidebar.
I would also be in favor of being able to disable the icon-based previews at
least on a case-by-case basis. This is a great feature for pictures or movies,
but it does not make any sense at all (at least not to me) for text documents.
Every icon for a text document looks virtually identical and I can't even tell
in what program a given document will open without staring at the gray "DOC" or
"TXT" label at the bottom, which blends in with the text from the preview.
This wasn't intended to be a rant, but I'm not sure what they're thinking over
in Cupertino. Is this what we have to look forward to system-wide in 10.7? Eek!
Matt_______________________________________________
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