-
Apple’s aesthetic skills went off the rails
Not sure if you guys have tapped into this, and it’s a bit OT, but…
I logged in to the iCloud’s web service tonight for my mail and noticed the new design roll-out, which has been “iOS7-ified”. Man, is it butt-ugly!! Thin font and sky blue side pane. Looks like Windows Metro a bit, but MS did a MUCH better design job. Time to move to Gmail. The Gmail iPad app uses a similar thin motive, but much more stylish.
In any case, my point is that if “Mavericks” looks like this, Apple has taken a serious downturn in its design skills. This thin font, lollypop-colored UI is at complete odds with the aesthetic of the Tube or FCP X. I find this really odd, because it would tend to indicate a real schizophrenia on the inside.
The rumor is that Sir Jonny passed off icon design to marketing. If so, it must have been the folks responsible for the FCP X launch, because all I can say is YUCK!
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
67 Replies
-
Because good design (like comedy) is quantifiable.
-
You’re just now cluing in to this? I agree 100%. I was one of those that thought skeumorphicism was childish until I started beta’ing iOS7. Made me realize that yeah, game center was the ugliest thing on the planet, and perhaps the contacts and calendar apps were going a little far, but all of that is what makes Apple Apple. I mean, they brought us the “desktop.” Cant get more skeumorphic than that. All this stuff that seems a little goofy and unprofessional actually has purpose. The notes app for example. It used to be yellow lined paper with a handwritten font. Now, it’s just yellow with a san serif font. Nothing about it says notes. I’m not immediately clued into what app I’m in. And mail and safari and itunes and every other app on the iphone are all starting to look exactly the same. There’s no instant recognition. My other peeve is the lack of buttons in many places. I want to click a button that says back. I don’t want to click a tiny word that says “< back.” So, I like the new features in iOS7, but the whole iOS7 thing is fugly AND even more important, less intuitive for sure. The white and pastel is downright annoying too with a black phone. Notice they always show iOS 7 on a white phone OR a color phone with coordinated color background. Ive needs to stick to hardware. My only hope is that since the first public demo of iOS7 and the gold master, many things have been added back in that Jony had stripped out. I’m sure there is quite the controversy going on internally.
-
[Oliver Peters] “I logged in to the iCloud’s web service tonight for my mail and noticed the new design roll-out, which has been “iOS7-ified”. Man, is it butt-ugly!! “
Just checked it out. It reminds me a bit of “Hello Kitty” without any actual cats. I don’t hate it as much as you do, but it does feel sugary, and a lot like what I might expect from a pre-teen chat room or educational homepage. I keep thinking that if I click on one of those bubbles it will open an Easter Egg.
I guess it might work well with the new brightly colored phones. Maybe it will grow on me.
-
My eye went to the Pages, numbers & Keynote icons which is much more attractive in my opinion.
Dajen Productions, Santa Barbara, CA
MacPro 3.2GHz Quad Core – AJA Kona LHe+
FCS 3 OS X 10.7.4
FCP X, Logic Pro, Squeeze, Filemaker 10.8.3 -
[Bret Williams] “I’m not immediately clued into what app I’m in.”
Try looking at the top left of your screen? 🙂 I like the new look (surprise). I don’t think Mavericks will get a significant visual overhaul until next year, but at least they got rid of that awful denim login screen background. interestingly, the iCloud page uses bokeh circles, very much like my favorite guilty pleasure from FCPX.
Since IOS 7 is coming out tomorrow and I have been beta testing it since it came out I suggest you guys try two things. Go into settings/accessibility and turn on “Larger Type” (I drag it about a bump to the right of center) and also turn on ‘Bold Text”. Leave ‘reduce motion’ and ‘increase contrast’ off. Increase contrast makes the backgrounds of notification center and control panel completely black with no opaque bleed through. What can I say, I dig a little see through action :).
John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.
-
No, Oliver- Mavericks isn’t getting an iOS-style makeover. After 2 OS updates of integrating iOS features into OSX, Apple seems to have backed off and decided to go for feature synergy rather than any stylistic parity.
Mavericks still looks very much like Mountain Lion.
From what I’ve seen (we’ll find out in practice tomorrow) I very much like iOS on the iPhone/iPad. It seems logical that they decided to carry over that aesthetic to the web interface specifically to create a “seamless” visual experience between what a user gets on their phone and using the web client, whether they’re on a Mac or a Windows box.
-
[John Davidson] “the iCloud page uses bokeh circles”
That’s funny. I didn’t see those as bokeh because they are not out of focus anything, but now that you say it, I do see it. Actually, what they most remind me of are floaters in the vitreous humor.
-
[John Davidson] ” I suggest you guys try two things. Go into settings/accessibility and turn on “Larger Type” (I drag it about a bump to the right of center) and also turn on ‘Bold Text”. Leave ‘reduce motion’ and ‘increase contrast’ off.”
I concur… I’ve been running it for a while too, and that’s what also I’m telling everyone. Unsurprisingly, I like it too. 🙂 Although it takes a little getting used to. 🙂
————————————————————-
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
[Bret Williams] “You’re just now cluing in to this? I agree 100%.”
I wasn’t talking about the general style of icons or iOS7. If you look at the actual mail pages on iCloud, icons there are thin outlines on a background. Readability is very low compared to other minimalist styles. Secondly if you flip over to Pages Beta, it retains the previous, more sophisticated style. Hopefully it stays that way, but this points to very inconsistent UI designs.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[John Davidson] “Go into settings/accessibility and turn on “Larger Type””
Of course, I was talking about the iCloud webmail page. No such settings.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up