Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Amazing macOS 11 Concept
- Thread starter Joseph C
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
nice, but...nothing to do with the real world. it's like these amazing iphone mockups we've seen over the years...some of them are exceptional, but then...we go & buy the real iphone.
so, cool concept; nothing more (and to be fair, nothing less).
so, cool concept; nothing more (and to be fair, nothing less).
Mehhhh...
Every year or so, somebody writes a long-winded article filled with screenshots of their ideal Mac OS and app GUIs. This one was nice, but not even close to the coolest I've come across.
The thing is, none of them will ever come to be because they all suffer from the same flaw; "the whole world thinks the same way I do" mentality that the writers/designers/developers assume.
The fact is that the Mac OS as it stands now (as well as Windows) is exactly the way it is because that's precisely how the vast majority of people who use it want it, and can understand it. The reality we live in is slow moving, iterative changes—not sweeping, awe-inspiring ones.
Every year or so, somebody writes a long-winded article filled with screenshots of their ideal Mac OS and app GUIs. This one was nice, but not even close to the coolest I've come across.
The thing is, none of them will ever come to be because they all suffer from the same flaw; "the whole world thinks the same way I do" mentality that the writers/designers/developers assume.
The fact is that the Mac OS as it stands now (as well as Windows) is exactly the way it is because that's precisely how the vast majority of people who use it want it, and can understand it. The reality we live in is slow moving, iterative changes—not sweeping, awe-inspiring ones.
What amazes me is that I rarely have only 2 windows on my desktop. I usually have at least a dozen so it would be nice if these mock ups tried to reflect reality.
There's apparently a new generation of designers that considers windows to be relicts from the past that have outlived their usefulness...
Wow. That is truly awful. Information overload.There's apparently a new generation of designers that considers windows to be relicts from the past that have outlived their usefulness...
Personally I hate tags. I can never remember what I tagged something. Folders are far more useful when you can't remember the name of a file. At least how your brain thinks logically never changes and you can probably navigate to where you put something most of the time.
The article is very well thought out.
The idea of bringing a UIKit to Mac and allowing for iOS developers to better port their apps to the platform, with specific differences for mouse and keyboard input, is great.
I also love the way the designer has evolved the current OS X UI but improved it:
The top bar is cleaner and less heavy. The Dock is no longer boxed in but uses a darker fade-gradient overlay over the bottom of the background of the desktop. Looks infinitely better.
Again here, Mail is significantly cleaner and the button style flat and beautiful. It's even cleaner than before and I think this style is very versatile and timeless.
Adapting Contacts to have tighter integration to people's social networks and handles is a great idea, as is giving a list of shared files and activity.
This should have happened ages ago. If Apple really cleaned it up and did it well, it could usher in a whole new contacts system which, widely adopted across iOS users, could become a people hub.
A Music app for Mac like seen below would also be very welcome as iTunes is a convoluted mess now.
All in all this feels like OS X but very polished and further refined in terms of UI. The various ideas shown and the thoughts behind it would be very good to help revitalise the Mac as a platform.
"With the introduction of UIKit apps on macOS, apps like Facebook, Netflix, and Inbox would easily port with few modifications and take advantage of native performance, window management, notifications, offline support, and every new feature brought to the OS."
This is the key part. Apple needs to not only revamp its stock apps but refine the UI AND make it appealing to developers to bring stuff out for Mac stores alongside iOS.
The idea of bringing a UIKit to Mac and allowing for iOS developers to better port their apps to the platform, with specific differences for mouse and keyboard input, is great.
I also love the way the designer has evolved the current OS X UI but improved it:
The top bar is cleaner and less heavy. The Dock is no longer boxed in but uses a darker fade-gradient overlay over the bottom of the background of the desktop. Looks infinitely better.
Again here, Mail is significantly cleaner and the button style flat and beautiful. It's even cleaner than before and I think this style is very versatile and timeless.
Adapting Contacts to have tighter integration to people's social networks and handles is a great idea, as is giving a list of shared files and activity.
This should have happened ages ago. If Apple really cleaned it up and did it well, it could usher in a whole new contacts system which, widely adopted across iOS users, could become a people hub.
A Music app for Mac like seen below would also be very welcome as iTunes is a convoluted mess now.
All in all this feels like OS X but very polished and further refined in terms of UI. The various ideas shown and the thoughts behind it would be very good to help revitalise the Mac as a platform.
"With the introduction of UIKit apps on macOS, apps like Facebook, Netflix, and Inbox would easily port with few modifications and take advantage of native performance, window management, notifications, offline support, and every new feature brought to the OS."
This is the key part. Apple needs to not only revamp its stock apps but refine the UI AND make it appealing to developers to bring stuff out for Mac stores alongside iOS.
but who cares, really? what apple does next has nothing to do with this. personally, am much more interested in an OS i can use, then a theoretical one.
In real world usage, probably some of us have 20 folders on the Finder favorites, have at least four things running in the background, and don't write code with the same "one focus" approach some people use to write articles/etc because you know, it's better to actually test your stuff at the same time.
Not amazing.
Also, it's no longer called "macOS". It hasn't been for some time.
Also, it's no longer called "macOS". It hasn't been for some time.
As a Windows user for over 30 years and a OS X user for about 2 years now, I personally never give much thought to the operating system as long as it does it job well. As long as it doesn't get in the way, cause me to reboot because of a brain fart or hinders me then I'm a happy camper. If Microsoft or Apple wants to add bells & whistles to make the job easier then that is perfectly fine, but renaming or giving it a prettier gui doesn't really do anything for me. Heck, I wouldn't complain one bit if the old c: prompt (DOS) could do what these modern operating systems can do. (joking)
As a Windows user for over 30 years and a OS X user for about 2 years now, I personally never give much thought to the operating system as long as it does it job well. As long as it doesn't get in the way, cause me to reboot because of a brain fart or hinders me then I'm a happy camper. If Microsoft or Apple wants to add bells & whistles to make the job easier then that is perfectly fine, but renaming or giving it a prettier gui doesn't really do anything for me. Heck, I wouldn't complain one bit if the old c: prompt (DOS) could do what these modern operating systems can do. (joking)
that's a good point, tho. an OS should be unobtrusive, stable...so we can do our 'real' work. personally, i like el capitan, tho i don't use a lot of it's 'features'. but here, it IS fast, stable. and i can get my 'real' work done.
You obviously can't read ...
The designer was following the concept of iOS, watchOS, tvOS to call it macOS.
Dear dear me, many people slating something having not read it, typical of people these days - so much to say with very little research or attempts at understanding made!
Also people saying it's not just about UI need to READ the post. It talks about revamping the platform for developers to make apps for the Mac, as well as introducing a new file system and more. Again, it's sad to me that people fail to even half grasp another concept before giving it a good bashing via a keyboard.
No wonder Apple themselves seem to be slowing down - everyone moans too much about everything!
Finally a lot of people don't realise that successful concepts are usually nicked by Apple and implemented. Kudos to this designer for a well thought out and holistic evolutionary concept both in terms of the visuals and the backend stuff.
there's nothing wrong with it, much quite good with it. but again...who cares? am interested in the OS i can actually work with, not one i can admire from 'afar'. and it would be foolish to assume that apple isn't deep into developing 10.12 (and beyond for that matter), no new OS shows up overnight.
I'm not saying that anyone should necessarily care or that Apple will implement changes like this into the next OS which as you rightly say is well into development and will be nowhere near as "radical" (even though I see this concept as quite evolutionary, personally).
I guess the difference between us is I'm interested in creative ideas that may just remain ideas -- and you're not. I'm interested in things that could work, even if they won't ever come to fruition. I like the concept as a concept, nothing more and nothing less.
i could have sworn i said it was a great concept. and, it's certainly true: no harm in discussing it. am just, overall, more interested in what happens in the real world (i got tired of all the OS and iphone mockups we've seen over the years, some more astonishing than the actual OS's and phones that came to be). but it should certainly be ok to discuss these ideas...
There's apparently a new generation of designers that considers windows to be relicts from the past that have outlived their usefulness...
2 windows on a desktop is fine for a Facebook device like a tablet but when it comes to GTD then I use a computer. I need multiple sources of information available together, flexibly to me, not via some sliding, animates, confusing mess. The desktop metaphor survived so long because it works effectively. These so-called UI, UX, or whatever pretend title they have should get a real job!
Finder integration for collaboration is a poor idea overall because it sits at the back of the desktop in most cases, or you don't even have an instance of it open. If you're using a program like Github's Atom (Sublime does it like that too...), you have a thing to the side that has a list of the folder you're currently working in (which works against that tagging system), you import photos into Lightroom by connecting whatever and doing your selections within the app, and if you're working on projects in general, you could spend a few hours in just that app alone.
So it'd make more sense that they use the Notification Center for alerts that you can click on and be taken straight to the document. Instead of showing the three dots and lines they could have a badge with a number in there too.
Sharing a file is better done within a Share Sheet button and in the File menu. They're already doing this, but it could be better - Make the menu completely customizable with a API so Slack, Evernote, Apple, Microsoft, whatever, can not only just list their app there, but have actions that push stuff to certain notebooks, folders, etc.
It's more "invisible" than having lists of contacts taking up room in the actual app/Finder UI.
Plus, you could even extend this stuff to Automator and AppleScript.
Concepts are cool, but there's more to doing them than just getting hearts/likes/stars.
So it'd make more sense that they use the Notification Center for alerts that you can click on and be taken straight to the document. Instead of showing the three dots and lines they could have a badge with a number in there too.
Sharing a file is better done within a Share Sheet button and in the File menu. They're already doing this, but it could be better - Make the menu completely customizable with a API so Slack, Evernote, Apple, Microsoft, whatever, can not only just list their app there, but have actions that push stuff to certain notebooks, folders, etc.
It's more "invisible" than having lists of contacts taking up room in the actual app/Finder UI.
Plus, you could even extend this stuff to Automator and AppleScript.
Concepts are cool, but there's more to doing them than just getting hearts/likes/stars.
Last edited:
I find it a fascinating idea. My initial thought was that it is ridiculous to even consider removing the floating windows in favour of what looks like a more elaborate split view. But then I thought: the underlying assumption actually makes sense to me. Windows often behave like paper or other stuff on your desk, they are just distractions or irrelevant from what you are currently focussing on and are often not even doing anything until you need them. Some people consider this creative chaos and helpful for productivity. I only know that I am constantly busy managing my windows although I can actually only really focus on one thing at a time. That you need various pieces of information within reach is not an obstacle to this idea per se.
I would also not necessarily agree with the idea that the desktop metaphor survives because it works. It survives because it is ingrained into users’ minds. Microsoft has (apparently) learned this lesson when they got rid of the start menu and found that most people will just not accept it, even with the best intentions. I think most people actually struggle at using a computer even for very basic tasks. Nevertheless, Apple will not do something this radical at a system level, it is utterly wishful thinking. At the least I would find it in a free Unix-like system where experimentation is possible at a larger scale.
I think Apple will not abandon the OS X brand until a major technological change has been made or as the result of a paradigm shift. What the OP’s link offers is not even remotely there. The adoption of mobile concepts is not that materially different from the transition from Mac OS to OS X, it is less radical and more organic.
I’d really be happy with just a legit Dark Mode, not only the Dock and Menu Bar. As for the mock-up. I hate Docks with no visible Dock and only icons. We had this ability in OS X Tiger with ShapeShifter by Unsanity, it sucked then and sucks now (not ShapeShifter, it was great, just the no actual Dock). I dislike how the mock-up hides more of the file system, it’s a bad trend of dumbing down for no reason other than to make it so simple it’s crippled. There are some good UI tweaks presented, such as the toolbar buttons in Pages. It isn’t all bad, but it isn’t really much good either. Again, I’d be really happy with a legit Dark Mode. Have a look through iMovie: looks good, obviously doable system-wide. We were promised Dark Mode a year ago, and it still hasn’t materialized.
Last edited:
The concept is quite 'nice' as isolated images, but I find that there are simply too many assumptions being made and real-world usage being ignored.
Sorry for the wall of text.
"UIKit for macOS"
The dock being transparent and without any framing is visually 'undocked'. This is confusing for users because now the dock appears to be on the same level as the desktop when it is supposed to be always on top. The mock-up conveniently ignores the fact that practically everyone has icons on their desktop. So what differentiates them?
The screenshots give off an impression of 'clean' because the apps shown are mostly content-consumption apps like Netflix, News, etc. However the fundamental difference between iOS and OS X has been that iOS gravitates towards content-consumption while OS X easily accommodates traditional workflows for content-creation like audio, video, image editing and so on.
In apps that exists in both iOS and OS X, there are still differences in how we work with them on each platform. In Mail, I am likely to drag-and-drop mail threads across mailboxes & email accounts. I am likely to jump between folders in a single click. How do I do that in that mockup?
Also I'm not sure if such an implementation of Inbox will work on 15" rMBPs up to 27" iMacs. One of the biggest complaint about the current resolution-independence implementation in iOS has been that apps are lazily scaled for the iPad, creating huge white-spaces and wide paragraphs.
For Music, splitting iTunes seems to be the most obvious solution, but why is something so obvious not being implemented immediately by Apple? Where does iTunes Store go? How do I sync my iOS devices? How do I manage ringtones? How do I differentiate between purchases, streams, iTunes Matched and uploaded tracks? How do I edit the track information?
For Pages (a content-creation app), look at how apart from the theoretical collaborative features the rest of the interface just got flattened. How does the grey-on-grey toggles at the side accommodate Accessibility (poor vision, etc.), one of the biggest complaints of iOS 7?
The Filesystem
I'm hesitant about such an oversimplification of the filesystem because in real-world use case you can have different files of the same name in different folders. Things like index.html and style.css for the 20 different concepts for the same website you are working on. You have files that you don't remember naming that way, like thisisshit.psd for that sketch you are rejecting and YEAHWOOHOO.ai for that illustration you completed and is now looking for a few days later.
Basically, the mockups in their current stage gives me no compelling reason to own both an iPad and a Mac.
Sorry for the wall of text.
"UIKit for macOS"
The dock being transparent and without any framing is visually 'undocked'. This is confusing for users because now the dock appears to be on the same level as the desktop when it is supposed to be always on top. The mock-up conveniently ignores the fact that practically everyone has icons on their desktop. So what differentiates them?
The screenshots give off an impression of 'clean' because the apps shown are mostly content-consumption apps like Netflix, News, etc. However the fundamental difference between iOS and OS X has been that iOS gravitates towards content-consumption while OS X easily accommodates traditional workflows for content-creation like audio, video, image editing and so on.
In apps that exists in both iOS and OS X, there are still differences in how we work with them on each platform. In Mail, I am likely to drag-and-drop mail threads across mailboxes & email accounts. I am likely to jump between folders in a single click. How do I do that in that mockup?
Also I'm not sure if such an implementation of Inbox will work on 15" rMBPs up to 27" iMacs. One of the biggest complaint about the current resolution-independence implementation in iOS has been that apps are lazily scaled for the iPad, creating huge white-spaces and wide paragraphs.
For Music, splitting iTunes seems to be the most obvious solution, but why is something so obvious not being implemented immediately by Apple? Where does iTunes Store go? How do I sync my iOS devices? How do I manage ringtones? How do I differentiate between purchases, streams, iTunes Matched and uploaded tracks? How do I edit the track information?
For Pages (a content-creation app), look at how apart from the theoretical collaborative features the rest of the interface just got flattened. How does the grey-on-grey toggles at the side accommodate Accessibility (poor vision, etc.), one of the biggest complaints of iOS 7?
The Filesystem
I'm hesitant about such an oversimplification of the filesystem because in real-world use case you can have different files of the same name in different folders. Things like index.html and style.css for the 20 different concepts for the same website you are working on. You have files that you don't remember naming that way, like thisisshit.psd for that sketch you are rejecting and YEAHWOOHOO.ai for that illustration you completed and is now looking for a few days later.
Basically, the mockups in their current stage gives me no compelling reason to own both an iPad and a Mac.
Compliexity is the new simplicity?
All I can say, and my overseas contacts will confirm, I have achieved more, produced more and sent out more and had more sheer fun and ejoyment in the last couple of weeks with my elderly iMac, now with OSX10.11.4 than I did in a year using Windows PCs especially with Windows 10 and penned in by a Microsoft Account.
The prime need in writing instructional or advisory material is never to assume any prior knowledge on the part of the reader, and NEVER assume that 'everyone knows' what NBG GBH XYZ NELLY or WIZBIT means as a function or an option.
From my immediate situation, Apple has not received my order for a new 27 inch because too many reviews seem to be attempts to demonstrate how clever the writers of them are, and not to inform potential users.
Forgive me if I say that truly professional writers and communicators avoid jargon like the plague.
All I can say, and my overseas contacts will confirm, I have achieved more, produced more and sent out more and had more sheer fun and ejoyment in the last couple of weeks with my elderly iMac, now with OSX10.11.4 than I did in a year using Windows PCs especially with Windows 10 and penned in by a Microsoft Account.
The prime need in writing instructional or advisory material is never to assume any prior knowledge on the part of the reader, and NEVER assume that 'everyone knows' what NBG GBH XYZ NELLY or WIZBIT means as a function or an option.
From my immediate situation, Apple has not received my order for a new 27 inch because too many reviews seem to be attempts to demonstrate how clever the writers of them are, and not to inform potential users.
Forgive me if I say that truly professional writers and communicators avoid jargon like the plague.
https://xkcd.com/927/
This. Applied to those who dream up new desktop notions. Witness the baggage Windows 8 now brings to Win10. OS designers just don't get that they shouldn't be messing with the fundamental basics. Leave the start menu alone and stop trying to dumb down apps for the desktop.