macOS Ventura Features Redesigned 'System Settings' App

[opeter]

just a nitpick, but I used OS X Mavericks (10.9) on my 2013 MBP until 08/2021, and I'm 100% sure that the category names were not there

OK, sorry, I meant 10.8... 10.9 removed the category names, not Yosemite.

Anyway, the first version of this was in MacOS X 10 or 10.1 (Puma?)

Image from here: http://screenshots.modemhelp.net/screenshots/Macintosh_OS_v10.1/System_Preferences/Index.shtml

 

[Pugly]

You are right, they did this is Yosemite 10.10. Before that it was much more usable, because you had the name of the categories etc.

I never noticed how bad it's gotten. I've been using Macs since Leopard, and the original categories and spatial memory has kept me going. The original design was so good I have residual benefit from it... No wonder people are confused and thinks it is disorganized.

You can still kind of tell the organization, with general settings up top and more specific hardware settings towards the bottom. How can it lose usability like this when they put in the work of having categories and a hierarchy before?

 

[spacebar2k]

I can resize mine downward. A lot of issues I have with it, I'd like it to be able to resize outward, not just down. The more I'm playing around with it, I understand it, where they moved things. f

Exactly my situation. Why is simple window resizing such a mystery on MacOS? It always has since issue of some sort depending on what the window happens to be.

 

[DoctorApple]

This:


View attachment 2014925
To this:

View attachment 2014926



It's a major step back in usability but I'm not surprised.

Craig says improvement is coming. They didn’t have to add it in beta 1.

 

[Juanj]

Is it me, or are the iP address settings, nowhere to be found in Ventura?

I can’t review or change IP adres settings or DNS settings

 

[UMHurricanes34]

Have there been any improvements to System Settings with the second beta?

 

[Jodeo]

Heaven forbid they offer something like Grid View and List View so we can choose what works best for us.

I agree: Apple keeps changing things for change's sake instead of working to meet the needs of the users.

A one-size-fits-all experience is never a good experience: Allow some basic flexibility for once. Let us set views (like we can in Finder), turn special effects on and off (especially the annoying rubber banding in iOS Messages when trying to edit a word you just dictated), etc.

Why does Apple have to make things harder than they need to be?

 

[spacebar2k]

Heaven forbid they offer something like Grid View and List View so we can choose what works best for us.

I agree: Apple keeps changing things for change's sake instead of working to meet the needs of the users.

A one-size-fits-all experience is never a good experience: Allow some basic flexibility for once. Let us set views (like we can in Finder), turn special effects on and off (especially the annoying rubber banding in iOS Messages when trying to edit a word you just dictated), etc.

Why does Apple have to make things harder than they need to be?

It's because they do not want to add anything they don't absolutely have to. "It's our way or the highway" has been their mantra forever. 'Options' has never been a valid reason to choose an Apple product. This is one of the reasons I've refused to use an iOS device in nearly a decade. That iOS mentality is slowly creeping into MacOS now. *Shudder*

 

[spacebar2k]

Have there been any improvements to System Settings with the second beta?

Lol no. Not even in the 5th Beta.

 

[MacOSExustio]

original categories and spatial memory has kept me going.

It's ironic that MacOS basically *invented* the "visual metaphor instead of text" thing.. Now they (and everyone else I think) seem to be moving away from it. Blame phones and the resulting "one window is everything" mentality that are because phone screens so small you can't really have a "GUI"..

 

[MacOSExustio]

Where is the Time Machine preference pane *file* located? I use QuickSilver to access most everything, and typing "Control-Space-'TIMPP'" no longer works. I'm annoyed. <mildly angry emoji - whatever that is>

 

[UMHurricanes34]

It's ironic that MacOS basically *invented* the "visual metaphor instead of text" thing.. Now they (and everyone else I think) seem to be moving away from it. Blame phones and the resulting "one window is everything" mentality that are because phone screens so small you can't really have a "GUI"..

It’s quite sad to watch the visual polish drain out of the Mac. Not saying it was ever perfect, but it doesn’t feel like we’re moving in the right direction.

 

[Helpfixit]

Just updated to Ventura today and the System Setting app is ugly on my 27” monitor! Wtf Apple ??? and you can’t resize the app properly, seems stuck to portrait position, looks like it was coded for iPad / iPhone. Jeez 🙄

 

[usagora]

Is it me, or are the iP address settings, nowhere to be found in Ventura?

I can’t review or change IP adres settings or DNS settings

It's under Network, but just search "ip" or "dns" to find specific settings easily.

 

[dysamoria]

I never noticed how bad it's gotten. I've been using Macs since Leopard, and the original categories and spatial memory has kept me going. The original design was so good I have residual benefit from it... No wonder people are confused and thinks it is disorganized.

You can still kind of tell the organization, with general settings up top and more specific hardware settings towards the bottom. How can it lose usability like this when they put in the work of having categories and a hierarchy before?

Today’s Apple aren’t the same people as the Apple that earned respect for good design. They’ve been riding their own coattails ever since 2013 when the design ethos at Apple went into the toilet. People have refused to accept that Apple had abandoned design expertise.

 

[Madhatter32]

Today’s Apple aren’t the same people as the Apple that earned respect for good design. They’ve been riding their own coattails ever since 2013 when the design ethos at Apple went into the toilet. People have refused to accept that Apple had abandoned design expertise.

I would say that the problem is Apple's leadership -- not necessarily its design team. The choice to make Ventura look like iOS is the direction leadership wants to take to unify the experience. They may go touchscreen at some point in the future. But the design works on iOS. It looks stupid and wasteful on a real computer monitor.

 

[dysamoria]

I would say that the problem is Apple's leadership -- not necessarily its design team. The choice to make Ventura look like iOS is the direction leadership wants to take to unify the experience. They may go touchscreen at some point in the future. But the design works on iOS. It looks stupid and wasteful on a real computer monitor.

There’s a lot that doesn’t work well on iOS, design-wise. Leadership is certainly the problem, but bad leadership might mean that the expertise has moved on from Apple, as well. When Jony Ive put the print marketing people to work redesigning the iOS UI, instead of the existing UI specialists already at Apple, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if that act was poorly-received by the people who had the actual expertise…

 

[viniciusferrao]

Is there a way to rollback this system settings menu?

 

[TechAndOSWorld]

Is there a way to rollback this system settings menu?

on Intel, you can use the System Preferences app from Monterey (at least that was the case in beta). but you're out of luck if you have an ARM Mac

 

[Heat_Fan89]

I've been using macOS since 2002 when it was OS X and I really don't mind the new look and layout. It reminds me a lot of the layout of iPadOS which I use everyday so no complaints from from me.

 

[RedFlag]

As a longtime macOS user, I personally don't like the new layout at all. I've got both and iPad and an iPhone, and I neither want nor need that same design experience on my Mac, since they are different devices with different purposes.

I hate having to scroll up and down looking for something, and I feel like the icons were there to make it simpler and faster to access a specific subcategory. I hope they at least bring the option to get all the categories and settings back in a grid-like view.

 

[UMHurricanes34]

This application is sorely missing a third column. It would allow for the prior two columns/sidebar to be cleaned up and simplified, and reduce the absolutely disgraceful amount of vertical scrolling. These are widescreen devices and to design an application like this is absurd.

 

[maflynn]

I hate the new system settings, its very un-Apple like in its UI and UX. Interacting with it is horrible an not very intuitive

 

[chucker23n1]

This application is sorely missing a third column. It would allow for the prior two columns/sidebar to be cleaned up and simplified, and reduce the absolutely disgraceful amount of vertical scrolling. These are widescreen devices and to design an application like this is absurd.

Yup.

(Some portions even require a fourth level of hierarchy. Which is fine! Just shrink and expand the window as needed.)

 

[UMHurricanes34]

Yup.

(Some portions even require a fourth level of hierarchy. Which is fine! Just shrink and expand the window as needed.)

***Screams in Alan Dyes***