Why Apple still sucks at software design??

[Tozovac]

how often do u stare at your homescreen for something like this to even bother u.. lol

You are seriously complaining about the wallpaper in a iPad ad?

Your criticism is invalid, wallpaper is customizable, if you find that font and icons do not contrast well against the background, you can change it.

I get what @Feyl is saying. It's not so much this one thing upsetting the mood but it's one of the straws that breaks the back. It's the larger issue of Apple's monochromatic flat-design no-depth UIx prioritizations since iOS 7 that's resulted in an interface that's too often less robust across varying conditions and results in frequent pauses to reorient oneself, where those pauses add up into accumulated frustrations for some. LINK

Look at the screenshot below; with the obliteration of shading, shadows, & borders that help UI define context, too often the copy/paste "buttons" are completely lost amongst a dark background and take that extra second or two to self-calibrate where the copy or cut “button” is.

The text looks difficult to read in that pic but in reality it is much clearer, more so due to parallax as well.

Ha. So Jony Ive removes helpful shading/shadows/borders in the UIx that previously helped define context globally in an application's controls, in an application's content, and in the iOS itself and addresses this design decision mistake with parallax that "helps" define context only for app icons and which was found to be sea-sickness inducing to some and then relegated to being optional, resulting in 3 fails: 1) turning off parallax loses the supposed function of defining what's pressable due to this non-robust UIx decision, 2) requiring the user to do something to accommodate Apple's design blunder that should require no user action, and 3) further erosion of the "it just works" feeling.

The bigger issue once again is replacing UIx elements that were once robust across multiple scenarios with a minimalist less-robust UIx element that shows its weaknesses often. Not always, but often.

Just my opinion from a design point of view it's probably on the lower end, but from a practical point-of-view it's better that it doesn't standout. I mean most people know what the home button does and for those who don't then it tells them what it does.

At the very (black) heart of the rationale for iOS 7, Jony is quoted as saying people know how to touch/tap glass, so certain metaphors aren't necessary anymore. And also there was some gibberish about "the interface being able to disappear amongst the content, so as to not distract and clutter the interface." But when "enacting changes resulting in reduced clarity/function for many" is contrasted with "leave alone something that works pretty darn great and results in no reduced clarity or impaired function for any," then which seems to be the better longer-view robust choice that a truly great designer would (or should) consider?

 

[dfs]

Skimming through all these posts, my takeaway is the old cliche that tastes vary, you can't please everybody. The kind of complains made here represent the inevitable outcome of Apple's "one size fits all" design philosophy first imposed with the advent of OSX (remember back in the OS 9 era when you could skin your Mac with a wide variety of third-party "themes", most of which may have been horrible but you could always find one you loved?) I. m. h. o. personal computers, including mobile devices, are all about empowering the end user, and I should be just as free to decorate the little chunk of hyperspace I inhabit as I am to choose the decor of my living room. Apple ought to be giving us the tools to do this rather than forcing us to see the world through their corporate eyes. This is a vitally important point of personal computing which Apple's current crop of bigwigs refuses to acknowledge. Too much depends on the personal tastes of one key guy in the Apple organization: it used to be the guy who loved leatherette, who then got replaced by John Ives with his mad passion for wimpy pastels. But it's always one guy sitting in one chair who gets to call the shots about what I have to look at, like it or not. This ability to choose is one of the reasons why I vastly prefer Chrome to Safari and whyI use Airmail rather than Mail.

 

[I7guy]

I get what @Feyl is saying. It's not so much this one thing upsetting the mood but it's one of the straws that breaks the back. It's the larger issue of Apple's monochromatic flat-design no-depth UIx prioritizations since iOS 7 that's resulted in an interface that's too often less robust across varying conditions and results in frequent pauses to reorient oneself, where those pauses add up into accumulated frustrations for some. LINK

Look at the screenshot below; with the obliteration of shading, shadows, & borders that help UI define context, too often the copy/paste "buttons" are completely lost amongst a dark background and take that extra second or two to self-calibrate where the copy or cut “button” is.

View attachment 833491



Ha. So Jony Ive removes helpful shading/shadows/borders in the UIx that previously helped define context globally in an application's controls, in an application's content, and in the iOS itself and addresses this design decision mistake with parallax that "helps" define context only for app icons and which was found to be sea-sickness inducing to some and then relegated to being optional, resulting in 3 fails: 1) turning off parallax loses the supposed function of defining what's pressable due to this non-robust UIx decision, 2) requiring the user to do something to accommodate Apple's design blunder that should require no user action, and 3) further erosion of the "it just works" feeling.

The bigger issue once again is replacing UIx elements that were once robust across multiple scenarios with a minimalist less-robust UIx element that shows its weaknesses often. Not always, but often.



At the very (black) heart of the rationale for iOS 7, Jony is quoted as saying people know how to touch/tap glass, so certain metaphors aren't necessary anymore. And also there was some gibberish about "the interface being able to disappear amongst the content, so as to not distract and clutter the interface." But when "enacting changes resulting in reduced clarity/function for many" is contrasted with "leave alone something that works pretty darn great and results in no reduced clarity or impaired function for any," then which seems to be the better longer-view robust choice that a truly great designer would (or should) consider?

Wonder why this thread was brought back to life?

The thing about design, is that no one has the key to the door and not matter how many blogs are out there espousing this that or the other thing, there are many ways to the same end. While you might not like the minimalism, I like fatter lapels better. Whose to say fatter lapels are a worse design choice than skinnier lapels?

 

[Tozovac]

Wonder why this thread was brought back to life?

The thing about design, is that no one has the key to the door and not matter how many blogs are out there espousing this that or the other thing, there are many ways to the same end. While you might not like the minimalism, I like fatter lapels better. Whose to say fatter lapels are a worse design choice than skinnier lapels?

I resurrected it because Macrumors featured it at the page bottom of another thread, and it interested me. I’ve always assumed old threads are fair game if the content is still relevant. I daily have a hard time deciding whether the Apple TV remote or iOS 7-12 is the more meaningful example of how not a well-rounded genius designer Jony Ive is.

Your answer is interesting. Yes there are many ways to do many things. Some ways provide more, some less. Just like I’d argue a better alternative is to be stuck on a deserted island with a little too much food than too little, I’ll argue it’s better to have a uIX with more usability affordances than the barest minimum. I’ll agree too that having so much food that you are forced to walk on it is unnecessarily excessive to the point it could actually be bothersome to some, just like the green felt, woodgrain, and stitched leather.

I can’t expand upon that any differently than what I stated here, as a very specific example of what I just said above: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...v-remote-design-issues.2164922/#post-27309893

As for your lapel example that’s unfortunately overlooking one key thing: if only Apple afforded us the luxury of choosing our own lapel. If the iOS 12 calendar is better for you and the iOS 6 calendar is better for me, and we could choose, then problem solved. Same for no-button text “buttons” vs “touch me cues,” gridless white-outs vs. smartly-defined obvious zones, thin low-contrast text on white vs. bolder more obvious text, functions buried under hamburger icons instead of keeping frequently-used functions out in front, etc.

But the continued embargo on proven-useful uIX affordances is so hard to understand, especially during those instances where something is just not as obvious because it’s so minimalized and it takes more cognitive work and tapping than as before.

Stylistic preferences aside, and speaking towards function, nothing about the ios6 calendar would seem to slow down or impede efficient use, while elements of the current calendar as an example (while thinking about its filtering into other apps), can lead to contradictory unsureness at the worst (is the red SEP pressable since AUG (offscreen) is not?) and overall less subconsciously obviousness (intuitiveness) at the least that does start to add up noticeably over time.

YMMV, as I know it does.

 

[C DM]

I resurrected it because Macrumors featured it at the page bottom of another thread

Simply in the similar threads section that populates in its own?

 

[Tozovac]

Simply in the similar threads section that populates in its own?

Yup. It’s there for a reason right?

 

[I7guy]

...As for your lapel example that’s unfortunately overlooking one key thing: if only Apple afforded us the luxury of choosing our own lapel. If the iOS 12 calendar is better for you and the iOS 6 calendar is better for me, and we could choose, then problem solved. Same for no-button text “buttons” vs “touch me cues,” gridless white-outs vs. smartly-defined obvious zones, thin low-contrast text on white vs. bolder more obvious text, functions buried under hamburger icons instead of keeping frequently-used functions out in front, etc...

One point regarding the above, some elements of every operating system is customizable, some elements are not. It’s like that even in windows. But I get your point.

 

[Tozovac]

I think you're being AWFULLY hyperbolic when you say Apple "still sucks at software design." Yeah, they're not perfect but I'd argue they're still on top when it comes to software... and they certainly don't "suck" at it. Let's chill a bit.

I tend to think that no matter how much better than Microsoft, Google and Android we all may think iOS and OS X still are, the More AAPL caters to form over function and the more certain basic details are missed, then yes, it’s not out of place to say AAPL does suck at software design compared to, say, 2013 and prior back when function seemed to rule over form.

Ultimately, does software exist to be used or to be looked at?

 

[last48fm]

Apple will never be like that again.

Most likely the new companies like Huawei, Xiamoi, Meizu etc. will create a user friendly design. Than the Apple with Tim Cook and later.