Yosemite looks terrible!

[nubizus]

Its clear that the road to minimalism is flawed with mannerism.
But really who gives a ****. Some designers will be outraged and what? They will adopt soon or a later. Consumers are blind. They will buy because of need to be fresh and cool in the eyes of others.
Mac os?
People will adopt to this without realizing that now they have to give more mental energy simply to operate their computer. May be this is intentional move by Apple. To make desktop unusable in favor of mobile experience, i feel the moment on the stage when someone goes and gives us the new mantra: A desktop computer is unusable, you don't need this anymore. Its logical, mobile is totally locked for the user. Mobile gives them full control.
They are consumer electronics company now. Watch is first of this. I wonder what is next? Apple glasses. Apple jacket. Apple shoes. Apple home hub, the place where everything about your family is collected and shared in cool but "no evil" way with authorizes watchers only))
**** this ****. I am going to the mountain to take large format film photography, paint and live in real harmony

 

[KALLT]

Platinum wasn't flat though. So what would a modernized, simple and flat version of that look like?

Image

That looks very cool. Did you notice that Apple recovered the thick borders around selected input fields for Yosemite? I’m seeing very subtle design recycling all over the place.

 

[Partron22]

Its clear that the road to minimalism is flawed with mannerism.

If they truly desired minimalism they'd stop shipping their OS with such gaudy Desktop wallpapers. Where are the empty starscapes and subtle desert soil crusts?

 

[grahamperrin]

Respect

A rare thing –

… There is no way, designer like Ive, who has ultra deep knowledge to be connected to this ****. Its not possible man who is done such iconic designs not to see how immature and confusing this thing is. …

– someone not rushing to target negativity at an individual.

Rare, and pleasant.

(Thank you, nubizus.)

 

[joedec]

A rare thing –



– someone not rushing to target negativity at an individual.

Rare, and pleasant.

(Thank you, nubizus.)

I don't know, I heard all the sculptures in the Ive's residence are pastel stick figures.

 

[jojoba]

I just installed Yosemite. Blimey, that's ugly. Very disappointing.

 

[One13Truck]

I finally found a solution to fixing the notification center resetting with each reboot. I've done the darkening, the font changing, the icon changing. Everything I can do to make it as good as I can.

For those that say give Yosemite a chance and it'll grow on you. Oh it has, it has. Just not in the way you want it to. It's having the opposite effect. I hate it more and more each day. Ive needs to be stuck in a box and shipped over to microsoft where he belongs.

 

[nubizus]

I hate it more and more each day. Ive needs to be stuck in a box and shipped over to microsoft where he belongs.

I feel the same hate, but for me this is not Ive hand in the doing, for me this is result of department miscommunication, apple is big now and controlling every detail is slippery, at some point in time you have to trust on others and give them a chance. One of Stevie rare human quality was ability to control detail without loosing a sense of a big picture, Gestalt psychology in UI/UX, Ive is a genius no doubt, but he is now alone, there is no other big design visionary to bounce ideas of, and Ive main field is hardware design, this is different point of view. Font choice in Yosemite (Helvetica) is clearly proof of that, if i were there i would fight to death making new Apple font for UI only, to differentiate a product is more important, even a Ubuntu have own font for UI I will give them a last chance, and wait for big redesign. I don't like no privacy function by default and will fight it using every knowledge that i have to protect my computer experience but to work with desktop interface with no usability and immature UI is painfully awkward.

 

[tkermit]

This os looks like its done by non educated designers, without professional supervision, people that believe that design is made with Photoshop, and have not heard about pen and paper or Gestalt Principles of perception.

Gestalt psychology in UI/UX,

Right...pretty sure there's not a single UI/UX/HCI guy at Apple that doesn't know about Gestalt Theory.

 

[grahamperrin]

Right...pretty sure there's not a single UI/UX/HCI guy at Apple that doesn't know about Gestalt Theory.

With respect, I think that misses a key point from one of the two posts:

… department miscommunication …

From the little that I have gleaned about how the company works, not all of which is through the media, I believe that internal communications are more than good enough. And I expect that any miscommunication is unlikely to have a long-term negative impact upon the appearance of OS X.

Also I find it likely that there are superb visions in various parts of the company.

However that combination – good communications and superb visions – did not produce an operating system design that is truly 'Completely Mac'.

The suspicion that began months ago – Apple no longer has a single, clear, shared vision for OS X – continues to grow, post-release.

In the recent review by 512 Pixels, the direction Yosemite takes as a whole is described as "good and bad"; Helvetica Neue is "a step backwards … for a whole heck of a lot of OS X customers. …"; translucency "can and does cause legibility and clarity issues"; when vibrancy looks bad, it "looks really bad"; "… not sure that all of the blurry transparency in Yosemite really meets Federighi’s goal of making OS X easier to use. …"; and

"… Safari is … perhaps the best poster child for everything wrong with Apple these days — little things are often slightly broken in the name of progress. …"

"… Apple’s been refining the look and feel of OS X since first announcing it in January 2000 … fine-tuning OS X’s look for a decade … and, for the most part, the changes were logical and welcome.

I don’t feel like I can say that confidently about all of Yosemite’s design changes …"

"… Yosemite’s UI feels awkward. Parts of it are beautiful, but parts of it are broken … weirdness …"​

The former Design Director of The New York Times Online describes the look and feel of OS X 10.10:

"… (aiming) to be a much more elegant, more sophisticated, less elaborate visual presentation than what came before it. … it doesn’t achieve those goals …"

"… lacking in polish, full of awkward decisions and unresolved tensions. Safari, in particular, seems to have trouble balancing theory—the idea that the same software on iOS and OS X should share a structurally similar user interfaces. …"

"… Systems Preferences, where some of the renderings are reductive and others are highly detailed, and the only apparent commonality is randomness. …"

"… My biggest complaint, personally, is that this fresh coat of paint does a poor job on visual contrast. Interface elements are often so light in color and/or so close to one another in color that they “bleed” into each other all the time. The effect is a blown-out look, as if a novice photographer stepped up the exposure on her camera well beyond advisability. …"

"… conspicuously un-Apple like …"

"… less than a week since I’ve been on Yosemite, so I hesitate to pronounce it a failure (or a success) so soon. …"​

In the meantime the pre-Yosemite edition of Human Interface Guidlines – guidelines that were refined and fine-tuned over a period of decades – is conspicuous by its absence. I find it somewhat indecent that the Retired Documents Library is without such documents …

 

[nubizus]

The more i think about this the more i see that direction of simplification in OSX is clear statement of "Ignoring the power user" and "focusing on mass consumer".
As we speak numerous gadget sites are producing review on hardware, watch, ipad, iphone, imac 5k display, no one speaks about OSX. Its working strategy executed with perfection.
The reality is that "power user" designer, music producer, videographer or programmer was created by Apple itself. Now they are living us behind.
They make me personally better designer, when you work everyday with tools that are made with passion and deep knowledge the result is inspired by the tools and philosophy behind them.
I am curios, with current trends of oversimplification in UI is there users like me that need those deep things or everything is falling apart and aesthetic is obsolete.
People already are clearly declared that they don't need deep things, music and art that makes them emotional humans. They need cheap thrills in their life, sharpness, HDRI images, simple beats to jump and over-saturated colors.
This is Apple OSX new user. Semi-pro wannabe with need of fashion statement and vanity based reality distortion field. People that are believing that you don't need deep knowledge about things to achieve something in your life.
Am i part of minority, may be last generation of critical thinking humans? Who knows.
On a side note i found perfect soundtrack for OSX Yousemite. This is it (I am designer by QOTSA):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qb1yPVBrN4

 

[BaldiMac]

It's amazing how bad you can convince yourself something is when you only focus on what you see as negatives.

 

[ZVH]

Looking at the gosquared site it looks like the "boom" of people adapting this thing is leveling off in the vicinity of 20-25%:

https://www.gosquared.com/global/mac/yosemite/#beta

If this was as "awesome" as the marketing weanies on this site would have everyone believe, I would have expected that figure to be between 30-40% by now.

 

[nubizus]

It's amazing how bad you can convince yourself something is when you only focus on what you see as negatives.

Seriously? There is profound difference in looking at something and really seeing it. When you spend years of training your mind in seeing beyond looking using knowledge of previous generation of artist, designers and psychologist to refine your senses and when you apply your way of seeing in daily basis in your work, and get paid for it you clearly not convince your self in something. You train your senses to be balanced and remove idea of negativity and positivity. But yeah, wishful ignorance is new mantra, and clearly i am old

 

[grahamperrin]

It's amazing how bad you can convince yourself something is when you only focus on what you see as negatives.

Here, in Apple Support Communities and on Twitter: I sense that the vast majority of people who dislike, or hate, the appearance of Yosemite do also recognise good points of the operating system.

That majority includes me, and when I considered the various parts that made up the overall look of Yosemite: the majority of parts ranged from good to exquisite in appearance. But ultimately it was terrible.

BaldiMac, I wonder whether you negatively focused only on the least balanced viewpoints of others.

Looking at the gosquared site …

I'll post a response, and other information, under the following topics:

First Week OS X Yosemite Adoption Rates Slightly Outpacing Mavericks

 

[BaldiMac]

Seriously? There is profound difference in looking at something and really seeing it. When you spend years of training your mind in seeing beyond looking using knowledge of previous generation of artist, designers and psychologist to refine your senses and when you apply your way of seeing in daily basis in your work, and get paid for it you clearly not convince your self in something. You train your senses to be balanced and remove idea of negativity and positivity. But yeah, wishful ignorance is new mantra, and clearly i am old

Seriously!

You've used a lot of platitudes, vague pronouncements, and unsupported insults to make your case in this thread. Doesn't seem very balanced to me.

Yosemite has it's flaws in both UI choices and general bugs, just like all software of it's complexity. I do think the UI design is in the middle of a larger transition and lacks the consistency of previous versions. But OS X has continually refined its interface with every release, and I'm sure this new design will be refined as well.

But I think the big things being talked about in this thread are about simply having personal priorities that are different than the ones that Apple chose. Design is about trade offs.

Personally, the new features and improvements far outweigh any design quibbles that I may have.

----------

BaldiMac, I wonder whether you negatively focused only on the least balanced viewpoints of others.

Why would you think that I was responding to anything else? My comment clearly applied to those who only focus on the negatives.

 

[F1Mac]

The more i think about this the more i see that direction of simplification in OSX is clear statement of "Ignoring the power user" and "focusing on mass consumer".
As we speak numerous gadget sites are producing review on hardware, watch, ipad, iphone, imac 5k display, no one speaks about OSX. Its working strategy executed with perfection.
The reality is that "power user" designer, music producer, videographer or programmer was created by Apple itself. Now they are living us behind.
They make me personally better designer, when you work everyday with tools that are made with passion and deep knowledge the result is inspired by the tools and philosophy behind them.
I am curios, with current trends of oversimplification in UI is there users like me that need those deep things or everything is falling apart and aesthetic is obsolete.
People already are clearly declared that they don't need deep things, music and art that makes them emotional humans. They need cheap thrills in their life, sharpness, HDRI images, simple beats to jump and over-saturated colors.
This is Apple OSX new user. Semi-pro wannabe with need of fashion statement and vanity based reality distortion field. People that are believing that you don't need deep knowledge about things to achieve something in your life.
Am i part of minority, may be last generation of critical thinking humans? Who knows.

Here's my dilemma: I like Yosemite, so far it's been rock-solid, I work everyday on ProTools 11 for film music, scoring, mixing, etc. And to be honest I can live with Yosemite's, um, freshness But I didn't quite like this whole OSX/iOS convergence when Mountain Lion came out (my phone is my phone and my computer is my computer - I don't need any notification crap when I'm mixing music), and well, here we are.

But at the same time, as a professional musician, and a mac user for more than 15 years, I couldn't agree more with everything you said.

I'm not sure Yosemite is the problem, it's the whole logic behind what an Operating System is supposed to be, and help us achieve. Today it's like the most important thing in people's life is "getting pictures on the cloud and share them with your friends".

...Just thinking out loud sorry!

----------

Personally, the new features and improvements far outweigh any design quibbles that I may have.

I agree. But I think nubizus' comments go deeper than that, and I don't think he's wrong either.

 

[BaldiMac]

I agree. But I think nubizus' comments go deeper than that, and I don't think he's wrong either.

What do you think he's not wrong about? Specifically.

 

[tkermit]

Am i part of minority, may be last generation of critical thinking humans?

Sure. It's all downhill from here.

 

[F1Mac]

What do you think he's not wrong about? Specifically.

Did you read my previous post?

...since you asked:

The more i think about this the more i see that direction of simplification in OSX is clear statement of "Ignoring the power user" and "focusing on mass consumer".
As we speak numerous gadget sites are producing review on hardware, watch, ipad, iphone, imac 5k display, no one speaks about OSX. Its working strategy executed with perfection.
The reality is that "power user" designer, music producer, videographer or programmer was created by Apple itself. Now they are living us behind.
They make me personally better designer, when you work everyday with tools that are made with passion and deep knowledge the result is inspired by the tools and philosophy behind them.
I am curios, with current trends of oversimplification in UI is there users like me that need those deep things or everything is falling apart and aesthetic is obsolete.
People already are clearly declared that they don't need deep things, music and art that makes them emotional humans. They need cheap thrills in their life, sharpness, HDRI images, simple beats to jump and over-saturated colors.
This is Apple OSX new user. Semi-pro wannabe with need of fashion statement and vanity based reality distortion field. People that are believing that you don't need deep knowledge about things to achieve something in your life.
Am i part of minority, may be last generation of critical thinking humans? Who knows.
On a side note i found perfect soundtrack for OSX Yousemite. This is it (I am designer by QOTSA):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qb1yPVBrN4

And again, I like Yosemite, it has been working perfectly for me since I installed it (at work I'm on a Mac Pro 5,1 running 10.10 as well) - but what nubizus said, sadly, is true.

 

[BaldiMac]

Did you read my previous post?

...since you asked:

I did read your post. I just find the claims that you highlighted lacking in specifics. What features are power users losing? Why is simplification bad? Why is calling people names and throwing out stereotypes a valid design critique?

 

[F1Mac]

I did read your post. I just find the claims that you highlighted lacking in specifics. What features are power users losing? Why is simplification bad? Why is calling people names and throwing out stereotypes a valid design critique?

More like too many features that get in my way. Off the top of my head, transparency on my iphone is pretty cool, but in OS X not so much when it affects readability (I've disabled it), notifications can be annoying (yes I know how to disable them), when you spend hours at your computer in a dark environment, Yosemite's brightness can be hard on the eyes (worse than the previous version(s))... Instead of a pseudo dark theme, they could have included a "darker" theme, affecting all Finder windows/menus/dialogs with less whites...

Can I live with these things? Yes of course. But they could have been done better I guess. When your OS comes with tons of features and you have to turn off many of them so that you can work properly, there's room for questions.

 

[nomore]

OS X used to just get out of the way, and let you get on with it. Minimal distractions and a lot of clarity in the design made it more a productive environment than most other operating systems. Slowly, OS X has been losing this advantage. Notifications, modality, and now, those white toolbar buttons that are constantly fighting for attention, and the ridiculous transparency effects.

Transparency in the toolbars so the content shows through "...gives a sense of context...". No Apple: scrollbars give a sense of context. The transparency is an unneeded distraction.

I wouldn't be surprised in a version or two, it ends up much like Windows XP, with the constant system tray notifications, an even more garish color scheme, and other productivity hostile "features".

 

[nubizus]

I did read your post. I just find the claims that you highlighted lacking in specifics. What features are power users losing? Why is simplification bad? Why is calling people names and throwing out stereotypes a valid design critique?

Usually i dont feel the need to response to this kind of questions but to be perfectly clear and specific. Here we go:

1. Simplification is not bad thing when is used like a design direction. KISS principle But when is used for only reason to exist is always flawed and ignores idea of a depth and emotional response. Simplification must have functional limits, try to simplify design of a spoon, yes you can remove most of the thing but you have to think that spoon is a tool for feeding. And have to obey ergonomic ideas. More specific: When removing contrast of interface and adding transparency you have to remember that your target audience is big in age span, and if young people have strong eyesight oldest don't see between translucency effects, thin font and reduced overall contrast. There is another thing, power user needs contrast also. Lack of contrast is painful in long working sessions. There is a lot more, but this is enough for your question.

2.Calling people names is not my thing. I simply reflect, when i am confronted with clearly unprofessional question i respond unprofessionally, but there is tolerance after all.

3.If you are calling Gestalt psychology stereotype, may i suggest to look in this with more attention. There are answers for all your questions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology

And to prove that Gestalt psychology is deeply rooted in mac os tradition here you have this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_%28Mac_OS%29

 

[Partron22]

1. Simplification is not bad thing when is used like a design direction.

Orthogonality used to be considered a feature at Apple. That was nice because there's often more than one path to complete complex tasks, and in specific cases, one of those paths often works better than the others. You can lose this ability to approach problems from multiple angles as things get simplified. For instance, getting rid of the possibility of having more than one window open in iTunes made it a lot harder to move media around efficiently.
With simplification, things are also much more modal, an anathema in early versions of Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, and there are now far more "one weird trick" type things you need to learn to get stuff done; modal things like Option key-Menu items, invisible scroll bars, and multi function push-buttons or buttons indistinguishable from static text and the like. They're hidden by design. The only way to find out about many of them is by reading, usually non-Apple, docs. Sure the hiding simplifies the graphic design, but it also steepens the learning curve for the OS, and makes it harder to get stuff done when you have to waste time asking yourself "How does Apple want me to do this now?".