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| Where Microsoft has 'more taste' than Apple |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-07-22 17:05:06 |
| Mike Elgan at Cult of Mac: "It must surely be a sign of the impending apocalypse that Microsoft's operating systems have 'more taste' than Apple's. I'm referring, of course, to Apple's inexplicable use of skeuomorphic design in iOS and OS X apps, and contrasting that with Microsoft's stark avoidance of such cheesy gimmickry in the Windows 8 and Windows Phone user interfaces. A skeuomorphic design in software is one that 'decorates' the interface with fake reality - say, analog knobs or torn paper. The problem is worse than it sounds." Won't come as a surprise to anyone that I wholeheartedly agree with this one. iOS and Mac OS X are ruined by an incredibly high Microsoft BOB factor. I have no idea how - or if - Apple will address this, or if the current downward spiral is going to continue. |
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| Not a big fan of skeuomorphic |
| By redshift on 2012-07-22 22:45:51 |
|
I hate the overly gratuitous skeuomorphic design elements and favor clean lines. It is ok to make things feel tactile..... Subtle gradients and shadows can enhance, but when they get amped up too strong, they can become garish and decrease readability fast. I would much rather they used the default UI elements of the system than wrap things in ugly leather. I don't like it in the address book... but it really crosses the line in the calendar app on OSX. I give you that MS has at least provided a clean design in metro (they already proved they did not understand how to use gradients and shadows correctly in previous releases, so it is good they stayed away from them). But the way it is tacked on to win 8 and how functionality is not easily discovered, doesn't lead me to believe they know what they are doing yet user experience wise. But I would not mind if UI's trend towards a cleaner look as a result of Metro. My theory is that guy who did all those awful alternate themes for Apple's unrealized Copland release (in the pre OSX days), is still working at Apple as a skeuomorphic ui consultant. http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/impac... Edited 2012-07-22 22:56 UTC |
 - Score: 2 |
| RE[3]: Hm |
| By redshift on 2012-07-22 22:51:56 |
|
> Anyone who has used ant kind of music creation software can tell you that this is the absolute norm. Here are some key players who skeuomorph like a Mofo:.... ...I have no idea why they feel they need to look like real hardware. It is actually harder to use them in many respects. But they do. Sometimes I hate that you cant vote on posts after you have responded to an article. I really want to give you a +1 for this. It is very true. |
| - Score: 1 |
| RE[3]: Hm |
| By Morgan on 2012-07-22 22:58:07 |
|
Did you read the paragraph above the one you quoted, where I said that skeuomorphism can actually serve a purpose in audio editing software? My comment about GarageBand specifically called out the useless "wooden" left and right borders. The program overall is one of my favorites, especially on the iPad. Personally I find the realistic look of the knobs and sliders in such programs easier to understand, coming from a background in analog audio editing. I was making a distinction between useless, eye candy skeuomorphism and functional, useful implementations. |
| - Score: 3 |
| snob article. |
| By sergio on 2012-07-22 23:07:55 |
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Skeumorphism is cheesy and fugly. OK. We got it. Agreed. The rest of the article is pure over-rationalization followed by a plain stupid conclusion. |
| - Score: 3 |
| Is the matter so black and white? |
| By Dr.Mabuse on 2012-07-22 23:45:41 |
|
While I get the point many are making against skeuomorphic design (particularly on issues for example when an e-reader wastes space showing a book's spine) totally functional minimalism should probably not be the last word either. One the comments (from aepxc) on that article made a good point: Some ornamentation is nice to have from the user's perspective, introduces some familiarity to the design and as long as it's not overcooked (and compromising the functionality) then what's the issue? > Effective minimalism, therefore, is one that tries to produce the least amount of pattern-breaking and dissonance, not one that tries to remove all ornament. When I look at Metro, it really does leave me cold. Apple GUI's always looked pretty swish to me. But hey, I still like the look of the pre-XP classic Windows 2000 GUI too, so what do I know? :-P Finally, the article was clearly going for the controversial angle. I doubt many people believe Microsoft actually has better taste than Apple. Pretty cheap journalism! Are they that hard up for hits? |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Both Apple and Microsoft can do better |
| By tidux on 2012-07-23 01:05:05 |
|
> The era of professional, clean user interfaces is over. If you miss Win9x, try MATE, Cinnamon, Xfce, or even KDE 4 with a "Redmond" style for Qt, Gtk, and KWin. If you miss NeXT, try Afterstep or Window Maker. If you miss BeOS, go contribute to Haiku. |
| - Score: 4 |
| I'm sorry... |
| By thavith_osn on 2012-07-23 02:48:15 |
|
...but this is purely personal taste. I personally like iOS and OS X and find simulating the real world to be a great idea in a lot of cases. What is important is functionality, the look and feel are always secondary to me. Having said that, I think both companies are doing what they do, some will like one, some will like the other. What's it matter either way??? |
| - Score: 3 |
| ZzzZZzzzzZZzzZZZzzzZzzzZZzz |
| By ze_jerkface on 2012-07-23 02:50:15 |
|
Um.....It's just a computer GUI. At the end of the day computers are tools and tools should be focused more on functionality than design. Windows 8 is not focused on either and in fact focused on some deluded vision of a single GUI to rule them all. How this fits in with the reality of everyone and their mom owning iProducts is beyond me. But back to the article. Whatever is "cheesy" or tasteless is subjective. This person write as if there is only one true opinion of artistic design. A wise software company recognizes that design is subjective and allows customers to choose a style that fits their taste. Microsoft is currently ran by two idiots (Ballmer and Sinofsky) who think that forcing Metro on the desktop is needed to compete with the iPad. This plan will fail and this author will show himself to be just as out of touch with reality as Sinofsky. |
| - Score: 2 |
| RE: Not a big fan of skeuomorphic |
| By thavith_osn on 2012-07-23 02:52:50 |
|
I loved the idea of Copland back in the day, I know we had theming packs that did this back then for OS 7, 8 and 9. I never got into it myself, I tended to go back to the standard theme, whether it be Win or Mac. I also can't believe we thought they looked great. :-) More pixels and more colour makes for a nicer UI (usually). |
| - Score: 3 |
| Comment by ilovebeer |
| By ilovebeer on 2012-07-23 05:29:01 |
|
There's nothing wrong with eye candy. Also, many vsti makers opt to emulate the look of real hardware because it provides familiarity for the countless number of people who use and/or are used to real hardware. |
| - Score: 2 |
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