Inside Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: Developer Preview 3 dials down animated tabs - Page 3

Conspiracy? What conspiracy? I use Linux, as well as OSX, and I've used both Gnome and Aqua a lot, so I can say Aqua has always been of higher quality than Gnome. And I can also say that these Lion screenshots remember me a lot (a really lot) of Gnome. I don't see a conspiracy. I see a copy of Gnome. Period.

The only reason why it isn't Gnome is because Aqua is a very big development, and trashing the looks doesn't completely trash the UI, because Aqua is more than the looks. But they already trashed the looks. What conspiracy? Man, I just see Gnome looks.

I feel really sad

I was thinking about this "FOCUS ON CONTENT" whole morning. It does make sense for people working on just one task at one moment -like browsing news on the web, watchig movies, editing photos, cutting videos etc. - this approach means focusing on individualist artists and consumers - which has been Apple's target group - so ok, why not.

But such approach works less for people performing multiple tasks at one moment or one task using more apps at one moment and needing to switch among multiple windows having quick visual control in which app they are. Examples: work with data, webdesign, office work or students' life (switching between homeworks, web, facebook and Twitter, mail, games) - these are situations where you do bot need to be focused on just one content. But Apple seems to be drifting away from such users, which is a pity. By the way such approach is answer why Macs are not so popular at offices and why Apple is losing its game in social networking and co-working (ping try was example, similar case iAd - its hard to focus user on comments of musicians when iTunes is designed to focus on music and hard to attract user with iAd when using specialized app).

When first Lion info came out I was feeling happy they resolved the dilema between multi-app work and focus on content by allowing intuitive colored interface for those using multiple apps and giving great full screen feature with pure black menu and icons to those who need to be focused.

But pushing everybody to "focus on the content" of single app even when not needed is mistake that will lead to Mac being limited like iPad. iPad is great when i want to read news, watch movie, edit photo or cut videos in iMovie, but when I got a budiness mail with doc in attachement, need to save the file to project folder, duplicate it and add my comments into the text chechking content with experiment data in xls and research report in PDF and send it back, then I am frustrated. Of course its not purpose of mobile device like iPad, but I hoped it was purpose of Mac - so why should Mac os UI look like iOS?

Wow, this thread has been an amazing display of self assured arm chair interaction design. I'd add my own overly certain and unequivicated proclamation, but it seems everything has already been covered.

Looking at the three screen shots of the Security pane, I'm personally more impressed with the middle one (previous Lion interface). Even without the Aqua interface, it seems to have a more polished look and feel, and that (for me) has always been one of the best features of Mac OS (and the most lacking one in almost any version of windows). Also, I'm not a fan of the slightly reduced size of the red/yellow/green buttons - I will have fits with this with older clients (and I'm honestly becoming one myself...)

The Security pane is not relevant, because it has almost none UI controls, so there's not a big change from standard Aqua.

If you want to 'feel Lion", take a look at the new "Speech" pane. This is how it looked in a UI which had a character:


Now, these are the "new" Lion looks. Honestly, this could be an screenshot from a current Gnome release:

Call it elegance if you wish. I don't feel it's elegant. I feel it's Gnome.

Honestly, I don't like this new UI. Well, maybe it's fine for Linux, but certainly not for the Mac.

Well you feel wrong and even more you need to check your eyesight. He sees Gnome ... give me a break.

I can see what he means in regards to the squaring of the boxes but thats about it. Despite all these years Linux-based UIs are still horrible.

They are not getting rid of Aqua. Aqua is one of the top features mentioned by name in the developer page "What is new in Lion".

It is a refinement of Aqua. The whole concept of minimal UI is part of the philosophy of "It Just Works". The same concept is applied to the full screen apps. When you think about your daily use of a Mac, once you are in your app, all you see is the top menu bar, which has always been gray. Seriously how many time a day do you go into the System Preferences where you would even encounter those controls?

I do agree with the earlier remarks that color is an important aspect of quickly recognizing certain interface features which is why the dock icons should remain distinctively colored but I certainly wouldn't want the default UI to have rainbows of different colors.

Also I can understand why Apple does not provide many user customization options for the interface. They are concerned about maintaining a consistent image for the Apple brand and don't want the look and feel polluted with gaudy color schemes. You can change the desktop background. What more do you want? Unless you have special accessibility issues that should be enough.

Which stole its UI from Apple. I'm confused as to your point.

That simply looks like hell. One can call it elegant if they wish, but I certainly will not be upgrading to Lion for this. It has great new features, but the interface is extremely boring. I'll stretch what I can out of Snow Leopard.

I understand your point, mstone, and I agree with your comments. I agree about the minimal UI concept. I didn't mean the Mac UI must be gaudy. It has never been gaudy, but, however, whenever you saw a Mac screenshot in the past, you saw a very special design signature on it. Let's be clear: most of the dudes who wish to install OSX on VMWare on their PCs wish so just because they are intrigued by the Aqua look. It's not a gaudy look, it's a very attractive look.

I'm sorry, but I don't see any attractive in these Lion screenshots. It's true you just see a menubar most of the times, but... what about file chooser dialogs, color choosing dialogs, Finder windows, etc...? you work with them quite a bit, I guess.

I no longer find it attractive. It's not a different look from what I see everyday in other (Non-Mac) computers.

Btw, I don't understand why they want to continue calling it Aqua. Regarding Aqua: "Steve Jobs noted Aqua's glossy aesthetic: "One of the design goals was when you saw it you wanted to lick it.""

Why continue it calling Aqua if you no longer want its liquid aesthetic?

Also, if color is no longer important, I'd prefer the blue shades to be user-configurable: I'd change it to red in order to give it some powerful character, rather than that sad blue that seems to be the ruins of Aqua.

I don't want a gaudy UI, but I want a very attractive one.

You are reading too much into this. The UI is almost the same as Snow Leopard. A lot of the Aqua elements are still there. About the only difference is the scroll bars and those dialog box switches. There is still plenty of blue eye candy. Nothing to worry about.

You will not want to give up all the technical improvements in Lion.

I'd say Apple is going for a more sophisticated, professional look in contrast to the more fun appearance of Aqua. Aqua has been toned down with every major release since it's very "lickable" debut so this is just a continuation of that trend but it's also a much bigger jump than we've seen in previous releases.

It's obviously a very deliberate move or they wouldn't be putting effort into the changes. I think they want to start breaking down perceptions that OS X isn't a viable office or business operating system, which of course it is but messaging and perceptions can be heavily influenced by things like the UI. I'd say Apple want to start really taking it to Microsoft in the business sector now that they're gaining traction with the iPhone and iPad.

It's good to see Apple putting a lot of effort into the UI this time around. Overall I like the changes as it's still very simple and clean and well aqua was starting to get a bit long in the tooth anyway.

Heck yes, he will. He'll sit on Snow Leopard until all the machines on the planet that can run it are broken. Apple users get like this; it's pathetic.

I'm not really that keen on the Mac App Store for dev releases. Seams cumbersome to have to redeem and then load the installer into the Applications directory. At least they got smart about the patch and used the Software Updater not the App Store unlike xcode that makes you re-download the entire thing for a .02 patch. Plus you have to keep the 4.5 gig installer file in your applications directory even after the install.

I just noticed that Lion now has an option for custom solid colors inside the paltry solid color menu for desktop backgrounds without having to resort to creating/copying your own solid color option to your pictures folder.

This has always struck me as an odd omission since they do have a custom color palette option for the areas surrounding an image if its not full screen.

Funny, you say that and you don't even know me. Many other people on here think the new interface sucks too. I do not always upgrade just to "upgrade" or have the latest and greatest for no reason. It has to make sense for me to do the update as newer is not always better. I don't need my MacBook pro to feel like an iPad. That's why I have an iPad. What I have currently runs fine - when it makes sense to upgrade, then I will.

Jackass.

it is a pain in the ass but I think that is how they are going to sell it in the future, which Im all for, so Im okay with dealing with a few hiccups.

The redeem code also allows it to be sold much the same way .Mac and MobileMe have been sold. The retail box can be small because it only has to house the redeem code, no installer. This then allows the OS to be sold through 3rd-parties, not just Apple, which means some potential cost saving.

I think they will likely offer a CD version but at a greater cost than the DL-only version.

The problems I see so far is the Mac App Store simply isnt that great for handling such a large DL. Dropbox and torrents do a great job of breaking up files and putting them back together seamlessly. Case in point, Ive had some issues getting Lion to install. Turns out Mac App Store with my Mac is messing up some part of the download, but only with Preview 2.

Since the 3rd update was via Software Update and Apples dev support hasnt gotten back to me for weeks with a resolution and are stingy, to say the least, with redeem codes I decided to find an alternative" source to get a working installer. Lion from the Mac App Store isn't encapsulated with DRM like regular apps so I knew it wouldnt be difficult. Just today I installed Preview 2 without a hitch, then did each of the two 1GB updates, and then downloaded the 4GB Xcode 4.1 for Lion at an Apple Store. With 20Gbps and my SSD all 12GB down and 4 installations happened in an hour.

So, yes, I understand what you mean by cumbersome. The Recovery HD is great but I think they need to expand it to more than 750MB to also include the Installer files. Without an option to boot into Recovery HD and then reinstall the OS over itself or from scratch the process becomes even more cumbersome than before if you do happen to have a problem. Even letting Recovery HD locate the Installer on some other partition or drive would be okay.

As it stands now, if you had an installation crap out on you, like I did since the issue with my download wasnt noticed until mostly through the installation, there is nothing you can do without the Snow Leopard DVD. Then youre back to square one with a wiped drive and a redeem code that no longer works.

Looks like Aqua is leaving slowly but surely. I think its time for a new look.

Now it looks more or less decent, but the highlighted tab would be better offset from the other tabs if the contrast would be more distinctive (white lettering instead of light grey) for the hightlighted tab and LESS DISTINCT for the unselected tab(s) (gray lettering instead of black).

With the better, updated Lion look, the unselected button(s) may be taken for selected one, in particular when there are only two tabs, a selected one and an unselected one.

There's been lots of good discussion in this thread - hopefully someone at Apple is paying attention! Personally, I prefer the Slider Tab over the "depressed tab" look. The depressed tab UI is confusing. Is that last button depressed or disabled?? Grayed out UI elements make me think they are disabled, not selected. My initial thought is that it is disabled. The slider tab UI made it clear that all of the options are enabled, with the button indicating the "active" tab.

I hope Apple reconsiders this reconsideration and goes back to the initial Preview 2 look.

People hated Aqua, too.


The under the hood improvements are the reason for upgrading to Lion, then.

Hmm. I like the new look! It would work well for color-blind people, too. It's a good thing they revised it. The original look in DP2 with a giant "slider" was horrible.

Still, a dash of color would be nice. I think somewhere between how Aqua is now, and this new Lion look. I bet they'll tweak it a tad more before release. Overall it seems nice. Faux leather though, ugh. These silly weirdo interfaces they throw on iApplications sucks. Also the new iTunes sucks. Hugely. I'm on the fence about the new "Black" for lack of better word, interface in QuickTime. The transparent-ish interface that comes in Full Screen in QT, iPhoto, etc. I think it's alright but could use a bit of tweaking as well. Actually I really like. It also could just use a dash of color. Color + texture + shape is how we see things, so use them all. Also as I get older I always want things bigger. I wish all the UI elements were a touch bigger. But then again, I really reeeeaally hope they manage to get Resolution Independence. That'd take care of that!

Agreed. I liked the preview 2 tabs better. I like that the brightest one is selected. That makes the most sense to me and is very easy to read. I don't like this new look. I think the selected item is not clear.

Preview 2 was a step forward. Preview 3 - big step back.


Also, for all of you asking for color, here is one who disagrees. I don't think the color is helpful. It is noise and it is the first thing I turn off. I don't want my OS to entertain me, I want my content to be what I see. The OS and apps should disappear.

You don't want System 6 do you?

I would like a dash of color. Perhaps more muted than the intense Cyan Aqua or Bondi blue or whatever it is. But definitely not black and white. Of course there's always the Graphite mode. In fact I think Apple should allow users to select any color they want in "Appearance" in Appearance instead of just Aqua and Graphite. Like Platinum. I mean that doesn't really affect much. Widgets are still the same shape/location. I think for myself I'd pick either a darker blue, or some sort of dark blue-green.

I am really not as bothered with the color issue as I am with the way these tabs are indicated but I don't think color is as helpful as people here think it is. I used System 6 and I don't think we have that problem here. What I don't like is when the UI is all cutesy. I like the UI stuff to be clean, simple.

And the red yellow green buttons are silly. The green button has been broken from day one. Same for the toolbar toggle - all of that is a mess.

Hey, I'll fix this for you.

Maybe you need to learn how to post? Or are trying to be funny by putting words in my mouth that I did not say?? These forums are too confusing and jumbled for that.

The problem with the green button is that it is so unpredictable. Like in Safari when I clicked it just now it made the window smaller and mostly off screen. In iTunes it toggles the size of the window in a set way. In Mail it made the window bigger. I never know what is going to happen when I click it. That is what I mean when I say it is broken. The action resulting from clicking the button should be clear to the user prior to pressing it.

So beautifully said!

You're right: it's so unpredictable!

I analyzed the different tab designs Apple proposed and came up with a design that would incorporate the benefits while avoiding many of the visual failures of the Mac OS X Lion DP2 & DP3 designs.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard
Touch interaction
• Tap inactive tabs
• No effect if tapping or dragging active tab
• No way to preview other tabs
Pointer interaction
• Click inactive tabs
• No other action supported by scroll wheel/ball

Lion Developer Preview 2 (DP2)
Touch interaction
• Tap inactive tabs
• Drag active tab to inactive tab title
•Possibly preview inactive pane while dragging (Since I do not have the OS I cannot say if this occurs, but it could be implemented)
Pointer interaction
• Click inactive tabs
• Drag from active to inactive tab title
• While pointer within tab area the scroll wheel/ball could allow switching between tabs (Possible if not already implemented)

Lion Developer Preview 3 (DP3)
• See Snow Leopard since this design does not support any new interactions

The possible interactions for the DP2 implementation are desirable but the specific design frustrated many developers (based on the change in DP3).

Drawbacks to the DP2 implementation:
• Identifying active tab when only 2 visible (although I would argue it is worse in DP3)
• Slider above tab titles implies the title on slider will move when slider moves but it does not (from what I have seen the active title fades out and the inactive title fades in)
• Unlike the iOS on/off sliders which only ever have 2 positions there can be many tabs so the slider behavior when clicking inactive tab titles is unclear.
• The contents of the pane associated with the tab do not move, just fade in/out (assumed since I do not have OS) so there is no correlation between the slider behavior and the related pane.

My proposal is to add the functionality of DP2 while giving the proper visual cues to users

The tab bar would look like it does in Snow Leopard without the blue highlight for the active tab. Just below the tab bar would be a scrollbar the width of the tab titles without scroll buttons on the ends. A scroll thumb the width of the active title and just below it would indicate which pane is visible. The style would match whatever Apple uses for other scrollbars. A new element would be a glow above the tab thumb that highlights the active tab title so it has a higher contrast than the inactive tab titles.

Touch interaction
• Tap inactive tab titles
• Drag tab scroll thumb
• Drag the tab scroll thumb left/right to see the pane scroll right/left in real time (just like data in a window while scrolling)
• Use multi-finger gesture to drag pane left/right to switch to tabs on either side (similar to moving through history in Safari)
Pointer interaction
• Click inactive tab title
• Drag tab scroll thumb to see pane scroll in opposite direction (just like all scrollbars)
• User assumes scroll wheel/ball works since it looks like a scrollbar

daVisionary Tab Thumb Benefits
The tab thumb is a familiar UI widget which users will recognize and be comfortable dragging. When a user first drags the tab thumb the pane will start moving to the side and the edge of the next pane will appear. While dragging the tab thumb it is possible to ‘preview’ other tabs without clicking each one in turn. The visual relationship between the active visible pane and inactive panes matches iOS springboard mechanics, “Back to the Mac”. The animated transition between panes will give them a spatial consistency which users more easily remember. The active tab gets a unique look with higher contrast, the preferred style based on reading the forums.
Another possible behavior is to pinch zoom the tab thumb to see all the panes simultaneously. The user could expand the tab thumb to show all panes scaled down accordingly in a row across the window then tap one to zoom in to full size and have it fill the window.

I will add a mockup when I have the time in the next day or so.

What do you all think?

daVisionary

I agree. Apple just needs to make it optional. Let those who prefer the dull gray look have and let those of us who prefer color have it as well. I've been using the mac for over 20 years now ... I thought we left the monochrome gray back in OS 6!