Ex Apple engineer claims Steve Jobs rejected new Apple TV UI 5 years ago [u]
The grid of icons featured in the new Apple TV user interface was rejected five years ago by company co-founder Steve Jobs, a former Apple TV engineer claims [updated with clarification].
The Apple TV user interface was updated when the new 1080p model was released earlier this month. It features a more iOS-like interface that presents services like Netflix, Vimeo, YouTube and more as icons, rather than burying them in menus.
Since the user interface update rolled out, some have decried it as an ugly design, and a rare step backward for the company. This week, Michael Margolis, a former senior software engineer at Apple, claimed that the new designs were presented to Jobs five years ago, but he rejected them.
The comment from Margolis, highlighted by The Next Web and Macgasm, was made in response to designer and entrepreneur Aral Balkan, who told Margolis via the social networking site that he "loved the old UI."
"Fun fact - those designs were tossed out 5 years ago because SJ didn't like them," Margolis responded. "Now there is nobody to say 'no' to bad design."
Balkan then asked who is now in charge of user experience at Apple, saying he hopes the new Apple TV interface "isn't a sign of what's to come."
"Just one visual designer in the consumer apps team," Margolis wrote. "No clue if he is still there, that whole team has left/been replaced AFAIK."
Margolis started the discussion by saying on his Twitter account that he "implemented much of the Apple TV 2.0 UI years ago." He added that the new user interface "makes (him) cry."
Presenting the new Apple TV and its user interface earlier this month, Apple executive Eddy Cue portrayed it as a simplified design that will make it easier for users to access features on the set-top box. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, also said in a press release that the new interface makes the Apple TV "easier than ever to use."
Update: Margolis clarified his original remarks in comments at The Next Web:
Quote:
Correction: I was telling @aral that AppleTV was not designed by Ive, it was designed by one (very talented) designer in the consumer apps team. I was not implying the consumer apps team only had one designer. Most of the AppleTV UI remains unchanged since AppleTV "Take 2" and I think that's a testament to how good it was. Great design is timeless.
The new UI shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. There is a clear effort at Apple to make everything match the look and feel of their popular iOS products – starting with Lion and increasing momentum with Mountain Lion.
To be clear – he didn’t like the original grid. This was before the iPhone was popular and before the iPad even existed.
Given that the iPad is far more successful than the AppleTV, migrating the AppleTV to look more like the iPad was probably a very smart move – even if some of the users of the old UI don’t prefer the new one.
Correction: I was telling @aral that AppleTV was not designed by Ive, it was designed by one (very talented) designer in the consumer apps team. I was not implying the consumer apps team only had one designer. Most of the AppleTV UI remains unchanged since AppleTV "Take 2" and I think that's a testament to how good it was. Great design is timeless.
The new UI shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. There is a clear effort at Apple to make everything match the look and feel of their popular iOS products – starting with Lion and increasing momentum with Mountain Lion.
To be clear – he didn’t like the original grid. This was before the iPhone was popular and before the iPad even existed.
Given that the iPad is far more successful than the AppleTV, migrating the AppleTV to look more like the iPad was probably a very smart move – even if some of the users of the old UI don’t prefer the new one.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
The grid of icons featured in the new Apple TV user interface was rejected five years ago by company co-founder Steve Jobs, a former Apple TV engineer claims.
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It is a startlingly bad UI from almost any point of view and for a variety of reasons.
People here took me to task when I said Steve would never approve of it. It seems I might have been correct though.
It is a startlingly bad UI from almost any point of view and for a variety of reasons.
People here took me to task when I said Steve would never approve of it. It seems I might have been correct though.
After about a week with it, I have to agree that the new UI grates. I miss the simplicity and subtlety of the previous one.
Interestingly, however, my kids (both teenagers) prefer the new UI.
Can't win them all, I suppose......
The new UI makes sense. It's not ugly, certainly better looking and easier to use than Google TV. We just have the "no longer at Apple" engineer behind the 2.0 version telling us via Twitter that SJ liked his design better than the latest one that makes more sense.
Oh really. SJ also liked the first versions of iCal, which were crap. SJ was not unerring in his design judgement. Flower Power iMacs? Hockey Puck mouse?
How much more of these pseudo-revelations of a post-mortem Jobs will we have to read about?
I don?t think AppleTV has ever been all that great, merely interesting (though I?d love AirPlay). But this design is clearly not 5 years old, and is not the same thing Jobs rejected?he presumably rejected something similar in some ways, if the story is true (and that much is certainly plausible).
And I?m sure ?just one visual designer? is now in charge of user experience at Apple, and may not still be there
Let me guess... Apple is doomed, same as always, same is it will always be. Every tiny imperfection, real or imagined, is the end... while MASSIVE blunders by competitors are OK, and they?ll be pouncing on the now-defunct Apple any day now...
But on the flip side, the old UI was not that great either and would become a problem even more when Apple starts to add more apps.
So neither is or was ideal IMO.
Or this guy saying this could be full of crap.
The customers can always be able to say NO!
Personally my only problem is that the almost invisible indicating border is very difficult to see.
Maybe it's my old eyes but I'll bet I'm not the only one who can't see it.
How did that happen?
Of COURSE a grid of icons would be a bad idea for an iTunes-only device (basically a video Airport Express), when the iPhone was either not out yet or just barely out (giving the benefit of the doubt) and the world wasn't yet comfortable and familiar with the grid-of-icons concept.
And it wouldn't have been the first thing that SJhated at first and then loved later, anyway.
And why are the app icons rectangular instead of square like on all other iOS devices?
Aspect ratio of the screen.
Regarding the rant itself...Key part of his point? "Steve Jobs rejected new Apple TV UI 5 years ago". Last time I checked, the world; the AppleTV & much more besides have changed a lot since two thousand and seven
Let's cut Apple some fucking slack and give them the benefit of the doubt sometimes, they've done remarkably well since Steve's demise. Maybe, just MAYBE there are people there who know what they're doing and who understood and knew Steve more than all these millions of message-board posters, tech blog columnists, fans, claim to 'know' what he would want and like.
I'll never use MLB, so why the hell do I have to look at it?
I personally like the new UI because of two things:
1) It is far more scalable to new apps than the previous UI which hid everything in pull down menus. It's more future proof for the App Store for Apple TV we all know is coming.
2) It's a lot easier for a new user to navigate and find things like Netflix or YouTube.
3) The new top menu UI means not having to drill back up to the first screen to access different areas of content. Saves a lot of time in my opinion.
While some may hate the color scheme, I don't see it as being that much different from the iOS UI, which most people seem to like. However, it certainly could be improved by disabling apps you don't want and letting people re-order the apps they do use.
The pictures, album covers and movie posters may look nice and flashy, but I don't think they make it easier to browse lists and find what you're looking for.