What would you like to see in leopard's interface?
Here is how I imagine the rumored interface Illuminous.
Right now the "light" in os X doesn't come from any particular direction. All the the windows have shadows. When I picture this new interface in my head I see windows illuminated from behind, and light, instead of shadow, bordering the windows.
The light would come from behind the windows (although not nearly all of it (the contents of windows have to be evenly lit (and brightly)for readability) and maybe a slight color tint to the light coming from the back of the windows.
And I expect a glossy, chromey, dark--not translucent--titlebars. The buttons, and scrollbars would be glassy (not chromey), and slightly translucent-sitting flush on the window, not floating as in jaguar, or sunken like panther/tiger).
When a window is not selected it falls into a subtle shadow, with the window in front of it illuminating it slightly, with that slight tint of color. While aqua put the yum in operating systems, Illuminous will put the sexiness into them.
Anyway, that how I imagine it. What do ya think, any things you imagine?
Right now the "light" in os X doesn't come from any particular direction. All the the windows have shadows. When I picture this new interface in my head I see windows illuminated from behind, and light, instead of shadow, bordering the windows.
The light would come from behind the windows (although not nearly all of it (the contents of windows have to be evenly lit (and brightly)for readability) and maybe a slight color tint to the light coming from the back of the windows.
And I expect a glossy, chromey, dark--not translucent--titlebars. The buttons, and scrollbars would be glassy (not chromey), and slightly translucent-sitting flush on the window, not floating as in jaguar, or sunken like panther/tiger).
When a window is not selected it falls into a subtle shadow, with the window in front of it illuminating it slightly, with that slight tint of color. While aqua put the yum in operating systems, Illuminous will put the sexiness into them.
Anyway, that how I imagine it. What do ya think, any things you imagine?
Comments
Also, I think the interface should be darker chrome like I said, but not too dark--and NOT flat like the disgusting monster that is iTunes 7.
More Explanation: what I mean by the light coming from a specific direction is that, when you move the windows the places where the reflections(I said chrome, chrome shows distorted reflections of the things around it) are move slightly and so do the shadows. In Windows Vista if you move a window the light kinda changes--but not realistically, and it's not coming from a specific place, in this model the light reflected actually changes angle--not just showing diagonal stripes of light, like in Vista. apple has to act quickly in the interface eye candy department to one up Vista.
I think the key things about the Leopard interface will be the Core Animation and resolution independence, which inevitably will bring a new theme. It doesn't really need anything more than that.
Here's one of the many things I'd like to see in Leopard... The bye-bye of drawers - those ugly, UI abominations you see, such as in Preview, etc. Am I the only one who HATES those?
I hate them too. Sidebars like in the Finder are much better. I've never seen the point of drawers because if you maximize your window and open one, it has to resize the window and the content. Sidebars just resize the content. Plus, you can't always tell what way a drawer will open because it often depends on the window position. They are horrible and the only way people will stop using them is if Apple remove them from the API.
Imagine surfing the internet with focus. Pure content.
I hate them too. Sidebars like in the Finder are much better. I've never seen the point of drawers because if you maximize your window and open one, it has to resize the window and the content. Sidebars just resize the content. Plus, you can't always tell what way a drawer will open because it often depends on the window position. They are horrible and the only way people will stop using them is if Apple remove them from the API.
Weird. The reasons you give above for not liking them are precisely the reason I *do* like them. When they open, they always open to the visible side of the window, so you never have to move the window to see them. That's a Good Thing(tm).
Maximizing, on the other hand, is the debbil's work. It's pointless.
Weird. The reasons you give above for not liking them are precisely the reason I *do* like them. When they open, they always open to the visible side of the window, so you never have to move the window to see them. That's a Good Thing(tm).
Maximizing, on the other hand, is the debbil's work. It's pointless.
I love maximizing on a Windows machine - it blocks out everything except the window you want to look at. But maximizing on OS X SUCKS because the rounded corners of the windows don't fit right or change to fit or but up against the menu bar, and the Dock gets in the way at the bottom of the screen, etc. I'd love to see Apple fix this.
I love maximizing on a Windows machine - it blocks out everything except the window you want to look at.
Hit Cmd-Opt-H instead. Everything else is gone.
It's even in the application's menu as "Hide Others"
You're not going to see Apple 'fix this', because it's not broken according to Mac UI guidelines. This has been argued back and forth I don't know *how* many times on these boards.
Maximize breaks the ability to do drag and drop between windows easily, and it wastes unnecessary space. Use Hide and/or Minimize to do bring focus to one window without neutering one of the most useful features of the Mac UI.
OTOH, Maximize *is* useful on a Windows machine because a) the UIs are made to eat up every pixel they can (toolbars from hell), and b) window management sucks. Hard. Maximize is a short-sighted hack though.
The two things I hate in Tiger are both Address Book's and iCal's UI and UI philosophy, I'm hoping for something new there. Not that I ever use iCal.
I totally agree!
Hit Cmd-Opt-H instead. Everything else is gone.
It's even in the application's menu as "Hide Others"
You're not going to see Apple 'fix this', because it's not broken according to Mac UI guidelines. This has been argued back and forth I don't know *how* many times on these boards.
Maximize breaks the ability to do drag and drop between windows easily, and it wastes unnecessary space. Use Hide and/or Minimize to do bring focus to one window without neutering one of the most useful features of the Mac UI.
OTOH, Maximize *is* useful on a Windows machine because a) the UIs are made to eat up every pixel they can (toolbars from hell), and b) window management sucks. Hard. Maximize is a short-sighted hack though.
Yes, dragging and dropping is easier when a window isn't maximised. However, you forget one important factor: focus. When I open Photoshop I get all these annoying floating windows showing the Mac desktop on the background. All those icons on my desktop....it sucks.
When I use Photoshop I want to draw and see which *photoshop windows* are open, not a mixture of windows and icons. The last thing I want to do is to drag and drop all the time. I want to paint, retouch, etcetera.
Luckely Photoshop has a full screen option. Pressing F once will change the view so that a canvas occupies the whole area, except the dock. Phew. Easy on the eyes. More productive all day!
Unfortunately this "F" option is an exception. Even Apple starts to realise that it is very annoying for some applications. iPhoto and other applications maximise like Windows do.
The hell with Apple guidelines!
If it doesn't work well for practical use, they should reconsider changing the guidelines. It ain't the holy bible. Laws change too. And even Apple sidetracks on their own guidelines too! Try clicking the right top button on iTunes which changes the app to a small player (inconsistent), the different look of Garageband (inconsistent), and the use of drawers versus sidepane (insonsistent)...to name a few.
I am not saying the maximise button on MacOSX is a bad idea. No, I like the idea that Safari doesn't maximise to my 24" inch widescreen monitor. That sucks on Windows. Good thinking Apple. But the lack of a canvas that spans the whole active application does suck, mostly the fault of third-party developers.
Ladtly, I think window management does not "suck hard". You've told me one thing that you do not like, but why does it suck hard? I'd like to hear :-)
What I dislike about MacOSX: Try resizing your window on 4 sides and 4 corners... I can't and now, as a user I will need to move AND resize my window. 2nd: Explorer does a better job for fast everyday use. 3rd: There's an easy "hide all" button in the taskbar.
Weird. The reasons you give above for not liking them are precisely the reason I *do* like them. When they open, they always open to the visible side of the window, so you never have to move the window to see them. That's a Good Thing(tm).
Not really because if the window is close to the right side of the screen but not enough to open the drawer on the left, you still have problems dragging the drawer bigger because you then have to drag the window over to the left and then resize to the right.
Also, if a window is fullscreen, which I sometimes do if I need to read a document, like a PDF in preview, opening the drawer opens it on the left and then resizes the window. When you close it though, it doesn't increase the size again so I need to move the window to the left again and drag the corner. With a sidebar, I don't even need a drawer button, I just double-click the bar and it resizes it inwards and double-click again and it puts the window back the way it was.
Maximizing, on the other hand, is the debbil's work. It's pointless.
Yes, dragging and dropping is easier when a window isn't maximised. However, you forget one important factor: focus. When I open Photoshop I get all these annoying floating windows showing the Mac desktop on the background. All those icons on my desktop....it sucks.
When I use Photoshop I want to draw and see which *photoshop windows* are open, not a mixture of windows and icons. The last thing I want to do is to drag and drop all the time. I want to paint, retouch, etcetera.
Luckely Photoshop has a full screen option. Pressing F once will change the view so that a canvas occupies the whole area, except the dock. Phew. Easy on the eyes. More productive all day!
Unfortunately this "F" option is an exception. Even Apple starts to realise that it is very annoying for some applications. iPhoto and other applications maximise like Windows do.
The hell with Apple guidelines!
If it doesn't work well for practical use, they should reconsider changing the guidelines. It ain't the holy bible. Laws change too. And even Apple sidetracks on their own guidelines too! Try clicking the right top button on iTunes which changes the app to a small player (inconsistent), the different look of Garageband (inconsistent), and the use of drawers versus sidepane (insonsistent)...to name a few.
I am not saying the maximise button on MacOSX is a bad idea. No, I like the idea that Safari doesn't maximise to my 24" inch widescreen monitor. That sucks on Windows. Good thinking Apple. But the lack of a canvas that spans the whole active application does suck, mostly the fault of third-party developers.
Ladtly, I think window management does not "suck hard". You've told me one thing that you do not like, but why does it suck hard? I'd like to hear :-)
What I dislike about MacOSX: Try resizing your window on 4 sides and 4 corners... I can't and now, as a user I will need to move AND resize my window. 2nd: Explorer does a better job for fast everyday use. 3rd: There's an easy "hide all" button in the taskbar.
Exactly - I would agree 100% except that I would like it if Safari gave the option to maximize. I love using Explorer on Windows in the maximized view. Everything else you said is .... TOTALLY 100% AWSOME! I TOO HATE THE ANNOYING FLOATING WINDOWS SHOWING THE DESKTOP WITH ICONS, ETC. I'm looking at that right now and IT'S UGLY! If only I could maximize Safari!
If only I could maximize Safari!
Create a Bookmark called Maximize and put the following in the address
javascript:self.moveTo(0,0); self.resizeTo(screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight );
Create a Bookmark called Maximize and put the following in the address
javascript:self.moveTo(0,0); self.resizeTo(screen.availWidth,screen.availHeight );
Sorry, nice try, but Safari still fails to square off the top corners of the window when it butts up agains the menu bar, and it fails to "stick" to all four sides of the screen as does a maximized window in Windows. And then, there's always the dock to contend with - if the dock is not hidden then any maximized window stops at the top of the dock and it looks like SH!T!