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One of my favorite small things about OS X has been the dock icons and their variety in shapes. Like how TextEdit has the pencil sticking out or Logic looks lik

One of my favorite small things about OS X has been the dock icons and their variety in shapes. Like how TextEdit has the pencil sticking out or Logic looks like a DJ turntable. It feels like that’s gone now.

addicted 6y ago
The XCode icon seems to have the hammer sticking out a bit. So maybe there is still room for custom shapes.
- AlanYx 6y ago
  They address that in the new macOS 11 HIG [1], indicating that protrusions from the square look "to combine depictions of the physical objects that best convey the app’s core purpose" are acceptable. TextEdit, Preview and Xcode all have elements sticking out a bit. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/overview/whats-new-in-macos/ https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline... That said, I still think overall it's a loss in terms of usability. (I find that without shape to distinguish icons on iOS, I often confuse icons that are broadly similar in color when I'm not paying attention, even though the images inside the roundrects are different. I can't be the only one.)
  - ptx 6y ago
    Perhaps they were inspired by qBittorrent, where the toolbar icons are all indistinguishable aqua blobs: https://a.fsdn.com/con/app/proj/qbittorrent/screenshots/241606.jpg/max/max/1 https://a.fsdn.com/con/app/proj/qbittorrent/screenshots/2416...
Klonoar 6y ago
Yeah, Mac icon design felt like it was hanging on by a thread, and now feels like it's being killed. A significant piece of character that's just... gone. I think this is what bothers me more than any iOS-ification of the OS, on a UI/UX level at least.
aylmao 6y ago
Having different shapes is also great for recognizing items quickly. Sigh, here comes a trove of white-background icons to macOS. Relevant: https://medium.com/swlh/let-s-talk-about-white-app-icons-ce2e83b9eb86 https://medium.com/swlh/let-s-talk-about-white-app-icons-ce2...

addicted 6y ago

The XCode icon seems to have the hammer sticking out a bit. So maybe there is still room for custom shapes.

AlanYx 6y ago
They address that in the new macOS 11 HIG [1], indicating that protrusions from the square look "to combine depictions of the physical objects that best convey the app’s core purpose" are acceptable. TextEdit, Preview and Xcode all have elements sticking out a bit. [1]: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/overview/whats-new-in-macos/ https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline... That said, I still think overall it's a loss in terms of usability. (I find that without shape to distinguish icons on iOS, I often confuse icons that are broadly similar in color when I'm not paying attention, even though the images inside the roundrects are different. I can't be the only one.)
- ptx 6y ago
  Perhaps they were inspired by qBittorrent, where the toolbar icons are all indistinguishable aqua blobs: https://a.fsdn.com/con/app/proj/qbittorrent/screenshots/241606.jpg/max/max/1 https://a.fsdn.com/con/app/proj/qbittorrent/screenshots/2416...

Klonoar 6y ago

Yeah, Mac icon design felt like it was hanging on by a thread, and now feels like it's being killed. A significant piece of character that's just... gone. I think this is what bothers me more than any iOS-ification of the OS, on a UI/UX level at least.

aylmao 6y ago

Having different shapes is also great for recognizing items quickly. Sigh, here comes a trove of white-background icons to macOS. Relevant: https://medium.com/swlh/let-s-talk-about-white-app-icons-ce2e83b9eb86 https://medium.com/swlh/let-s-talk-about-white-app-icons-ce2...