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All I can see these days is purple-magenta gradients and babyfication of UI with rounded corners. Designers follow this recipe without independent thought or op

All I can see these days is purple-magenta gradients and babyfication of UI with rounded corners. Designers follow this recipe without independent thought or opinion about graphic design. I'd love to see UI based on the International style (aka Swiss typographic style) typified by the designers of the bygone era of 1970's and 80's. Ultra functional and less about aesthetics.

orhmeh09 5y ago
Rounded corners have been a hallmark of OS X design for more than 20 years. https://www.howtogeek.com/689489/20-years-later-how-the-mac-os-x-public-beta-saved-the-mac/ https://www.howtogeek.com/689489/20-years-later-how-the-mac-...
- neilpanchal 5y ago
  Sure. I guess I am speaking about the larger trends. Firefox just recently went full rounded corners on the tab 'buttons'. Google did the same 2-3 years ago. Purple-gradients has been the trend that began with Stripe and spread around in design circles, landed at Apple sometime in 2018.
  - orhmeh09 5y ago
    With what product, specifically, did purple gradients land at Apple? Looking at the screenshots of Monterey it seems to me that the purple you see is probably from the desktop background, which is visible through the translucent UI elements. There are purple gradient elements on the web page itself, but I don't think that's particularly relevant to the actual software.
- bombcar 5y ago
  Closer to 40 years, depending on how you look at it: https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_Everywhere.txt https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_...
ulzeraj 5y ago
> Swiss typographic style Interesting. Do you know any OS or UI that made use of this concept?
- kh_hk 5y ago
  Not op('s opinion), but it seems to me windows phone went slightly on that direction. I feel Swiss typographic style does not convert that well to UIs (specially mouse / touch driven ones). It's all fine for direction navigation (arrow keys or a gamepad).
quesera 5y ago
> I'd love to see UI based on the International style Agreed 100% But I almost didn't get to sentence 3 because of your hostile opinionation in sentences 1 and 2. :(
- neilpanchal 5y ago
  I think it needs to be said. The entire field of design has been trashed in last 20 years. The decline started in the 90’s and the final straw came in late 2000’s. By entire field, I mean the full spectrum: Industrial design (touch screens) to Graphic design, typography (see Dropbox redesign) to branding (see how Pentagram destroyed the LoC logo). I don’t think I can buy a new car anymore. I’ll say it again, be it hostile - designers aren’t raised and educated in user centric design. MacOS is full of transitions that are over 200ms. iOS is worse. I could go on and on. It’s gotten so bad, it’s appalling really.
  - orhmeh09 5y ago
    I also agree that a change is needed and I think you're probably right about the designers, but I was a little puzzled by the criticisms in your original comment. I would also enjoy cleaner designs possibly inspired by the Swiss (and I am nostalgic for the expressive and well-researched designs used in older versions of Windows -- though I was unimpressed at the time, everything that came afterward is really not to my taste). On iOS, I'm quite thankful for "Reduce Motion" and I recommend it (however, I have seen this setting break a few apps).
    - neilpanchal 5y ago
      Reduce motion actually retains the animation time - just that the motion is replaced by fading animation. So you still have to wait 200ms to watch the window fade instead of morph.
      - orhmeh09 5y ago
        Really? That's interesting to know, thanks! Guess it fooled me.
astrange 5y ago
The iOS 7 UI that started what you're complaining about is based on 70s European design. Actually, the most explicit parts like the strange bright color schemes were the least well received I think. https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-otl-aicher-ios-7-2013-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-otl-aicher-ios-7-2013-...

orhmeh09 5y ago

Rounded corners have been a hallmark of OS X design for more than 20 years. https://www.howtogeek.com/689489/20-years-later-how-the-mac-os-x-public-beta-saved-the-mac/ https://www.howtogeek.com/689489/20-years-later-how-the-mac-...

neilpanchal 5y ago
Sure. I guess I am speaking about the larger trends. Firefox just recently went full rounded corners on the tab 'buttons'. Google did the same 2-3 years ago. Purple-gradients has been the trend that began with Stripe and spread around in design circles, landed at Apple sometime in 2018.
- orhmeh09 5y ago
  With what product, specifically, did purple gradients land at Apple? Looking at the screenshots of Monterey it seems to me that the purple you see is probably from the desktop background, which is visible through the translucent UI elements. There are purple gradient elements on the web page itself, but I don't think that's particularly relevant to the actual software.
bombcar 5y ago
Closer to 40 years, depending on how you look at it: https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_Everywhere.txt https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=Round_Rects_Are_...

ulzeraj 5y ago

> Swiss typographic style Interesting. Do you know any OS or UI that made use of this concept?

kh_hk 5y ago
Not op('s opinion), but it seems to me windows phone went slightly on that direction. I feel Swiss typographic style does not convert that well to UIs (specially mouse / touch driven ones). It's all fine for direction navigation (arrow keys or a gamepad).

quesera 5y ago

> I'd love to see UI based on the International style Agreed 100% But I almost didn't get to sentence 3 because of your hostile opinionation in sentences 1 and 2. :(

neilpanchal 5y ago
I think it needs to be said. The entire field of design has been trashed in last 20 years. The decline started in the 90’s and the final straw came in late 2000’s. By entire field, I mean the full spectrum: Industrial design (touch screens) to Graphic design, typography (see Dropbox redesign) to branding (see how Pentagram destroyed the LoC logo). I don’t think I can buy a new car anymore. I’ll say it again, be it hostile - designers aren’t raised and educated in user centric design. MacOS is full of transitions that are over 200ms. iOS is worse. I could go on and on. It’s gotten so bad, it’s appalling really.
- orhmeh09 5y ago
  I also agree that a change is needed and I think you're probably right about the designers, but I was a little puzzled by the criticisms in your original comment. I would also enjoy cleaner designs possibly inspired by the Swiss (and I am nostalgic for the expressive and well-researched designs used in older versions of Windows -- though I was unimpressed at the time, everything that came afterward is really not to my taste). On iOS, I'm quite thankful for "Reduce Motion" and I recommend it (however, I have seen this setting break a few apps).
  - neilpanchal 5y ago
    Reduce motion actually retains the animation time - just that the motion is replaced by fading animation. So you still have to wait 200ms to watch the window fade instead of morph.
    - orhmeh09 5y ago
      Really? That's interesting to know, thanks! Guess it fooled me.

astrange 5y ago

The iOS 7 UI that started what you're complaining about is based on 70s European design. Actually, the most explicit parts like the strange bright color schemes were the least well received I think. https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-otl-aicher-ios-7-2013-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-otl-aicher-ios-7-2013-...