6 ms·

This is the thing - if you're going to be like Apple and dictate design, you have to get it right. macOS and Apple hardware is not to everyone's taste, and they

by apozem 4y ago

This is the thing - if you're going to be like Apple and dictate design, you have to get it right. macOS and Apple hardware is not to everyone's taste, and they make mistakes, but they prototype and dogfood and iterate like crazy and they have thumbnails in the damn file picker. When you're picking a file, you can even tap space to get a blown-up preview of an image or PRF. I use this feature almost every time I need to pick an image.

Filligree 4y ago
> When you're picking a file, you can even tap space to get a blown-up preview of an image or PRF. I use this feature almost every time I need to pick an image. Wait, what? That would have been super useful, but how was I supposed to find out?
- jamesgeck0 4y ago
  This works in every Finder window; if there's a window with files you can use Quick Look. I'm not sure if it's documented anywhere anymore, but it's been around 15 years.
- apozem 4y ago
  It's not indicated anywhere visually. I don't even remember how I found out about it. This is a downside of macOS and iOS design - lot of hidden gestures. For example, you can right-click the text title of a Finder window to open a quick navigation to all the parent folders of the current directory.
  - skykooler 4y ago
    Wait, what? I knew about the spacebar thing but this one is new to me.
- brigade 4y ago
  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 or https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/view-and-edit-files-with-quick-look-mh14119/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/view-and-edit-files... I guess? First one also mentions the ⌘-click on a window's title
bityard 4y ago
One thing I'll give Apple credit for is in the early days of OS X, they had (and perhaps still have, if it's the same thing) a document called Human Interface Guidelines. They actually did real experiments with real people and came up with a set of UI patterns that were proven by science to make software features and UI discoverable, usable, and clear, with the least amount of cognitive load. Things like, the buttons on a dialog should should be a verb indicating the _action_ the user wants to take. Like "Run This" and "Go Back" instead of "Yes" and "No". (Or worse, the old Windows "OK" and "Cancel", which is rife with ambiguity in so many cases.) And the tone of the document was that it was intended to be useful to _all_ user interface designers of all software and on all platforms, not just OS X. I just skimmed over the current edition and as far as I can tell, these days it's basically just about how to stay "on brand" with the Apple experience when writing your own UI.
- int_19h 4y ago
  Windows also had a similar document. E.g. here's one for Win7: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/uxguide/guidelines https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/uxguide/guide... The problem is getting the app developers to actually follow them.
- bb010g 4y ago
  Here's my favorite Human Interface Guidelines version (2009-08-20): https://web.archive.org/web/20101113134550/http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/OSXHIGuidelines.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20101113134550/http://developer....
- bscphil 4y ago
  For what it's worth Gnome also has an HIG: https://developer.gnome.org/hig/ https://developer.gnome.org/hig/ And they have claimed in the past to have done UX testing with actual users.
  - hda2 4y ago
    > And they have claimed in the past to have done UX testing with actual users. How many testers were there and how were they selected? Are they representative of gnome's current and future user bases? I think I read once that their test group was basically the developers and their mediate friends. If so, then this is not how you do UX testing.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

by apozem 4y ago

Filligree 4y ago

> When you're picking a file, you can even tap space to get a blown-up preview of an image or PRF. I use this feature almost every time I need to pick an image. Wait, what? That would have been super useful, but how was I supposed to find out?

jamesgeck0 4y ago
This works in every Finder window; if there's a window with files you can use Quick Look. I'm not sure if it's documented anywhere anymore, but it's been around 15 years.
apozem 4y ago
It's not indicated anywhere visually. I don't even remember how I found out about it. This is a downside of macOS and iOS design - lot of hidden gestures. For example, you can right-click the text title of a Finder window to open a quick navigation to all the parent folders of the current directory.
- skykooler 4y ago
  Wait, what? I knew about the spacebar thing but this one is new to me.
brigade 4y ago
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 or https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/view-and-edit-files-with-quick-look-mh14119/mac https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/view-and-edit-files... I guess? First one also mentions the ⌘-click on a window's title

bityard 4y ago

One thing I'll give Apple credit for is in the early days of OS X, they had (and perhaps still have, if it's the same thing) a document called Human Interface Guidelines. They actually did real experiments with real people and came up with a set of UI patterns that were proven by science to make software features and UI discoverable, usable, and clear, with the least amount of cognitive load. Things like, the buttons on a dialog should should be a verb indicating the _action_ the user wants to take. Like "Run This" and "Go Back" instead of "Yes" and "No". (Or worse, the old Windows "OK" and "Cancel", which is rife with ambiguity in so many cases.) And the tone of the document was that it was intended to be useful to _all_ user interface designers of all software and on all platforms, not just OS X. I just skimmed over the current edition and as far as I can tell, these days it's basically just about how to stay "on brand" with the Apple experience when writing your own UI.

int_19h 4y ago
Windows also had a similar document. E.g. here's one for Win7: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/uxguide/guidelines https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/uxguide/guide... The problem is getting the app developers to actually follow them.
bb010g 4y ago
Here's my favorite Human Interface Guidelines version (2009-08-20): https://web.archive.org/web/20101113134550/http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/OSXHIGuidelines.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20101113134550/http://developer....
bscphil 4y ago
For what it's worth Gnome also has an HIG: https://developer.gnome.org/hig/ https://developer.gnome.org/hig/ And they have claimed in the past to have done UX testing with actual users.
- hda2 4y ago
  > And they have claimed in the past to have done UX testing with actual users. How many testers were there and how were they selected? Are they representative of gnome's current and future user bases? I think I read once that their test group was basically the developers and their mediate friends. If so, then this is not how you do UX testing.

deleted 4y ago

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