3 ms·

It's interesting you say Audacity, because to me that program is an example of what you're talking about, it's low information density that came about from the

by gochi 3y ago

It's interesting you say Audacity, because to me that program is an example of what you're talking about, it's low information density that came about from the days where most music apps were a screen full of knobs and skeuomorphic buttons. That's why I view these things as a constantly swinging pendulum. At some point an app gets so bloated that it should probably be reduced. At other points an app is too simple that it's limiting. It keeps swinging back and forth with people hopping to different products when it swings too far one way.

beezlewax 3y ago
Aren't most music production apps still like that? I'm not a big fan of abletons flat design either come to think of it.
- andybak 3y ago
  Funny. Ableton is one of my favourite UIs of all time, both aesthetically and practically.
quacked 3y ago
What would you consider a high information density program? I wouldn't mind some text labels on some of the buttons, but compared to a lot of modern web apps I use (and the Slack redesign), Audacity is a Bloomberg terminal. To be honest, I prefer skeumorphism to modern design--at least there were indicators for what could be clicked on. A ton of modern programs do absolutely no indication-design whatsoever and then shovel everything under "progressive discovery". I like my tools to look like cockpits, not a series of off-white plain-text icons or words that hide big JavaScript buttons.
- gochi 3y ago
  Blender is my all time favorite for density. Dense without being ugly, not afraid of having a learning curve, and you can still poke around without getting entirely lost. It really is the gold standard in a lot of ways. Even if you never use it professionally, I still recommend downloading it and poking around to see their functional solutions to a lot of UI problems.
  - Doxin 3y ago
    Blender is like six or seven different programs in one. It's nothing short of a miracle it works as well as it does.
- johnnyworker 3y ago
  > What would you consider a high information density program? Meet Renoise, love of my life. https://i.imgur.com/yxekqbW.png https://i.imgur.com/yxekqbW.png Though that's probably more high knob density than information density, I wouldn't want to have it any other way. For me, subtle gradients and borders and such are not just a matter of being prettier (to me), but they really help the eye along. e.g. this is my HN stylesheet: https://i.imgur.com/XRPuhNc.png https://i.imgur.com/XRPuhNc.png Flat design is Workbench 1.3. Okay for 1985. Then came Workbench 2.0, then 3.0 with Magic User Interface Icons, a clear progression. Why would I want to go back from that? Speaking of Amiga and continuous progress, for me the god king emperor of interfaces is Directory Opus. As long as that only exists on Windows, I'll always run windows, if even just in a VM with access to the host filesystem. But one that is hard to show off in screenshots because unless you show 50 screenshots of custom configurations, you'll sell it short. Instead, maybe click around in the docs, don't read so much but spend 5 clicking on all the pages, and skim them, you'll see what I mean. To me it is the gold standard for everything. https://www.gpsoft.com.au/help/opus12/index.html https://www.gpsoft.com.au/help/opus12/index.html

by gochi 3y ago

beezlewax 3y ago

Aren't most music production apps still like that? I'm not a big fan of abletons flat design either come to think of it.

andybak 3y ago
Funny. Ableton is one of my favourite UIs of all time, both aesthetically and practically.

quacked 3y ago

What would you consider a high information density program? I wouldn't mind some text labels on some of the buttons, but compared to a lot of modern web apps I use (and the Slack redesign), Audacity is a Bloomberg terminal. To be honest, I prefer skeumorphism to modern design--at least there were indicators for what could be clicked on. A ton of modern programs do absolutely no indication-design whatsoever and then shovel everything under "progressive discovery". I like my tools to look like cockpits, not a series of off-white plain-text icons or words that hide big JavaScript buttons.

gochi 3y ago
Blender is my all time favorite for density. Dense without being ugly, not afraid of having a learning curve, and you can still poke around without getting entirely lost. It really is the gold standard in a lot of ways. Even if you never use it professionally, I still recommend downloading it and poking around to see their functional solutions to a lot of UI problems.
- Doxin 3y ago
  Blender is like six or seven different programs in one. It's nothing short of a miracle it works as well as it does.
johnnyworker 3y ago
> What would you consider a high information density program? Meet Renoise, love of my life. https://i.imgur.com/yxekqbW.png https://i.imgur.com/yxekqbW.png Though that's probably more high knob density than information density, I wouldn't want to have it any other way. For me, subtle gradients and borders and such are not just a matter of being prettier (to me), but they really help the eye along. e.g. this is my HN stylesheet: https://i.imgur.com/XRPuhNc.png https://i.imgur.com/XRPuhNc.png Flat design is Workbench 1.3. Okay for 1985. Then came Workbench 2.0, then 3.0 with Magic User Interface Icons, a clear progression. Why would I want to go back from that? Speaking of Amiga and continuous progress, for me the god king emperor of interfaces is Directory Opus. As long as that only exists on Windows, I'll always run windows, if even just in a VM with access to the host filesystem. But one that is hard to show off in screenshots because unless you show 50 screenshots of custom configurations, you'll sell it short. Instead, maybe click around in the docs, don't read so much but spend 5 clicking on all the pages, and skim them, you'll see what I mean. To me it is the gold standard for everything. https://www.gpsoft.com.au/help/opus12/index.html https://www.gpsoft.com.au/help/opus12/index.html