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> There are still many rough edges in the new OS ... I hate to say it, but that blog post is mostly bike shedding. Do people really care that the toolbar icons

by 3rd3 12y ago

> There are still many rough edges in the new OS ... I hate to say it, but that blog post is mostly bike shedding. Do people really care that the toolbar icons aren't perfectly aligned, that the folder icons lack a little contrast and that the search bar looks like a button?

glifchits 12y ago
It seems trivial when you read people criticizing it, but even though you may never explicitly notice them, small annoying things will accumulate to you feeling not right about the design.
- 3rd3 12y ago
  I cannot imagine a scenario that any of the points of criticism mentioned pose a real problem. UX problems arise when things are ugly, when they get in your way, when they surprise you more than they should or when they limit the accessibility, which is clearly not the case here. It's irrelevant bike shedding because OSX is 'sexy' enough anyway; there is not enough to gain that could justify the energy people put into it. http://xkcd.com/1015/ http://xkcd.com/1015/
  - acous 12y ago
    It's sexy enough because they put that effort in in the first place. If they don't continue it would begin to look sloppy, as the piece points out. It's not bike shedding because good design is integral to Apple's brand, and good design is about attention to detail.
    - 3rd3 12y ago
      Yet, they always had small inconsistencies and no one really cared in the end (except for an oversensitive minority).
      - acous 12y ago
        That's true, though I resent being called oversensitive :)
        3rd3 12y ago
        I appologize if that came across in an offensive way. It’s just that people seem to delude themselves into thinking that talking about minute design flaws in Apple products would sustain their high quality UX more. It’s extremely likely that they don’t listen at all to this kind of critique.
      - smackfu 12y ago
        OTOH, Apple often fixes the small inconsistencies. So Apple cares...
        3rd3 12y ago
        Never heard of public critique of their design having an actual impact on it. Can you provide a couple of examples?
        smackfu 12y ago
        Apple never says anything, so you would never know.
  - glifchits 12y ago
    I didn't say they posed UX problems. I don't even think the author of the article suggested that. I merely suggested that small problems add up to a less than optimal user experience. The article is "OSX Yosemite under a microscope", not "OSX Yosemite has substantial UX problems"
    - 3rd3 12y ago
      > I didn't say they posed UX problems. I don't even think the author of the article suggested that. The article literally says that there a still many rough edges in OS X. I don’t see rough edges. There are small inconsistent details and extremely minor legibility problems. It’s not worth mentioning and Apple won’t listen anyway. > I merely suggested that small problems add up to a less than optimal user experience. I believe that this is only true if you delude yourself into thinking these minor inconsistencies and flaws matter. There will always remain some "rough edges" because costs rise exponentially when approaching an optimal design. People have lifes, deadlines etc. and Apple is no exclusion to that. Of course they could find and fix these problems if the threw another $10MM at it, but they don’t because they’ve already reached 98% of optimal and the last 2% aren’t even worth thinking about. There are much bigger problems elsewhere (both from their perspective and from customer perspective).
nofollow 12y ago
Agreed. I wish they'd focus more attention on the kernel. Many of the system processes frequently run amok consuming excessive cpu or memory. And the filesystem is hopelessly outdated.
glomph 12y ago
Talking about trivial features is not bike shedding.
- 3rd3 12y ago
  Yes it is.
smackfu 12y ago
Apple has a rep for sweating the small stuff. So when they get the small stuff wrong, it gets pointed out.
- 3rd3 12y ago
  And what is the value of that?

by 3rd3 12y ago

glifchits 12y ago

It seems trivial when you read people criticizing it, but even though you may never explicitly notice them, small annoying things will accumulate to you feeling not right about the design.

3rd3 12y ago
I cannot imagine a scenario that any of the points of criticism mentioned pose a real problem. UX problems arise when things are ugly, when they get in your way, when they surprise you more than they should or when they limit the accessibility, which is clearly not the case here. It's irrelevant bike shedding because OSX is 'sexy' enough anyway; there is not enough to gain that could justify the energy people put into it. http://xkcd.com/1015/ http://xkcd.com/1015/
- acous 12y ago
  It's sexy enough because they put that effort in in the first place. If they don't continue it would begin to look sloppy, as the piece points out. It's not bike shedding because good design is integral to Apple's brand, and good design is about attention to detail.
  - 3rd3 12y ago
    Yet, they always had small inconsistencies and no one really cared in the end (except for an oversensitive minority).
    - acous 12y ago
      That's true, though I resent being called oversensitive :)
      - 3rd3 12y ago
        I appologize if that came across in an offensive way. It’s just that people seem to delude themselves into thinking that talking about minute design flaws in Apple products would sustain their high quality UX more. It’s extremely likely that they don’t listen at all to this kind of critique.
    - smackfu 12y ago
      OTOH, Apple often fixes the small inconsistencies. So Apple cares...
      - 3rd3 12y ago
        Never heard of public critique of their design having an actual impact on it. Can you provide a couple of examples?
        smackfu 12y ago
        Apple never says anything, so you would never know.
- glifchits 12y ago
  I didn't say they posed UX problems. I don't even think the author of the article suggested that. I merely suggested that small problems add up to a less than optimal user experience. The article is "OSX Yosemite under a microscope", not "OSX Yosemite has substantial UX problems"
  - 3rd3 12y ago
    > I didn't say they posed UX problems. I don't even think the author of the article suggested that. The article literally says that there a still many rough edges in OS X. I don’t see rough edges. There are small inconsistent details and extremely minor legibility problems. It’s not worth mentioning and Apple won’t listen anyway. > I merely suggested that small problems add up to a less than optimal user experience. I believe that this is only true if you delude yourself into thinking these minor inconsistencies and flaws matter. There will always remain some "rough edges" because costs rise exponentially when approaching an optimal design. People have lifes, deadlines etc. and Apple is no exclusion to that. Of course they could find and fix these problems if the threw another $10MM at it, but they don’t because they’ve already reached 98% of optimal and the last 2% aren’t even worth thinking about. There are much bigger problems elsewhere (both from their perspective and from customer perspective).

nofollow 12y ago

Agreed. I wish they'd focus more attention on the kernel. Many of the system processes frequently run amok consuming excessive cpu or memory. And the filesystem is hopelessly outdated.

glomph 12y ago

Talking about trivial features is not bike shedding.

3rd3 12y ago
Yes it is.

smackfu 12y ago

Apple has a rep for sweating the small stuff. So when they get the small stuff wrong, it gets pointed out.

3rd3 12y ago
And what is the value of that?