Other Articles you should read on this subject: OS X a First Look A sharply critical look at Aqua by a respected HI guru (and Apple alum). By Bruce Tognazzini [01/16/00] Analyzing Aqua, Part 1 MacWeek's resident iGeek looks at Aqua and for the most part likes what he sees. Make sure to also read parts two, and three of this article. Part three brings up some critcal issues relating to the dock. By David K. Every [01/24/00] Aqua, The movie Time magazine's impressionistic Aqua review. By Josh Quittner [01/24/00] Apple's OS X / Aqua Pages Get the poo from the source. [01/07/00] OS X Unveiled   A love letter to the new look . By Jason Snell [01/25/00] Aqua explained   Aqua step by step from Macweek . By anonymous Taste-Testing Aqua   Aqua thoughts from Salon's managing editor. By Scott Rosenberg [01/26/00]			-    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - Aqua: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - << back <<                              THE UGLY As far as I'm concerned this is the most disturbing comment on Apple's Aqua/OS\ X pages: "We've retained the popular icon and list views from Mac OS 9, while improving their behavior to reduce screen clutter and provide better navigation feedback. Now, double-clicking on items in the icon or list views no longer brings up separate windows. Instead, the view on the new folder replaces the old folder view within the single File Viewer window" Apple's push toward single gargantuan windows presupposes that having multiple windows is bad. I personally feel the opposite is true. I would rather have several little windows than a single gigantic one. For example when I create websites I keep open a PhotoShop window, a Cyberstudio window, and several small Finder windows. I won't be able to do this nearly as efficiently under OS X. If you want to experience what I'm talking about, close all your Finder windows and substitute Greg's Browser for a couple of hours and try to design a website (or do any other project that requires access to multiple files). The browser is great for finding single files, but terrible if you need instant access to a bunch of files scattered in different folders. Apple seems to think not knowing where you are in your catalog hierarchy is necessarily bad. Most of us, I would argue don't care. When I'm working on a project with files in multiple directories, I really don't give a damn where they are in the hierarchy--I just want those 4 folders open in the Finder in separate windows. The single window approach is sold as progress, but really it's a forced simplification to make things clearer for new users. Thankfully, in the demo the "single window" feature was an option, but when the option was turned off, we didn't exactly get old fashioned Finder windows. Instead our root window includes a row of gigantic Sherlockesque icons for getting to the hard disk, home, and so on (see below). The enormous row of icons takes up 100 vertical pixels of space. This will surely drive many of us to distraction. Also it is unclear how easy it will be to switch between list and icon views when we are using windows in the old-fashioned way. I beg Apple to rethink this. Bigger is not always better. Forced conformity is usually bad. Apple's single window plan (sounds Soviet doesn't it) seems to be part of a new design philosophy. This is the direction Apple is taking not just in the OS X Finder, but also in their current apps. Check out iMovie for example. It takes over entire screen. Am I the only person who feels totally constrained by this program? I want to keep a Finder window open with my music files and another with my DV files, but I can't because the program takes over the screen. This makes iMovie easy to learn but a pain to actually use. Something old, Something new, Something borrowed, Something blue Apple's Aqua demo showed Classic apps running seamlessly under the invisible blue box. Pretty cool. But won't all those old classic apps look terrible when mixed with Carbonized Aqua apps. Probably. And maybe that's the point. But the fact is that at least for a while many of us will have to use Classic apps until they are updated. Why not provide a Classic theme for OS X so that we can have a consistent desktop? The Classic theme already exists (until recently OS X looked very much like Classic), would cost Apple little to support, and would shut up people who don't like the new look for whatever reason. Open question: Why are some windows metallic and others aqua? I don't get it. Why should windows ever look metallic? Skittles Yup. I'm talking about those pretty new window widgets. I like them in theory but I ultimately I find the color distracting. I know they will move my eye away from my Photoshop images. Hmmm... Call me boring but I like a neutral colored widgets that look like widgets. Also, doesn't it make more sense to move the maximize and minimize widgets away from the close box (close drop?). Otherwise, I'll bet there will be lots of inadvertently closed windows. The widget on the right side of the screen (the grey one, not shown above) works as a toggle switch between 'single program mode' and 'multi-program mode'. Why do we need this control on every single window? Wouldn't it make more sense just to put one 'switch mode' widget on the menu bar? Then windows could be even simpler. Close box on one side, maximize and minimize on the other. The only thing we would lose by not including the mode-toggle widget in every window would be the ability to toggle to 'single screen mode' with a program in the background (widgets can be selected on background windows). Giant Icons Destroy Finder Windows! I mentioned the gigantic Finder icon bar earlier--you will have to use this bar to navigate around your hard disk. Did I tell you how much I hate this? I'll reemphasize. The icons in the bar are too huge and too cute and AOL-like for my taste. To make matters worse, they don't work consistently. The 'View button' for example, is a toggle button that toggles between three different modes when pressed. The fact that this button doesn't work like the others and switches between three modes breaks every HI rule in the book. Ribbed, but not for your pleasure. I love the look of Apple's hardware. All that ribbed plastic is glorious, but on software it is fussy, trendy, and pointless. Seeing these extraneous ribs in menubars, on dialog boxes, and menu backgrounds makes me want to scream. To make matters worse, others are picking up on this trend. Internet Explorer 5 (to be released soon) is a wonderful program crippled by a dog ugly case of rib-itis. Disturbing Behavior. If you study the Quicktime movies of X provided by Apple, you might notice that default buttons in dialog boxes now throb. The throbbing default button keeps throbbing even when you are pressing the non-default button. While this is a great example of preemptive multitasking, shouldn't it stop throbbing when the other button is pressed? The throbbing annoys me. Sort of like TYPING IN ALL CAPS. IT'S LIKE SCREAMING ACTUALLY... CLICK ME! CLICK ME! CLICK ME! The throbbing needs to be toned way down--we get it. Also the default is hilighted in a color whereas the non default gets pressed in grey. Since apple is doing color coding anyway wouldn't it make more sense to highlight whichever button is pressed while it is being pressed. Rotten Apples Why is the Apple logo in the middle of OS X menu bar? Um. No. This is just wrong. The centered logo looks especially bad when running Classic apps--then we have two Apples in the menu bar. Let's hope this gets fixed pronto. If not, how many seconds after OS X is released will someone release a patch to zap this away (no matter how deep it is hard-coded in)? I hope Apple comes to its senses and places the logo on the right or the left side of the screen so as to not mar their otherwise lovely menus. The misplaced Apple is just one of the menu bar problems. I also miss the name of the current application and the time. Getting rid of the time is a perfect example of fiddling for the sake of fiddling to the detriment of everybody... or it could just be something left out of the demo. We'll see. Wrapping it Up Please don't misinterpret this article. I'm just as excited as everyone else to get my hands on OS X. I'm not looking to knock Apple, I'm a longtime shareholder and want them to keep steam rolling along. I know I was looking at a demo and I know things will change. But it is in our interest to speak now before things get set in stone. Long time Mac users live and die by UI. It is something of the utmost importance to at least some of us (I admit I get more worked up than most). Lets hope these problems are already being thought about and that Apple is listening to what people are saying. If you have strong feelings about these HI/UI issues, please speak up. Write Apple, call them, tell them how you feel. all best, rg p.s. You can write Apple: leadership@apple.com raul's room | Jan. 25, 2000 About the writer: Raul is always going off about something. If he bugs you, just ignore him. Have something to say? Send e-mail to Raul To get Raul's Mac Freeware. 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