8 ms·

Apple has been a driving force for better UI in a number of areas, but some of their choices are baffling. Even in this page, the "Contrast" section uses a larg

by wampus 11y ago

Apple has been a driving force for better UI in a number of areas, but some of their choices are baffling. Even in this page, the "Contrast" section uses a large black header, but a small grey font on a white background for the content. Who chose Shift-Command-] for switching tabs in Safari? Why include the power switch in the keyboard, which makes it challenging to clean? Could their glossy displays be any more reflective?

bananaboy 11y ago
I also feel like iOS has gone downhill. I know they were trying to get away from skeuomorphic design, but I feel they went too far in the opposite direction. Everything is flat, it's hard to tell what is a button that can be clicked on sometimes (usually it's just a blue label with no distinguishing background), and there seems to be a frequent lack of contrast generally.
- batiudrami 11y ago
  Yeah, also I feel the rainbow colours with a Gaussian blur looks pretty dated too - reminds me of Aero Glass. Android at its best looks much nicer, though it can be very inconsistent, even within Google-developed apps.
  - frik 11y ago
    AeroGlass looks still very nice and fresh in Windows 7. Windows 8x/10 theme is too flat for a desktop OS and the color choices imo plain ugly. Microsoft removed most of the complex transparent effects because the Nokia/MS WinPhones 7-8 devices were too slow to handle them, that's why the desktop has to suffer as well. The iOS 7-9 and OSX themes have a lot better colors.
- rbritton 11y ago
  I've never fully embraced Apple's view of flat design for that reason. I feel buttons should resemble something that looks like it can be tapped on, and that that is not against the current aesthetic of iOS (e.g., http://ipadportfolioapp.com/images/overview/Customization_2x.png http://ipadportfolioapp.com/images/overview/Customization_2x...).
- gurkendoktor 11y ago
  I found it interesting that the button in the link actually has a border. When will we see bordered buttons in iOS again? iOS 10?
namenotrequired 11y ago
This very page is also a bad offender of the very first principle...
- wingerlang 11y ago
  Definitely. The titles seems related to the image above them, not below as intended.
camillomiller 11y ago
Well, even better: this page [https://developer.apple.com/library/safari/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/SafariImageDeliveryBestPractices/Introduction/Introduction.html https://developer.apple.com/library/safari/documentation/Net...] is two clicks away.
sandofsky 11y ago
Most likely, that shade of grey was chosen precisely because the section headline is black. If both were black, it would compete with the typographic hierarchy, making it distracting to skim the entire page. Good design is a form of engineering. You have a set of principles and successful patterns– such as the ones on the linked page– but your job is adapting to real world constraints. In this case, the challenge is making a headline look like a headline only relative to the example, not the page. As far as the Safari tab shortcut, that's consistent with the rest of OS X. How did they originally arrive at that shortcut? They probably tried several combination, all within reach of the home keys, and that felt most right. Why include the power switch on the keyboard? I know every user's first question is "where is the on switch?" and that position seems highly visible, and it can be consistent across all macs. In my entire history of using Macs, I've never had an issue cleaning the power key. No idea why they made the displays more reflective. But given their overall attention to detail, a lot of thought probably went into it.
- DanBC 11y ago
  Attention to detail? http://imgur.com/Q9AhXKI http://imgur.com/Q9AhXKI That font, in the section that talks about the importance of larger fonts, is fucking tiny.
  - sandofsky 11y ago
    Nobody visits the developer portal on mobile devices. I know I don't browse reference docs on my phone since I can't run Xcode on it, so that's probably why they haven't optimized for mobile yet.
- mhomde 11y ago
  "a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"
  - sandofsky 11y ago
    "Read a book." http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/1452654123 http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/d... Consistency is an important tool. In the absence of obvious visual affordances, it's even more important.
Washuu 11y ago
OS 10.9 and iOS 7 have taken contrast and thrown it out the window. They are both following current designer trends of less contrast overall while claiming better readability. The low contrast trend started around 2011 to 2012 with web sites. It typically takes Apple one year to catch up with the trends on their operating system releases. Both their recent releases result in more eye strain for me looking for a way to fix their messed up ideas of contrast.
- mikro2nd 11y ago
  Do you suppose that this might be related to the oft-discussed-on-HN ageism that the Silicon Valley-based industry is accused of? Low contrast may be pleasing to twenty-something year old eyes, but unreadable to fifty-something year old eyes, and, if I consider my own attitudes and thinking at a younger age, I would almost certainly not have been considering how UI design choices would impact people with less-than optimal vision but for a mother-in-law with severe vision limitations.
  - gutnor 11y ago
    It is probably more a fashion trend like what affect everything around us. Low contrast works especially well with the retina and above screens we currently on everything nowadays.
  - Washuu 11y ago
    It could have a minor bit to do with relative age of the designers, but I would assume it is more do with current designer trends. Personally, I do not wear glasses and have considerably good vision as well I even go to the extent of using good monitors with IPS panels that are properly calibrated. Even then there are issues with font contrast in OS 10.9 and iOS 7 where they decide to use a white font with a very light drop shadow. I have always made sure to design with disabilities in mind.(Section 508 government work.) There was a previous designer I worked with a couple years ago that came from the Silicon Valley area that would require a weekly reminder that low contrast designs would not be acceptable.
kaolinite 11y ago
You can switch tabs in Safari using Ctrl + Tab (and Ctrl + Shift + Tab to go backwards).
kagamine 11y ago
Grey text on a white background is generally accepted as easier on the eye/mind when reading sentences, whereas on the header it is not necessary, it's just one word, there is no train of thought to follow there. This would be considered good UX [source: I don't have anything to link to right now, but I do have a degree in Interaction Design] The rest of your points get top marks and I hope to Cod that someone at Apple is listening. The power button on the keyboard is retarded (no other word for it, sorry), super glossy screens so you can't even see it in your own house. As for Apple shortcuts, well, many make perfect sense and this isn't something anyone else does better. MS Word even changes them depending upon system language, so Word in Norwegian uses Ctrl+F for "fett" or bold. Imagine how annoying that is when someone asks you for help. It happens at application level too, especially with non-US keyboards, just press ctrl+[ to access this feature, and no you cannot remap the shortcuts. Well, dandy, I can't access [ without pressing 2 other keys already. So I'll just press the X in the corner instead.
- TuringTest 11y ago
  > Grey text on a white background is generally accepted as easier on the eye/mind when reading sentences That may the single most propagated unfounded myth in UI design this decade. [1] While it's true that pure black on pure white causes problems for some dyslexic users, there is also a _minimum_ required contrast [2], which is routileny ignored by many "stylish" web sites. The plague of contrast-less "light grey on white" have been adopted by plenty of "web 3.0" sites out of following fashionable trends, to the point of making them unreadable. I've been forced to place a "Contrast" bookmarklet on the toolbar of all my browsers to fix all those terrible contrast-less pages I found everywhere, and I'm forced to use it dozens of times a day to alleviate my aching eyes. (Hexadecimal #333 is my personal upper level of comfort on white backgrounds, anything above that begins physically hurting my eyes when reading any kind of long text). [1] http://contrastrebellion.com/ http://contrastrebellion.com/ [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/AERT#color-contrast http://www.w3.org/TR/AERT#color-contrast
  - coldpie 11y ago
    > I've been forced to place a "Contrast" bookmarklet on the toolbar of all my browsers Could you please share these? I'm not web-programming-savvy enough to make anything that'd be generally useful.

by wampus 11y ago

bananaboy 11y ago

I also feel like iOS has gone downhill. I know they were trying to get away from skeuomorphic design, but I feel they went too far in the opposite direction. Everything is flat, it's hard to tell what is a button that can be clicked on sometimes (usually it's just a blue label with no distinguishing background), and there seems to be a frequent lack of contrast generally.

batiudrami 11y ago
Yeah, also I feel the rainbow colours with a Gaussian blur looks pretty dated too - reminds me of Aero Glass. Android at its best looks much nicer, though it can be very inconsistent, even within Google-developed apps.
- frik 11y ago
  AeroGlass looks still very nice and fresh in Windows 7. Windows 8x/10 theme is too flat for a desktop OS and the color choices imo plain ugly. Microsoft removed most of the complex transparent effects because the Nokia/MS WinPhones 7-8 devices were too slow to handle them, that's why the desktop has to suffer as well. The iOS 7-9 and OSX themes have a lot better colors.
rbritton 11y ago
I've never fully embraced Apple's view of flat design for that reason. I feel buttons should resemble something that looks like it can be tapped on, and that that is not against the current aesthetic of iOS (e.g., http://ipadportfolioapp.com/images/overview/Customization_2x.png http://ipadportfolioapp.com/images/overview/Customization_2x...).
gurkendoktor 11y ago
I found it interesting that the button in the link actually has a border. When will we see bordered buttons in iOS again? iOS 10?

namenotrequired 11y ago

This very page is also a bad offender of the very first principle...

wingerlang 11y ago
Definitely. The titles seems related to the image above them, not below as intended.

camillomiller 11y ago

Well, even better: this page [https://developer.apple.com/library/safari/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/SafariImageDeliveryBestPractices/Introduction/Introduction.html https://developer.apple.com/library/safari/documentation/Net...] is two clicks away.

sandofsky 11y ago

Most likely, that shade of grey was chosen precisely because the section headline is black. If both were black, it would compete with the typographic hierarchy, making it distracting to skim the entire page. Good design is a form of engineering. You have a set of principles and successful patterns– such as the ones on the linked page– but your job is adapting to real world constraints. In this case, the challenge is making a headline look like a headline only relative to the example, not the page. As far as the Safari tab shortcut, that's consistent with the rest of OS X. How did they originally arrive at that shortcut? They probably tried several combination, all within reach of the home keys, and that felt most right. Why include the power switch on the keyboard? I know every user's first question is "where is the on switch?" and that position seems highly visible, and it can be consistent across all macs. In my entire history of using Macs, I've never had an issue cleaning the power key. No idea why they made the displays more reflective. But given their overall attention to detail, a lot of thought probably went into it.

DanBC 11y ago
Attention to detail? http://imgur.com/Q9AhXKI http://imgur.com/Q9AhXKI That font, in the section that talks about the importance of larger fonts, is fucking tiny.
- sandofsky 11y ago
  Nobody visits the developer portal on mobile devices. I know I don't browse reference docs on my phone since I can't run Xcode on it, so that's probably why they haven't optimized for mobile yet.
mhomde 11y ago
"a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"
- sandofsky 11y ago
  "Read a book." http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/1452654123 http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/d... Consistency is an important tool. In the absence of obvious visual affordances, it's even more important.

Washuu 11y ago

OS 10.9 and iOS 7 have taken contrast and thrown it out the window. They are both following current designer trends of less contrast overall while claiming better readability. The low contrast trend started around 2011 to 2012 with web sites. It typically takes Apple one year to catch up with the trends on their operating system releases. Both their recent releases result in more eye strain for me looking for a way to fix their messed up ideas of contrast.

mikro2nd 11y ago
Do you suppose that this might be related to the oft-discussed-on-HN ageism that the Silicon Valley-based industry is accused of? Low contrast may be pleasing to twenty-something year old eyes, but unreadable to fifty-something year old eyes, and, if I consider my own attitudes and thinking at a younger age, I would almost certainly not have been considering how UI design choices would impact people with less-than optimal vision but for a mother-in-law with severe vision limitations.
- gutnor 11y ago
  It is probably more a fashion trend like what affect everything around us. Low contrast works especially well with the retina and above screens we currently on everything nowadays.
- Washuu 11y ago
  It could have a minor bit to do with relative age of the designers, but I would assume it is more do with current designer trends. Personally, I do not wear glasses and have considerably good vision as well I even go to the extent of using good monitors with IPS panels that are properly calibrated. Even then there are issues with font contrast in OS 10.9 and iOS 7 where they decide to use a white font with a very light drop shadow. I have always made sure to design with disabilities in mind.(Section 508 government work.) There was a previous designer I worked with a couple years ago that came from the Silicon Valley area that would require a weekly reminder that low contrast designs would not be acceptable.

kaolinite 11y ago

You can switch tabs in Safari using Ctrl + Tab (and Ctrl + Shift + Tab to go backwards).

kagamine 11y ago

Grey text on a white background is generally accepted as easier on the eye/mind when reading sentences, whereas on the header it is not necessary, it's just one word, there is no train of thought to follow there. This would be considered good UX [source: I don't have anything to link to right now, but I do have a degree in Interaction Design] The rest of your points get top marks and I hope to Cod that someone at Apple is listening. The power button on the keyboard is retarded (no other word for it, sorry), super glossy screens so you can't even see it in your own house. As for Apple shortcuts, well, many make perfect sense and this isn't something anyone else does better. MS Word even changes them depending upon system language, so Word in Norwegian uses Ctrl+F for "fett" or bold. Imagine how annoying that is when someone asks you for help. It happens at application level too, especially with non-US keyboards, just press ctrl+[ to access this feature, and no you cannot remap the shortcuts. Well, dandy, I can't access [ without pressing 2 other keys already. So I'll just press the X in the corner instead.

TuringTest 11y ago
> Grey text on a white background is generally accepted as easier on the eye/mind when reading sentences That may the single most propagated unfounded myth in UI design this decade. [1] While it's true that pure black on pure white causes problems for some dyslexic users, there is also a _minimum_ required contrast [2], which is routileny ignored by many "stylish" web sites. The plague of contrast-less "light grey on white" have been adopted by plenty of "web 3.0" sites out of following fashionable trends, to the point of making them unreadable. I've been forced to place a "Contrast" bookmarklet on the toolbar of all my browsers to fix all those terrible contrast-less pages I found everywhere, and I'm forced to use it dozens of times a day to alleviate my aching eyes. (Hexadecimal #333 is my personal upper level of comfort on white backgrounds, anything above that begins physically hurting my eyes when reading any kind of long text). [1] http://contrastrebellion.com/ http://contrastrebellion.com/ [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/AERT#color-contrast http://www.w3.org/TR/AERT#color-contrast
- coldpie 11y ago
  > I've been forced to place a "Contrast" bookmarklet on the toolbar of all my browsers Could you please share these? I'm not web-programming-savvy enough to make anything that'd be generally useful.