

Mac Interface Design - chaostheory
http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/graphics-roundups/smoking-hot-mac-interface-design-30-stunning-apps/

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alextgordon
Gah... _Aesthetics is not Design_!. There's no such thing as "Smoking Hot
Interface Design". Something can be Smoking Hot, or it can have good Interface
Design, but the two properties are entirely independent.

There certainly _is_ a correlation between the two. People who pay attention
to design also tend to pay attention to appearances. And if your aesthetics
are particularly bad, they may distract the user and have a negative effect on
your UI.

But you can still find examples of apps that lack one or the other. I
personally dislike the appearance of Spotify, but it still has a great UI. And
while the iPad Notes app may look pretty cool, it lacks strong design.

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ptomato
<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html> says:

"If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective,
we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How
To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is
meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids.""

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wallflower
See <http://wellplacedpixels.com> for a more curated look at good, sexy UX

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mahmud
How the hell does one learn how to make them? I just want to be able to
understand what to call all these purty UI elements so I can _ask_ for them.

Any resources to recommend?

~~~
wallflower
Beautiful graphic design is something I'd like to learn, and it is something I
have not invested much effort in yet. Tutorials like those on SmashingMagazine
can tell you the how but can't teach you the why. Any graphic designer/art
student will tell you that learning how to draw is all about learning how to
look. I'd like to be able to do design myself but realistically it is easier
to become friends with good designers (yes, you pay them but it is more like
working with a partner than a hired gun). In lieu of taking classes, go to art
openings. I've met very few designer developer individuals.

That being said here is a list of some resources for (previous AskYCs, rest of
them learning how to make icons) (which is a stepping stone to Tap Tap Tap
UI).

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1487274>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1290147>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66863>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=227406>

[http://web.archive.org/web/20050101092500/http://mpt.phrasew...](http://web.archive.org/web/20050101092500/http://mpt.phrasewise.com/stories/storyReader$374)

<http://hicksdesign.co.uk/journal/principles-of-icon-design>

[http://flyosity.com/tutorial/crafting-subtle-realistic-
user-...](http://flyosity.com/tutorial/crafting-subtle-realistic-user-
interfaces.php)

<http://steveweller.com/articles/tabbar-icons/>

[http://speckyboy.com/2009/04/28/35-tutorials-to-create-
amazi...](http://speckyboy.com/2009/04/28/35-tutorials-to-create-amazing-
vector-graphics-using-inkscape/)

[http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2010/05/some-good-
advi...](http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2010/05/some-good-advice.html)

~~~
mahmud
That's exhaustive, thank you :-)

I should be able to pick enough of the UI and design lingo to communicate with
designers.

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taitems
If you just look at the functionality delivered by some of those apps, you're
really only paying for the design. $20 for a graph? €19 for VLC?

EDIT: Massive props to Transmit and Kalaideoscope, that goes without saying,
but there are some crazy pricing strategies at play in this list.

~~~
fleg
There are funnier examples - like WriteRoom (simple notepad for $25) or a To-
Do list for $50.

This list is just how mac users troll themselves.

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Daishiman
Is it just me or are the UIs of many of these apps wildly inconsistent with
the surrounding ecosystem and are not keen on applying the knowledge learned
from manipulating other applications in the environment? They sure look great,
but I have my doubts as to how many of them are truly usable (undeniably, many
are probably great).

~~~
codingthewheel
On the Mac side, people haven't really learned the benefits of standard look
and feel to the degree they have on Windows. Not to say there's no
standardization, but in general, Mac apps are a chance for developers to strut
their stuff and display cute widgets. MS has spent many multiples of what
Apple has spent on UX design, so you get a slightly less flashy, but overall
more usable, set of applications on Windows, because of the way the APIs are
structured.

Where this style of UI really shines is for the iPhone. I don't think anybody
still seriously thinks that Mac is preeminent on the desktop. That hasn't been
true since .NET, let alone WPF. But on the iOS...Apple's dominance is clear.

~~~
c1sc0
"MS has spent many multiples of what Apple has spent on UX design". I actually
have no clue what windows looks like these days but it certainly used to be
the other way around. I did notice that UX consistency has degraded over the
last few years in OSX, but I'm not sure I'd call Windows better (again, from
my limited experience with corporate windows apps).

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compay
I think most of these apps make for great screenshots, but I'm less sure about
long term, daily usability. In my (very personal, subjective) opinion I find
that apps that use standard widgets make a less exciting first impression but
are usually a lot more usable. The best example I can think of offhand would
be Twitteriffic vs. Tweetie.

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thought_alarm
Let's see a similar list of Windows software.

I've been away from the platform for years, but WPF has been avaiable to
developers for a while now so I'm curious to see what the state of Windows
software is these days.

~~~
elblanco
I've seen a pretty large number of similar looking "apps" on Windows. But
usually in specialty software. The UIs on VSTis or a fancy schmancy Photoshop
plugin for example are typically like this.

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subpixel
1Password is an awesome app, I swear by it, but the it's horribly over-
designed. The interface screams "look at how clever I am" when what the user
really wants is to not have to think about it at all.

/rant

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JMiao
Saw the first image and thought, "huh, Winamp 5."

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analogy
they were all pretty unremarkable

~~~
kylec
Can you provide some better examples?

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maney
Well, more than twenty years ago we all had simple text editors with no
extraneous UI elements. Now you have to pay the cost of good meal to get that
for your Mac. I guess I could see if the old VT100 still powers up, that would
surely take it to the next level, and beyond!

~~~
thwarted
Actually, vim already comes with OSX. Just need to use a non-transparent
background in Terminal.app and maximize it.

I used to use vi on vt52 terminals back at school to avoid the distraction of
the GUI elements in Microsoft Word.

