iTunes 10 - where's the color?

Just adding my voice for Apple to bring back colour to iTunes (I'm not too bothered about the icon etc). Usability took a big step back without colour, imagine if they did this to the dock? (I realise some people do do this).

Surely shape, position AND colour are what makes for a good interface icon.

To me the colorful interface of iTunes was "so" Mac, Apple that it is hard to understand the drab change. I mean if there is some functional or design reasoning behind this it escapes me. If there is I certainly hope it it does not leak its way into the Mac OS X. Can you imagine I drab and uninteresting that would be. Just visualize all those little dark, dreary icons on the Dock of your Mac. Pleaaaasssse, nnoooooooo.

Ironically, you have just described Apple's 1984 commercial. I think there's something to this...

Quite agree. It's funny how Apple has gone out of their way to add VoiceOver for the visually impaired on the iPhone etc, then make it much harder in iTunes.

Of course this isn't the first time Apple has done this. The Finder's folder Icons used to be much easier to distinguish but got the grey clean up, having the icons embossed instead. I'm sure it all looks a whole lot more 'neat' and I understand that, but it is at the cost of usability.

I didn't like what they did to Mail either, the icons at the top used to be separate and easy to distinguish and they got the stuck together bubble treatment, but that's another story.

I was really shocked when I upgraded to iTunes 10. It's so chunky and lacks any contrast. The volume slider keeps drawing my eye and not in a good way. Why is it so thick and disproportionate? Why is everything grey? Is it me or did they change the shade of grey to something less deep in hue. Why do I no longer have contrast lines between my songs? The lines help people read clearly. The icon! The icon! It's awful.I don't care if they lose the CD so much, but was a blue bubble the best they could come up with. Apple are supposed to make pretty things. Petty and shallow, but true. Ugly, ugly icon. I wish to strike it from my dock.

I heard Steve Jobs likes the icon! It's so amateurish looking I don't understand how he could defend it. Just own up and change it.

I couldn't agree more and I will add my voice to the protest. I also just added official feedback.

As a professional user interface consultant I am very very disturbed by the lack of color on the icons. Grey icons = Disabled Functionality. That is a universal standard that they are contravening, so every time I look at the new interface I assume everything on the left is unavailable to me.

Colored icons have helped me quickly distinguish between content type, manual vs smart playlists etc for years. To have this suddenly removed makes me feel handicapped.

Finally the new grey icons are in contravention of Apple's own accessibility policy and the recommendations of international accessibility experts. They **** me off every time I look at them and I have 20/20 vision! I can't imagine what a pain this thing is to anyone with less keen eyesight!

For what it's worth, I could give less of a **** about the icon in the dock or the position of the traffic lights. The dock icon could be a hi-res picture of a steaming turd for all I care. It doesn't affect my ability to easily navigate, use and enjoy the application I have grown to rely upon.

And before people jump on the whine whine train, I'm not an occasional casual user. I frequently use iTunes to DJ large tango events which requires careful navigation among many pre-set and smart playlists. I feel blinded and liable to make a mistake now while DJ'ing 😟

Have you looked into DJ software?

djay is cool.

http://www.algoriddim.com/djay/download

They still have colored icons in their interface.

Matt

I'd not thought of that, being greyed does give the impression they aren't available.

I agree on the icon, it doesn't bother me, the volume control is fine too (I never use) - I can see why they made the traffic lights sideways, it's not a great solution and does look slightly out of place but it's nothing compared to the greyed out icons.

I don't think anyone with an iDevice could be a casual user as there really is no real options other than to use iTunes so this can't be great for anyone, other than people who really do change all their icons in the dock to look alike just for aesthetics at the loss of functionality.

I wonder if it's time to break iTunes up (another off topic thought).

(I can't say I like the introduction of Ping either but that's off-topic)

jlrdouglas wrote:


As a professional user interface consultant I am very very disturbed by the lack of color on the icons. Grey icons = Disabled Functionality. That is a universal standard that they are contravening, so every time I look at the new interface I assume everything on the left is unavailable to me.

Colored icons have helped me quickly distinguish between content type, manual vs smart playlists etc for years. To have this suddenly removed makes me feel handicapped.

Finally the new grey icons are in contravention of Apple's own accessibility policy and the recommendations of international accessibility experts. They **** me off every time I look at them and I have 20/20 vision! I can't imagine what a pain this thing is to anyone with less keen eyesight!

For what it's worth, I could give less of a **** about the icon in the dock or the position of the traffic lights. The dock icon could be a hi-res picture of a steaming turd for all I care. It doesn't affect my ability to easily navigate, use and enjoy the application I have grown to rely upon.

And before people jump on the whine whine train, I'm not an occasional casual user. I frequently use iTunes to DJ large tango events which requires careful navigation among many pre-set and smart playlists. I feel blinded and liable to make a mistake now while DJ'ing 😟
jlrdouglas wrote:
I couldn't agree more and I will add my voice to the protest. I also just added official feedback.

As a professional user interface consultant I am very very disturbed by the lack of color on the icons. Grey icons = Disabled Functionality. That is a universal standard that they are contravening, so every time I look at the new interface I assume everything on the left is unavailable to me.

Colored icons have helped me quickly distinguish between content type, manual vs smart playlists etc for years. To have this suddenly removed makes me feel handicapped.

Finally the new grey icons are in contravention of Apple's own accessibility policy and the recommendations of international accessibility experts. They **** me off every time I look at them and I have 20/20 vision! I can't imagine what a pain this thing is to anyone with less keen eyesight!

For what it's worth, I could give less of a **** about the icon in the dock or the position of the traffic lights. The dock icon could be a hi-res picture of a steaming turd for all I care. It doesn't affect my ability to easily navigate, use and enjoy the application I have grown to rely upon.

And before people jump on the whine whine train, I'm not an occasional casual user. I frequently use iTunes to DJ large tango events which requires careful navigation among many pre-set and smart playlists. I feel blinded and liable to make a mistake now while DJ'ing 😟

Message was edited by: Stuartea71

New layout scheme = great
No color = *****

I'm fine with artistic decisions. DEFAULT to grey icons? Sure, just give me an option for the ease-of-use color-coding that defines good Usability.

For the needy, here is the solution:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1008036&highlight=coloriconsitunes

Kudos to the person(s) who put the color icon set together. Wish you would have used the new icons from iTunes 10, but certainly I choose color first.

I totally agree that the current iTunes is ugly!

<Edited by Host>

Well as ugly as the new iTunes icon is, after seeing the new Apple TV I realize they did this to tie in the look there. You see the glowing blue hues all over that UI. I think they're really trying to merge everything together now.

And as the great Ween has spoken, "I understand it, but I don't want it."

I think the colors need to be brought back, but in a more subtle way which compliments the Mac OS X Interface more.

But, what is subtle about the OS X interface color scheme. I think that the previous version of iTunes was comparable to that color scheme.

let's wait the 20th October... maybe they would bring back the colors..!

Peace brothers! 🙂

It can be done:

Hack Returns Color to Gray iTunes 10

http://appletoolbox.com/2010/09/hack-returns-color-to-gray-itunes-10/