Skeuomorphism – I want MORE, not less!

No, it doesn't improve the car at all. The fake scoop does nothing. A spoiler is useless at normal driving speeds. It only makes it look "cool" to some people. It does not improve performance one bit.

Obviously, everyone has their own tastes and desires with respect to how an interface should look and act. Over the years the trend has been to move from "busy" to minimalistic (or "clean"). During the early days of the internet, everything was just text. When graphics became an option people eventually went overboard with animated GIFs, bright mis-matched colors, and random font sizes, styles, and colors. Apple has always been on the conservative side with respect to its interface. Even Microsoft has scaled things back with Windows 8 opting for cleaner look eliminating window shadows and other "effects" which were in previous versions. It's really just the evolution of the OS. They're typically designed with the largest audience in mind. Nothing against your syle choices or anyone elses, but Apple's reputation and image are based just as heavily on its OS as its hardware. They want the user experience to be consistent and clean. They don't want some potential Windows switcher to look at the OS and and see something vastly different from the way they designed the OS to look and think that's just the way OS X looks. It may be enough to get someone to change their mind about switching. As you know, you can get third party applications to change your interface in any number of ways. However, Apple has worked very hard to provide a consistent interface and I wouldn't expect them to offer anything that would drastically change that.

I guess one of the best analogies to the discussion

topic here is in the audio world. There are those that

want ultimate performance with the least amount of

flash as possible and are happy with an ugly box.

Then there are those who need every sort of "tweekability"

available on the planet in their gear and have it look like

a work of art (at least for those that can afford such

products).

And in that world, never the two will agree on anything.

It is a quite similar case here. Some folks really like

to have the "window dressing", which is fine for them

and those who think all that stuff is an annoyance and

want just a "Plain Jane" minimalist interface, which is fine

for them as well. However, as human nature is, neither side

of this coin will ever convince the other of their view point.

With that said, what the OP I believe would like to see is simply

a choice available, which would make both sides happy.

I must say a rather synical, even a bit nasty of a reply that you have written. Are you really from the world's most polite country – the UK?

You are misinformed about the UK, we're not polite at all really. (apologies to Winston)

Stephen Schulte1 wrote:

I guess narrowminded wasn't such a bad choice of words after all!

You have a singular viewpoint as to how the UI 'should' be. Others feel differently. While narrow minded may apply it does tend to fit the singular view.

Personally I want the pages in notes to turn into yellow scraps of unintelligible and unindexable scribble before they morph into missing pages, just like the real one does.

It's the monochromatic iOS look.

What? You don't want to be modern, with it, cool, and on the leading edge? It's the same mentality or outlook that considers Jackson Pollack's drug-induced paint splatterings "art."

A couple of years ago, someone at phototechtopia.com wrote (link not usable):

It’s gray. Everything is gray. Gray, gray, gray, gray. Ugly gray scrollbars, ugly gray toolbars, it’s like the entire OS was designed by a Communist-era Soviet committee four years behind on the next five-year plan. Grey linen is *not* the new Aqua.

But the opposite is happening. People defected to Macs because of the looks... now they say why bother? Apple is just like everyone else and doesn't stand out in the crowd... not easy on the eyes or brain.

I agree with you. More not less. To skeuomorph A pleasant leather stitch boundary around takes barely any code Space, make it appealing, and easier on the eyes to work with, along with the lines in the familiar yellow paper which makes it a friendly product to approach for people whose still deal pen and paper. Some doofus at Apple has convinced himself to enforce every one else to think that suddenly this screams "old fogeys" mindset and should be avoided. The trollop publications (macworld] that fawn all over macs and iPads not only seem to give identical reviews on the identical months but all jump on the bandwagon with their feet in their mouth over any direction Apple goes, somewhat like spineless groupies.

give no borders to the screen , remove the lines which are a relief for the eyes to follow, and float black text on a snow boundless background and that to me is disgusting programming. So while the programming takes barely any extra space combined, what really took effort was the thought process to make such an appealing function and successful allusion to space and depth, colorful icon that expresses content meaning. when it has been used successfully for years on Macs and portables, it tells me that year after year Apple the corporation insured they invested the time and effort to get into every detail of the hardware and software to bring a fully rounded "delicious" fluid smooth appealing computing experience.

Their computers just so happens to have functioned and maintained value over the years in a way better than windows too.

There once was a time you could put 30 non-apple phones in the middle of the table and instantly pick out the Apple, if the rest of the people around the table did not pick it up first to play with it. Everyone I knew who did not have an iPad or iPhone always were instantly drawn to look at it, and if not say anything then project the impression they would wish to have it or operate it. The fit, finish, uniqueness, and appeal of the obvious higher-quality look and design made it stand out above all the rest. That could be said to their laptops and desktops back when they honored those sectors of their marketing strategy at one time.

that day is gone. What Apple has done is is gradually ,over the course of the last couple of updates, deliberately flattened icons and visually ruined exterior and interior of apps. In some cases the choice of modifying fonts too narrow and difficult to read or gray on slightly darker gray background makes me wonder if they aren't snubbing the loyal Apple users in attempts to copycat the visual blandness of windows or android to attract or suck or Leach over their pocketbooks to the Appleside. Because more so than ever at Apple.com, it's all about the money and less about the experience regardless of what they halfheartedly insist in front of the announcement events.

and what better way to say come over to the Apple side, it is as familiar as your bland and boring Windows side, then to turn the tables and copy off windows failed interface or icon designs.

There once was a time I jumped on my desktop or picked up my iPad with just an aimless but eager desire to play or function anything from the creative to the writing side just to experience it the way Apple slickly designed it. It's not that way anymore. maybe some elements of GarageBand but outside of that, I think iOS 7 and eight have proven to be iBland. With iOS 8 it appears that they have 99.1% sucked all the visual and color dimensions out of it. It has taken away my particular desire to explore icons and functions that I used to always Hunt down to learn something new.

from the start, I never drank or agreed with the "white grape juice". They simply have made a mistake they refused to turn back from because again it will appeal to more windows buyers than Apple buyers.

The point is, I am not a teenager, and I have difficulty SEEING the lack of scrollbars, the grayness, and the lack of depth. If one were to follow HIG, everything in life has depth, that is how our eyes evolved, looking at those objects, not flatness. Apple is no longer following HIG.

I have not opened my computer yet, still in the box, but I know those icons are OK.

If Yosemite went the way of the iPad and iPhone, I guess that's the last one I will buy unless I can remedy the situation simply because I cannot see and it gives me a headache to work in the flatness.

Flat is NOT cool... the lack of scrollbars is also frustrating.

I came here because Flexmarketman posted but that apparently was deleted as well.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH APPLE that they cannot take criticism????

So making technology comfortable and pleasant to use makes for 'a fake scoop'? Apple USED TO take the time to make sure everything had a design and purpose. "The function and aesthetic" was a critical part of what drew generations of people of all ages to using an Apple product. The competition would mimic Apple and do such a bad job that it only highlighted Apple's expertise and attention to detail.

The 'boring backing core' of a painting is just as important as the presentation of the frame and the image itself, and takes skill and effort to balance all the elements properly, but even Apple seems to not want to put out the effort any more. It shows, when the current GUI image is meh, and we are cowed into accepting the framework around it, if only to sell us all on the "painting" without regard to anything else.

Fully agree with you MacLady

Every bit of a picture is important, from the presentation and durability of the frame to the image itself. The backing and base are rarely considered, but are just as important too. That USED to be "the Apple way", but not bothering to care in various areas makes Apple less superior and more like MS Windows each year. (remember such MS imitations like the exact log in/user account window copy Win made years ago? Blatant and defenseless but "just coincidence" was their excuse. MS isnt copying Apple much lately though)

Change for changes sake is a waste of accomplishment and Heritage.

Apple is also being more hasty and sloppy while cutting back on attention to detail and effort, it is near impossible to conclude otherwise. They have "stopped caring about the framing and mounting" some time ago; there is no striving for a functional work of art anymore.

And telling someone to just 'downgrade to the nicer looking earlier version' is pointless, given that Apple quickly deletes older versions the moment a new one comes out. They have made it hard as possible to do things that way now.

To do something great takes effort, to make it the best only takes a bit more. The latest Finder look, folders, windows, Textedit look, Notepad and all the rest, scream to me of the least amount of effort put out to come up with something NOT GREAT. A student programmer could come up with better, and put it on someone elses platform likely, not an Apple machine. The rise of the next "Steve Jobs" will not be done on an Apple.

There is no way you will convince me, Kool aid drinkers, that pearl white font on a grey white background floating in a frameless sea with zero point of reference is a tolerable computing experience. Its brutal. Same goes for borderless colourless dimensionless buttons and icons.

What a ridiculously stupid middle finger to the world of aesthetic that was well established long before machines took over lead pencil and parchment paper. They are "teaching the wrong message" to users and creators alike.

I appreciated the previous touches. Subtle appeal improves my mindset and willingness to interact, too bad there are scores of worshipers who rally against such a human approach.

Apple USED to be the superior machine experience, but they also had Steve Jobs policing the rules of typography, aesthetics, and form WITH function. In the last years of his life, this started to change.

Blatantly stupid GUI choices are making me resent Apple. Even a teenagers eyesight will not find working with nearly single-pixel-wide fonts or guides on a backlit screen pleasant, but some wiseguy behind the scenes is making every Apple-included app default to this illogical approach any way.

"Yes John-boy, the emperor really has no clothes on but dont speak out". The current GUI, end user presentation, and design choices are pointedly flawed, bounding away from 'the best' to the land of 'semi survivable'. Wish Apple would just put its clothes back on.

You are entitled to your opinion. You are also entitled to be wrong. Congratulations on both.

Someone once famously said "Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants, so long as it is black." I have no use for that kind of absolutism, which your values appear to originate from. I will spend my time on more relevant and interesting posts than yours from now on, thanks for the heads up.

Youre as entitled to your opinion as I am, you like cartoon interfaces and I dont. Who are you to say what is right and what is wrong.

I don't play with toys, you can if you like though.

have a nice day Mr Right

Why don't you tell Apple that you would like the choice, they're the only ones who can give it to you, complaining here will achieve nothing in that direction, even if you feel better afterwards.

apple.com/feedback

I do every week but they don't seem to care. I have to work on computers 16 hours per day and my eyes are starting to feel it. I've never had these troubles before, but I strain to see and it's not easy.