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Taste-testing Aqua | page 1, 2
The OS X that Apple unveiled at Macworld is a great demo, Tog writes, but leaves lots of important questions unanswered: "OS X, as it is being presented, is filled with lots of pretty pictures, enabling the well-rehearsed Demo Dolly to dance around the interface to the delight of the audience ... What Apple has so far done is to dip the 10-year-old NextStep interface into the 20-year-old Lisa-Macintosh interface, then cover the lot with a thin, candy shell. " Looking beyond the pictures, you might wonder, as Tog does, exactly how Apple plans to replace the Finder -- the Mac's basic file-management tool, which is being retired. You might look at the beautiful "dock" and wonder how useful it will be in finding your way through a dozen open documents you're working on. You might wonder whether the nifty "see-through" translucent dialog boxes will make it hard to read file names. Tog is one of the few real experts in the field of interface design, and his comments on Aqua are worth reading in full -- though they will no doubt inspire a barrage of abuse from the "Steve Jobs is God and the Mac is his holy scripture" contingent. Intelligent criticism of interfaces and information design remains a fledgling field, despite the efforts of writers like Steven Johnson and experts like Edward Tufte to extend and popularize it. Any instance of it in action -- applied to actual new technology products rather than confined to the lab, as it so often is -- is worth our attention. Tog acknowledges the sheer beauty of Aqua, and applauds many of the innovations it introduces -- like tying dialog boxes to the window they're associated with instead of leaving them floating center screen. But he asks tough and important questions about the changes Apple is making to the beloved Mac interface. One of those questions, curiously, is whether Aqua's emphasis on "fizz" is part of a move on the company's part toward the general consumer market -- and away from its hardcore user base among graphics and design professionals. "Overall, the interface is too obtrusive for professionals," Tog writes. "It is difficult to work on your own graphics when Apple's graphics are constantly demanding your attention. If Apple is interested in regaining the professional market, it will need to supply a softer, more neutral 'skin' than the Aqua we've seen." In raw bottom-line terms, Apple probably has some strong reasons to favor consumers over professionals. Certainly, the success of the iMac -- despite its nearly useless mouse and keyboard -- has pointed the company in that direction, and the consumer market is potentially much huger, though lower-margin, than the little world of designers. Of course, it's those designers who choose what images represent the on-screen universe to the general public. Will the Mac interface still be the standard representation of the computer screen in media of the future? Can Aqua take its place on magazine covers and newspaper front pages? We'll know by next year.
- - - - - - - - - - - - Sound off Related Salon stories Machine dreams In an industry of clones, Steve Jobs put his smart, stylish, stubborn stamp on our computers. An end to the Apple turnover Steve Jobs accepts the inevitable -- and embraces the CEO title.
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