Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS, Mods
Give Mac OS X a unified UI with Uno
A few weeks ago we asked how you felt about some of the inconsistencies in Mac OS Xs user interface. Responses were mixed. Lach said, "This stuff drives me nuts. Even Quicktime and iTunes look different
from each other. iPhoto is a disaster, you didn't mention that little
app. iSync is a mess, and they're all different from Safari and Mail.
At least in Windows the design is CONSISTANTLY crappy." But Lach wasn't alone. Continued after the jump.Others were less concerned with the whole thing. Reader djones, for instance, felt differently: "I don't think it would be good to be 100% consistent across the board...you need some sort of visual indication of which application you're in. It doesn't need to scream it, but the subtle variations in Apple's first party apps are enough to tell you that they're a family, but you won't mistake one for the other."
I recalled this discussion earlier this afternoon when I saw a link to Uno at What Do I Know. Uno is a theme for Mac OS X that gives every single, solitary window and menu bar the exact same look (even the Dock's widget bar). Lach, this one is for you. djones, steer clear. Everyone else, make your choice. UNO is free (I could not find system requirements).
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
David C. said 8:19PM on 10-24-2005
I've been using UNO for about 2 weeks now, and I love it. I don't think I could go back to brushed metal now.
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enano275 said 8:29PM on 10-24-2005
I actually prefer iT5 (http://icespectre.ambitiouslemon.com/tag/news/themes/) It is the darker unified look that iTunes 5 and 6 use. But you will need ShapeShifter to use.
I can't stick to one look anyway, that's why I bough ShapeShifter, I keep jumping from theme to theme every week or so.
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Number 5 said 8:34PM on 10-24-2005
I would like it if I can set in Preferences programs to have different color, because when I use Expose, everything looks the same right now. Color would allow me to pinpoint immediately the window I am after.
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ct77 said 8:57PM on 10-24-2005
This is very subjective, of course, but I find the Uno look, when applied to all applications, rather ugly -- reminds me of Windows.
I like OS X's GUI just as it is.
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Rura said 9:22PM on 10-24-2005
The problem here is not that Uno brings consistency, it's that it does it without bringing consistent behavior. Since it's just a skin, apps will look unified without actually BEHAVING like unified does. Those that are actually aqua will continue to behave as aqua does, and those that are metal will behave as metal does (in addition to having a very bizarre looking border in most cases). That, to me, represents a far worse crime than Apple's fragmentation of the user interface. At least with Aqua/Unified/Metal you can tell by looking at them what kind of behavior to expect.
If you really want to go unified, at least use the haxie that will truly make the apps (as long as they're cocoa) have unified windows. Anything else is just crap.
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Thomas said 10:22PM on 10-24-2005
This makes Firefox look sexier at the top! Grrr. That's a design issue that's been bugging me from day one!
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Hawthorne said 12:45AM on 10-25-2005
I downloaded and installed it tonite. No problems, and I like the consistent L/F. I don't have any problems with Expos?as I usually cmd-tab and cmd-tilde rather than use Expos?
I like.
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Mr Tipples said 3:34AM on 10-25-2005
This is great, makes all your apps look like .mail. basically iTunes unified, but for all your apps!
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Wysiwyg said 8:12AM on 10-25-2005
Can it be used with Shapeshifter? I would like to use it with iT5 to keep all the metal apps with the new metal look and the aqua apps with the unified look.
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Patrick Bennett said 8:17AM on 10-25-2005
Personally, I use Iridium. I just find that it has never caused me any of the problems I hear some people mention with UNO. Great design, good implementation and the developer is fast and friendly.
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Will said 2:11PM on 10-25-2005
I prefer Iridium (also free). Uno does some funky stuff to some of the windows. Particularly in iTunes and Quicktime. Iridium just kinda smooths out the brushed metal with out throwing off the application windows.
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Callum said 3:03PM on 10-25-2005
David C. must also be a binarybonsai reader :D. I've been running uno for a week - and i'm all uno-outed. Its too cold, i imagine Apple have already run this over a few times and came to the same conclusion.
I don't know what the perfect GUI is, i've seen a tonne of bad ones (looking at you XP) but Mac OS Tiger's bits are okay.
Look how great Garageband is under uno... i like the quirky changes like that.
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