Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Apple, Developer
IndieHIG
My highschool chemistry teacher was fond of saying, 'Gentlemen, we must seek isotropy.' This was his little way of telling us that we should all be on the same page, going in the same direction if you will. The Apple Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) used to serve as a one stop shop for developers seeking the 'Mac' way of doing things with UI. Sadly, it seems that Apple has all but abandoned this noble document.IndieHIG is a project that hopes to fill the void left by Apple. It is an independent Wiki that offers itself up as a collaborative space for Mac developers to define the way apps on OS X should behave. A noble effort, though one that I would expect Apple to be spearheading. Here's hoping that the IndieHIG ushers in a new Golden Age of UI consistency.
Gentlemen, good luck on your quest for isotropy.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Judson said 10:42AM on 12-22-2006
This is cool. Its just another push to kick apple back in line. Unfortunately, this problem will probably be resolved come Leopard.
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Maddles said 8:26PM on 12-21-2006
Sounds and looks great, especially from my Wii browser
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Dean Baird said 2:39AM on 12-22-2006
I'm bummed there were no girls taking chem at your school.
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Niklas said 5:35AM on 12-22-2006
This will not work. For guidelines to get to a consistency there has to be someone in charge, able to put the boot down and say "now we do THIS, because THIS is how good it gets with what we can do today".
Sorry to be pessimistic, but in design there are too many different voices and opinions that want to be final.
I have tried the wiki approach on a few projects before, but it all came down to first getting a consensus off the site to later update the wiki when something had been decided.
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Fabian said 8:35AM on 12-22-2006
Isotropy means uniform distribution in all directions, so it's pretty much the opposite of what you are implying. Maybe you should have read the wikipedia link :)
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sladuuch said 10:37AM on 12-22-2006
The purpose of the IndieHIG is not to create new guidelines at all--it's sole purpose it to take the things that Apple's been doing and provide a consistent way for third parties to do it too. See those gear buttons everywhere? Because there's no guideline concerning its use nor any code to make one, devs who want to have to reinvent the wheel, and thus, no two gear buttons look or have the same. All the IndieHIG's doing is extrapolating based on trends Apple's initiated
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