Filed under: Macworld, Analysis / Opinion, Apple, Developer
Apple updates Human Interface Guidelines for Leopard
With all the hysteria of the Macworld taking precedence last week, it appears that Apple slipped out a not-so-insignificant update to the OS X Human Interface Guidelines. After a fairly stagnant revision history in the last few years, the much-discussed 'UI Bible' (and I use the term loosely) has been updated to encompass OS X 10.5 Leopard.It's available as an online document, and also as a 28MB PDF file (link) for your perusal as you decide on how you want your next best-selling application to look, feel and act.
[via Microsoft MacBU blogger Nadyne]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
robogobo said 7:18PM on 1-22-2008
Interesting how the 3D dock icons still don't meet the Icon perspective guidelines.
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robogobo said 7:21PM on 1-22-2008
Sorry, I meant the Dock itself, not necessarily its icons. This is significant because the dock sits in a different perspective than the icons in it. It should still follow the perspective guidelines in order to look right.
x999x said 7:25PM on 1-22-2008
I think the fact that it doesn't look "right" in terms of perspective is why it works so well.
If the icons did not each have their own unique look and perspective, they'd get lost from all the uniformity. In this rare instance, the chaos we've become accustomed to actually works.
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Bart said 8:37PM on 1-22-2008
In Apples newly released Human Interface Guidelines (get from here: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/OSXHIGuidelines.pdf)
it states on page 47 under the sub-heading Perceived Stability (right between the sub-headings "Forgiveness " and "Aesthetic Integrity"... don't you love it already?) that;
To help convey the perception of stability, preserve user-modifiable settings such as window
dimensions and locations. When a user sets up his or her onscreen environment to have a certain layout, the settings should stay that way until the user changes them.
So... how-come in Systems 1 through 9 if I closed a Finder window the next time I opened that same window I got the same location, size and view. OS X leaves me feeling decidedly unstable, I never know how a window will look before I open it, and as for the Macintosh HD icon, where is it going to be today? In pre OS X systems, not only was the volume you were booted from ALWAYS just below the application menu, (where Spotlight now tries valiantly to act like Find File without success) but all other volume icons would stay firmly pinned to the far right of the Desktop.
Note to Finder team, please read Apple's Human Interface Guidelines a.s.a.p.
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John Sawyer said 3:27AM on 2-15-2008
Nah, that might lead to consistency, which Jobs has said is a hobgoblin.
John Bailey (BDog) said 10:32PM on 1-22-2008
Then it better include;
1. Three scrollbars (regular aqua blue, iTunes grey and cover flow black [which doesn't respect scroll bar button positions, it's only left and right sides!]).
2. HORRIFIC ugly folder icons (recycled paper? Jobs' blue jeans folders?) X.4's folders looked much better... Maji Stripeless icons should the be the X.5 system default, nice work Jonas!!
3. Shadows on all edges of the window? Umm maybe what x999x said plays into this but it just looks strange.
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Keith Duncan said 7:04AM on 1-23-2008
"The Code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules."
Exceptions to the HIG are permitted, so long as they fit in with the spirit of the OS.
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John Sawyer said 3:24AM on 2-15-2008
"The spirit of the OS" (X), in Apple's hands, is to present to the user any number of interface approaches Apple's developers feel like trying out, without enough thought put into consistency and workability. As Bart says above, contrary to Apple's own guidelines, windows often (usually?) don't open with the same location and dimensions as they had last time you opened them; the frontmost window is still too difficult to distinguish from background windows visible behind it, since their title bars have a shade of gray that's too similar; etc. Bring back striped title bars for the frontmost window!