Design Is How It Works

LOL, they really really aren't reading the room.

The event was without a doubt cut short: there were at least a couple of rough cuts during which the speakers’ pacing and intonation implied that more was coming.

I doubt they would have cut half an hour of UI demos, but I do feel some of the Watch and eSIM feature presentations were shortened at the eleventh hour, with no time to re-record the speakers, or even dub them.

I did laugh bitterly at reading that. Glad I’m not the only one who thought that it was a bold and tasteless move.

The thing is, right after the quote they showed many physical items that are actually pretty good. So in that sense it was appropriate.

But of course we all know the problem with the iPhone and Mac anymore, it’s the software. That, and Apple’s complete tone deafness. So in that way it was ironically appropriate.

Was that the first public shot fired in an internecine struggle between Alan Dye and those who understand that quote? One can hope.

I think the only explanation for that opening quote is, as the British say, that someone is "taking the piss". The question is who is the target?

Alan Dye similarly said "We love the Mac" in Big Sur's introduction video, which normally wouldn't need saying. It flew naturally with the rest of his speech so it didn't raise eyebrows.

That quote is spin to counteract the public's view that their redesign is too much about looks. That public view is relatively loud, so they spinned loudly.

I saw that opening gambit more like a child who runs into the room to proclaim they did not scribble all over their bedroom wall.

Hardware event or not, it was striking that Liquid Glass only got mentioned in passing. Last year they spent months running ads about Apple Intelligence features that hadn’t even shipped, and perhaps some that never will. Liquid Glass, on the other hand, sadly does exist, and I’m sure most of them realise it’s a steaming pile of crap.

Redesign your user interface, wrong answers only. Should the sidebar and toolbar buttons appear raised and cast shadows on the content below? Yes! Should Mac app icons be forced into uniform shapes whether they like it or not? The nail that sticks out will be hammered down. Should menus become cluttered with tiny icons, with seemingly broken alignment for those that resist? Serves them right. Should we fade out the last vestiges of window chrome so that mostly textual content can “shine through” our otherwise bland buttons? The refraction is worth the cost. How big should those window corners be? Bigger? Bigger again? How about now? Yes, that’s truly impractical.

Apple has changed the way it works, from design and engineering working in tandem to misnomered “creative technologists” and “producers” handing down diktats from above. Management by self-important bozos. It doesn’t work. Sack the lot and get back to reality.