[Maelman]

Tell me if you like the way the menubar looks in Tiger. I feel it's a little much, but I might change my mind once I get used to it.

[cybergoober]

The menu bar may change by the time the final is released...

[d0ubled0wn]

I like the glossy look, hate the blue endcaps.

[Adam Betts]

You should add 'Unsure' option

I think it's okay but the blue tone is a little too bright and different from current blue in Push Button, Scrollbar, etc. I have to try it first though because most compression format is weak at preserving correct blue color (always end up looking like bright blue or purple)

[Telusman]

Looks like Windows F--king XP .... Wheres the blue title bars steve? I think it's horrid and the last thing we need is yet *another* interface update, good god am i ever tired of the interface changing every single revision, I LOVED the panther update because 10.2 hurt my eyes with it's giant wall of white but i think if it ain't broke don't fix it, and i don't consider the current OS X Interface broken.

- Telusman

[thePurpleGiant]

I certainly like the glassy look. Dislike the end caps very much - normally menu's turn blue when active, not inactive. When clicking on the Search icon (with blue background) - it turns white! Why the change?

[Apfhex]

I thought Aqua in general was a bit much when it was first introduced, but I love it in OS X now.

Except for the active/inactive thing thePurpleGiant mentioned (that is just wrong), I DO like the new menubar. I really like the glossy look that Apple has been using more recently.

[curmi]

The end caps are shocking. Apple seem to have no usability people left, just people making willy-nilly changes to the interfqace with each release.

[fisherKing]

as for the blue ends...
viva shapeshifter!

[WJMoore]

Originally posted by Maelman:
Tell me if you like the way the menubar looks in Tiger. I feel it's a little much, but I might change my mind once I get used to it.

Where would a good picture of said menubar reside? I checked on the Apple site and although it is apparent that it is different all their images are a bit small for my liking.

[Adam Betts]

Originally posted by WJMoore:
Where would a good picture of said menubar reside? I checked on the Apple site and although it is apparent that it is different all their images are a bit small for my liking.

Here's a large image from Apple PR site:


Download Here
(5.7 MB)

NOTE: Keep in mind this is formatted for Print, not Web so things may look a little different from real elements. Shrink the image by 50% to make it a correct size.

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Other then the blue tips the glossy white looks great.

[Fonzie]

I like the new menubar. And as it looks to me the brushed metal has been revised aswell. can any of you confirm that? It seems more plain'ish and not so grind'ish as the brushed metal in Panther!?

It do seems thought that Apple is heavily inspired by SmoothStripes Gloss from Max Rudberg IMHO. Why could they not have been inspired by X-Metal or something

[Simon]

Originally posted by d0ubled0wn:
I like the glossy look, hate the blue endcaps.

Originally posted by thePurpleGiant:
I certainly like the glassy look. Dislike the end caps very much - normally menu's turn blue when active, not inactive. When clicking on the Search icon (with blue background) - it turns white! Why the change?

Absolutely. The glossy finish gos well with Aqua. The blue end caps are arbitrary, inconsistent and a PITA to look at because they remind me of the Start button in Windows f***ing XP.

[macaddict0001]

Originally posted by Fonzie:
I like the new menubar. And as it looks to me the brushed metal has been revised aswell. can any of you confirm that? It seems more plain'ish and not so grind'ish as the brushed metal in Panther!?

It do seems thought that Apple is heavily inspired by SmoothStripes Gloss from Max Rudberg IMHO. Why could they not have been inspired by X-Metal or something

yeah its smoother but what happened to fus.

[Fonzie]

Originally posted by macaddict0001:
yeah its smoother but what happened to fus.

fus. went out of business. I'm sorry.

[mrgaskell]

The blue end cap has got to go! The glossy white looks sharp though.

[Tyre MacAdmin]

I like the blue end... I like the new look completely. If you don't like it just use a theme manager...

[RevEvs]

I like the endcap on the Spotlight icon, but dont think it should be on the apple menu... it looks like a start menu!

[entrox]

The caps are absolutely hideous. I have nothing against an interface update, but those caps are just ... fugly.

[Tyre MacAdmin]

What's fugly is that mac os smiley face on the dock... I get rid of that w/ candybar every new install... fugly on a new level...

[moonmonkey]

Yes i do like it, I would prefer the embossed corners to be a the same different shade of white.

But before we criticize, perhaps there is a usability issue we have not taken into account.

[Simon]

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
But before we criticize, perhaps there is a usability issue we have not taken into account.

Usability is probably the best crticism for the caps as brought up by somebody else already. The caps are blue and turn white when selected. Normally menus are white and turn blue when selected. These caps are therefore incosistent with the rest of the interface.

Yeah, they really suck.

Oh and Tyler, the smiley is the Mac OS symbol. It's holy, sacred and about as important to most Mac users as their mom. If you don't like it you should maybe turn blind or switch to XP.

[Horsepoo!!!]

The blue end caps probably symbolize that they are OS menus. They'll always be there no matter what app you use. And they seem to make use of what Tog loves the most: Fitt's law.

Now you can throw your mouse into a corner (just don't map Expos� to the top corners) and get access to the Apple menu or Spotlight. This is big stuff and if Tog doesn't like, he can suck my balls.

Throw your mouse in the upper-right-hand corner, click, and start typing to find the file you're looking for. Can anything be easier? You can do this from any app.

These menus should stand out...that's why they're blue (or different from the rest of the menus.) XPish? Maybe. But they'll grow on you. And anyone who develops a never-ending hate for these needs their head examined because cosmetics-issues like this are minor ones.

Also we haven't seen what the Apple menu looks like but we know the Spotlight menu is *very* different than traditional menus. You can actually type stuff in this menu (search field) and the menu updates dynamically. That's another reason for not making these menus look like normal menus.

So some of you might think these blue end caps make things inconsistent with the rest of the menus but it doesn't. They should be different because they're not the same as traditional menus.

[xe0]

if you dont like it- tell them.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/

edit: the only thing I would add to Spotlight- is a keyboard invoke. Kinda like Quicksilver / Launchbar

[moonmonkey]

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
The blue end caps probably symbolize that they are OS menus. They'll always be there no matter what app you use. And they seem to make use of what Tog loves the most: Fitt's law.

Now you can throw your mouse into a corner (just don't map Expos� to the top corners) and get access to the Apple menu or Spotlight. This is big stuff and if Tog doesn't like, he can suck my balls.

Throw your mouse in the upper-right-hand corner, click, and start typing to find the file you're looking for. Can anything be easier? You can do this from any app.

These menus should stand out...that's why they're blue (or different from the rest of the menus.) XPish? Maybe. But they'll grow on you. And anyone who develops a never-ending hate for these needs their head examined because cosmetics-issues like this are minor ones.

What he said.

Exactly, its a lot easier to hit the apple menu now, the target is a lot bigger.
Usability, Simon........ usability.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally posted by xe0:
if you dont like it- tell them.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/

edit: the only thing I would add to Spotlight- is a keyboard invoke. Kinda like Quicksilver / Launchbar

I beg that people reconsider hitting the feedback button for something they haven't used yet and base their hatred on a few screenshots they've seen.

The change may be shocking but necessary to represent global menus that don't act like any normal menu.

[Tyre MacAdmin]

Originally posted by Simon:
Oh and Tyler, the smiley is the Mac OS symbol. It's holy, sacred and about as important to most Mac users as their mom. If you don't like it you should maybe turn blind or switch to XP.

Oh, have a special place for the smiley in my heart... but not on my dock! After all, everybody likes a happy OS

[xi_hyperon]

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
What he said.

Exactly, its a lot easier to hit the apple menu now, the target is a lot bigger.
Usability, Simon........ usability.

That was my thought too. We won't have to be so precise in order to hit the Apple menu.

[Simon]

Originally posted by moonmonkey:
Exactly, its a lot easier to hit the apple menu now, the target is a lot bigger.
Usability, Simon........ usability.

You could implement a larger target area (with all the Fitt's Law baloney to go with it) without inverting the color code. Human interface guidelines - does that ring a bell...?

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally posted by Simon:
You could implement a larger target area (with all the Fitt's Law baloney to go with it) without inverting the color code. Human interface guidelines - does that ring a bell...?

Why use the same color code when the menu looks like this:



Does this look like an ordinary menu to you? It changes dynamically as you type stuff into a search box. No ordinary menu changes dynamically let alone lets you type stuff into it. So why should it follow menu guidelines?

Think of it more like a button you have to hit to open up a floating window in the top-right corner. If this behaved like an ordinary menu, it would mean that click-holding it down and releasing should close the menu like in the old System 1-7 days rendering that search field box useless.

This is no ordinary menu if it can be called a menu at all. It should behave and look differently as a consequence.

[Sven G]

Very cool look for the new Menu Bar, IMHO: anyway, I wonder how the Apple menu will be re-organised, eventually - hopefully in a more "powerful" way...

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally posted by Sven G:
Very cool look for the new Menu Bar, IMHO: anyway, I wonder how the Apple menu will be re-organised, eventually - hopefully in a more "powerful" way...

I'd love to see screenshots of the Apple menu too. Probably some cool stuff now that it's not an ordinary menu anymore (or so I'm led to believe if we all go by the hypothesis I've been setting up.)

I wouldn't be surprised if fast-user-switching was moved to the Apple menu. It's a global feature and probably should belong in the Apple menu. And a non-standard menu would allow for bigger thumbnail pictures of active users and stuff.

[Simon]

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
Does this look like an ordinary menu to you?

No more or less ordinary than FUS, sound volume, battery indicator, etc. which all follow a set of reasonable rules.

It changes dynamically as you type stuff into a search box. No ordinary menu changes dynamically let alone lets you type stuff into it.

Ah comon. The volume indicator is dynamic, third-party quick search utilities are as well. We have seen stuff like this before. It's just this time somebody forgot the rules.

This is no ordinary menu if it can be called a menu at all. It should behave and look differently as a consequence.

If that's true then it doesn't belong in the menu bar.

[Adam Betts]

In DP version being released to developers recently, there doesn't seem to be a blue endcap on left, only right.

Also the whole menubar is still stripes, not full Aqua.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally posted by Simon:
No more or less ordinary than FUS, sound volume, battery indicator, etc. which all follow a set of reasonable rules.



Ah comon. The volume indicator is dynamic, third-party quick search utilities are as well. We have seen stuff like this before. It's just this time somebody forgot the rules.



If that's true then it doesn't belong in the menu bar.

Well many they're not in the menubar but on the ends of the menubar. LOL.

.Menus aren't ordinary at all either...and I suppose are the exception to the case. Maybe they too should become blue.

If you watch the keynote, Steve-O refers to it as the 'magnifying glass *button*'...so it's not a 'menu'.

[schmoe]

Go Apple! Combined with Dashboard we have a very competitive new candidate for the ugliest OS. Soon people will be switching from Aqua to Gnome to get a more attractive desktop.

Honestly, a few more revisions of the aluminum cases and OS X interface and I won't be able to tell the difference between a Sony PC running XP and a Mac.

[zythemac]

From that pic linked above, it also looks like not only has the QT icon changed but iChat as well. Makes sense being its a new version, but what I find interesting is the fact that the AOL guy is missing from iChat. Perhaps not just AOL any more. 'bout time.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally posted by schmoe:
Go Apple! Combined with Dashboard we have a very competitive new candidate for the ugliest OS. Soon people will be switching from Aqua to Gnome to get a more attractive desktop.

Honestly, a few more revisions of the aluminum cases and OS X interface and I won't be able to tell the difference between a Sony PC running XP and a Mac.

Which is uglier though...10.0? 10.1? 10.2? or 10.3?

Everytime I got back to a previous OS, I can't believe they actually looked like that. Try going back to 10.2 from 10.3...and you'll automatically notice pinstripes that'll make you want to vomit in terror. I can't even remember what 10.1 and 10.0 looks like and I don't want to. And I used to like 10.0 and 10.1's look.

If you think 10.4 looks like XP, too bad for you. I don't think they look the same at all.

[vertex]

To be borrow a term from the Thalo boys, this is Mac OS for the digi-kids era. It's not so bad in its own right, but there's virtually no originality here. It's a mish-mash of things we;ve seen for years in other tools and Windows.

I do like the extended titlebars on the System Prefs. windows, that's cool. My only fear now though, is that we'll have the standard metal Finder window(metal, darker metal, and brlliabt white all in one), plus the new extended titlebars in certain areas of the interface, then, we'll have the old traditional Aqua titlebar/statusbar in other windows.

Seems pretty chaotic if that's the case. One of the things that I like about Windows, is that they've had the confidence in their GUI for many years, right up until XP, but still offered the old Windows look. That's a good sign of a company when they have the belief in their OS' look and stick with it, adding only things that actually enhance the functionality.

To borrow something from the 3D applications world. Maya, Softimage XSI, Cinema 4D have pretty much held on to their interfaces. They have faith in what they do, how they perform for their users. People like that. Now, take a look at Lightwave, every release sports a new GUI, each one worse than the last. This doesn't inspire confidence in the user that this is a compny having utter faith in their product, so why not hide the problems behind the GUI.

Not saying Apple are doing this, and OS X is in need of finding its 'look'. But I'm sure they could do a little more research into matters before throwing every conceivable variation at us.

Personally. I'm a fan of Panther's look. I like the low-key grey, the slight contrasts, the bevels. I hope they keep that, but expand on it in a pleasing way.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally posted by vertex:
To be borrow a term from the Thalo boys, this is Mac OS for the digi-kids era. It's not so bad in its own right, but there's virtually no originality here. It's a mish-mash of things we;ve seen for years in other tools and Windows.

I do like the extended titlebars on the System Prefs. windows, that's cool. My only fear now though, is that we'll have the standard metal Finder window(metal, darker metal, and brlliabt white all in one), plus the new extended titlebars in certain areas of the interface, then, we'll have the old traditional Aqua titlebar/statusbar in other windows.

Seems pretty chaotic if that's the case. One of the things that I like about Windows, is that they've had the confidence in their GUI for many years, right up until XP, but still offered the old Windows look. That's a good sign of a company when they have the belief in their OS' look and stick with it, adding only things that actually enhance the functionality.

To borrow something from the 3D applications world. Maya, Softimage XSI, Cinema 4D have pretty much held on to their interfaces. They have faith in what they do, how they perform for their users. People like that. Now, take a look at Lightwave, every release sports a new GUI, each one worse than the last. This doesn't inspire confidence in the user that this is a compny having utter faith in their product, so why not hide the problems behind the GUI.

Not saying Apple are doing this, and OS X is in need of finding its 'look'. But I'm sure they could do a little more research into matters before throwing every conceivable variation at us.

Personally. I'm a fan of Panther's look. I like the low-key grey, the slight contrasts, the bevels. I hope they keep that, but expand on it in a pleasing way.

Apple changing the look of the OS is nothing new. And it's not because Apple is confused about the look of their OS. It's because they need to show that things have changed because some people are unable to find non-visual changes. If a different look brings a new appeal to someone, great.

If anything, I disagree with MS having faith in their UI. They offer the classic look and the new look because they *don't* have faith in their new UI.

System 1 to 6 had some changes...it gained a color GUI when the Mac II line came out. The System 7 brought a bunch of refinements. Mac OS 8 brought Platinum. Mac OS 9 brought that weird ass sliding application switcher widget thingy and other platinum improvements.

Why are little appearance changes so shunned upon here?

[Ricky]

What's weird is that in all of the 10.4 screenshots from this site, http://www.macshrine.com/, the Apple menu looks just like it does now in Panther.

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally posted by Ricky:
What's weird is that in all of the 10.4 screenshots from this site, http://www.macshrine.com/, the Apple menu looks just like it does now in Panther.

I suspect the developer's build is a bit older than what Steve used.

This was done because they had to give out the most stable build to developers and/or they are purposely hiding other features from MS developers that pretend to be Mac developers.

[ryju]

Geez, they're just little blue end caps big whoop. Seems fine to me.

[LaGow]

Originally posted by ryju:
Geez, they're just little blue end caps big whoop. Seems fine to me.

Digesting small facets of the UI in endless detail is a Mac user's birthright. It's what separates us from Windows users--they just accept whatever Microsoft shoves down their throats. God is in the details, baby!

[Judge_Fire]

Well, the end caps are likely available as a graphite option, too.

J

[macaddict0001]

Originally posted by Fonzie:
fus. went out of business. I'm sorry.

I meant fast user switching.

[curmi]

Originally posted by Horsepoo!!!:
Why are little appearance changes so shunned upon here?

The changes aren't shunned when they don't result in bad usability.

The fact that the menu bar has changed isn't a problem. It is that they put blue ends on the menu bar that look like the menu has been selected at both ends that is the problem.

Graphite or not, the look results in reduced usability. Click on a menu, it is highlighted in blue to show the selection. But now (according to screen shots), the Apple menu appears to be always selected, as is the Spotlight menu. And when they are actually selected, they change colour to something closer to non-selection on a normal menu.

These sort of changes are to be challenged. The reality is, if Apple's UI experts were doing their jobs, we shouldn't have to challenge.

[I'mDaMac]

I don't care for the glossy menubar or blue end caps at all. This is slowly approaching the Fisher Price look of XP. With the toned down Aqua of Panther I was hoping Apple would continue the trend with Tiger. I want a more "professional" looking GUI and Apple seems to be going away from that.

[cpac]

I'm intrigued - if only for getting away from the stripes - and the color change on the apple & spotlight makes some good sense... (though admittedly, the blue is jarring)

And assuming the menus change like everything else, your professional look is called "Graphite"