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HID Guideline Violation
Authored by: lullabud on May 03, '05 11:46:55AM

I didn't have a problem with the new look of Mail, I just used it. Then a friend of mine pointed out that it was different from the other apps, nonstandard. So it is. Big deal, right? Well, it might be, actually, because not doing things in a standard way doesn't set an example of consistency in the OS, as well removing familiarity, which is one of the first rules of general UI design. On top of that, the new Mail layout violates Apple's own Human Interface Design Guidelines which were set in place precisely to provide that familiarity and visual connection with the UI. And more still, I noticed that the UI switches from the smooth metal look when it's in the foreground to the pinstripe look when it's in the background... what's with that? Tiger definitely has some sharp edges that need to be smoothed out.

More info about it here: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10.4.ars/3

I used cage-fighter to put the familiar icon's back on the toolbar, but they are still tied together in their sub-groups.



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HID Guideline Violation
Authored by: obsidian on May 03, '05 04:25:59PM

Actually, the look is Aqua using the "unified titlebar/toolbar" look. The switching to a striped look when not the foreground application is normal for all Aqua windows. However, it's the title bar that does this. Since Mail 2.0 treats the toolbar as a title bar now, it's just easier to spot.

Personally, they should get rid of the stripes when it's not a foreground window since the stripes have been removed from the foreground titlebar in Panther. It made since in Jaguar but now it's just out of place and feels weird.



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