Re: [Usability] Tab view in Panther vs Jaguar



On Wed, 2003-11-12 at 13:28, Hasbullah Bin Pit wrote:
> I've notice that tab view in MacOSX Jaguar and panther is so different.
> 
> http://www.arstechnica.com/reviews/003/panther/macosx-10.3-4.html#tab-views
> 
> any comment about it?
> 
> my comment is, Panther tab view doesnt look like a tab.
> it might confuse user.
> 
> but, i dont know why the did the tab view like that.

I can't know why Apple made the change, but I know how I feel about it. 
;-)

It could confuse the user, assuming the user is used to old version. 
Iow, up and changing the appearance over an upgrade like that is
probably bound to cause some problems.  But, looking at it from a "new
user" perspective, I think the change is better.

For one, it has less visual clutter, which is always a good thing.  It
seems (from the screenshots given) that some of the space above the new
version could be trimmed out, reducing screen real-estate.  Plus, the
original tab view has the thick bar under it, which doesn't really serve
any purpose other than to draw attention.

To be honest, I've always thought tabs in general were a bad idea,
especially how most GUIs/themes render them (like the [re-Panther OS X
tabs).  A computer display is absolutely nothing like the physical
world, why try to model folder tabs that don't even work like real
folder tabs?  ;-)  The new OS X method has a cleaner model, I think, in
that it's visually obvious as a choice of pane, versus the broken
concept of leafing thru folders for a particular tab.

But that's just my opinion, of course.  ~,^

-- 
Sean Middleditch <elanthis awesomeplay com>
AwesomePlay Productions, Inc.




[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Thread Index] [Date Index] [Author Index]