Tiger and Leopard in Pictures - Part 2: The Desktop
December 10, 2008 Filed in: Apple | Tech Stuff
As noted in the last post (which was longer ago than
I care to admit), by the time Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger was
in the hands of users, the OS X interface had grown
quite inconsistent. While not as glaringly
distracting as the default Windows XP interface, it
did seem evidence that Apple’s reputation as having
an eye for detail was growing misplaced.
Leopard seeks to fix the growing divergence of UI elements, but some of the design decisions seem strange. Here are some comparisons and thoughts regarding some of the obvious interface changes between Tiger and Leopard.
TIger on my G5 and Leopard on my MacBook
Some of the change simply comes from the addition of a new desktop image, but other elements add to an altered user experience.
Tiger’s Dock
Leopard’s 3D Dock
The Dock has gone from a translucent rectangle to a glossy, reflective, three-dimensional plane. To me, it’s an extremely visually distracting piece of UI, and some icons don’t work well with this new Dock. (Read a detailed analysis of this issue here.) The Leopard Dock is a fantastic tech demo, but it fails from a usability perspective. Fortunately, a little command line work can restore the Dock to a more usable, two-dimensional state.
Leopard’s hidden 2D Dock. Much better.
The Leopard Dock also adds a new feature called Stacks, which bring their own share of positives and negatives to the OS X experience. I want to spend some more time of this feature, so I’ll be dedicating an entire post to Stack sometime later.
Glossy and bright in 10.4
Translucent and subdued in 10.5
You can see the desktop through the menu bar with a slight Gaussian blur applied in Leopard. On the downside, while this menu bar is easier on the eyes, the translucency works better with some desktop backgrounds than others. Fortunately, you can make the menu bar opaque in the Desktop and Screensaver preference pane.
A strange side effect of this darker menu bar is that the menus themselves look out of place up against it.
The menus themselves look slightly nicer than in Tiger. The rounded edges are a nice touch, and the complete absence of pin-striping is welcome. I have to admit, though, that the slightly more translucent menus of earlier Leopard builds were even nicer. I know this seems to contradict my statements about the menu bar, but they were never quite that translucent.
Leopard seeks to fix the growing divergence of UI elements, but some of the design decisions seem strange. Here are some comparisons and thoughts regarding some of the obvious interface changes between Tiger and Leopard.
The First Impression
For OS X veterans, the default Leopard desktop is immediately recognizable for it’s complete lack of blueness when compared to past OS X desktops.
TIger on my G5 and Leopard on my MacBook
Some of the change simply comes from the addition of a new desktop image, but other elements add to an altered user experience.
The New Dock
Tiger’s Dock
Leopard’s 3D Dock
The Dock has gone from a translucent rectangle to a glossy, reflective, three-dimensional plane. To me, it’s an extremely visually distracting piece of UI, and some icons don’t work well with this new Dock. (Read a detailed analysis of this issue here.) The Leopard Dock is a fantastic tech demo, but it fails from a usability perspective. Fortunately, a little command line work can restore the Dock to a more usable, two-dimensional state.
Leopard’s hidden 2D Dock. Much better.
The Leopard Dock also adds a new feature called Stacks, which bring their own share of positives and negatives to the OS X experience. I want to spend some more time of this feature, so I’ll be dedicating an entire post to Stack sometime later.
The Menu Bar
The menu bar in Tiger came under some criticism for its glossy appearance, even garnering some unkind comparisons to Windows XP. (Sorry if I’m criticizing XP too much, but I really don’t like its native UI.) The Leopard menu bar is a complete contrast to its former self.
Glossy and bright in 10.4
Translucent and subdued in 10.5
You can see the desktop through the menu bar with a slight Gaussian blur applied in Leopard. On the downside, while this menu bar is easier on the eyes, the translucency works better with some desktop backgrounds than others. Fortunately, you can make the menu bar opaque in the Desktop and Screensaver preference pane.
A strange side effect of this darker menu bar is that the menus themselves look out of place up against it.
The menus themselves look slightly nicer than in Tiger. The rounded edges are a nice touch, and the complete absence of pin-striping is welcome. I have to admit, though, that the slightly more translucent menus of earlier Leopard builds were even nicer. I know this seems to contradict my statements about the menu bar, but they were never quite that translucent.