Mac OS X Vs Vista from a designers point of view
For years the mac interface has been lauded over PC users, especially within the design community and its true that that Macs did look better - they intoduced gel style icons, transparency and overall the user experience was a lot sleeker and better to look at than boring old windows.
I think this is about to change with the introduction of Vista, Microsoft really seems to have placed a great importance on the overal look and feel of it.
The transparency effects look nicer, the icons have been improved and overall I think it shades it in the ‘looks stakes’ over OS X, not forgetting that Vista is still in Beta.
OSX :
Vista :
What do you think ?
Reader's Comments
January 24th, 2006 at 8:40 am
I still think Windows looks Fugly. But it’s a far cry from the really ugly 3.1 days.
January 24th, 2006 at 8:42 am
took long enough.
January 24th, 2006 at 8:43 am
i think you’re talking shit! could you have picked a worse screenshot of osx?
January 24th, 2006 at 9:25 am
Sorry, they’re still behind. They use glass everywhere now, but notice that Apple is moving towards a slightly milder interface (Spotlight/Apple icon in menu bar in Tiger for example). The IE explorer is ugly as hell, the colors does not match well at all. Most icons are still horrible. Too much unnecessary, disturbing transparency. Inefficient use of 3D (2D is the most efficient way to display information on a 2D screen. The MS expose rip-off is nearly useless, sexy yeah.. but 3D is better used for transitions/animations/visual cues..).
January 24th, 2006 at 9:31 am
Try comparing the transparency with the same desktop picture, this makes no sense.
January 24th, 2006 at 9:36 am
Wow, Windows breaks new ground by surging into the year 2000 with transparentcy. Call me when they make an actual secure operating system and I might care.
January 24th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
I think it’s telling how many words there are in the Windows screenshot and how few — er none — there are in the OS X one. Windows has always seemed badly over-burdened with floating words to me, so you spend ages reading everything, whereas the Mac you just navigate as if it was *its own world*.
How many things in your real world have labels? None, I’ll wager.
February 12th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Being once a lecturer at a technical college and now having my own business as a graphic designer and videographer, I have to say that the new Vista interface is a badly done copy of Sun Solaris, Mac OS X and possibly Linspire all rolled into one. It will never be as elegant as a system which was designed for usability, functionality and consistent look and feel without being too over the top, (which is what Vista represents at this point) and without the inherent security flaws that will still be there when Vista is released. Mac OS X has been designed superbly with security and usability in mind. I can name a dozen tasks I can do faster on a Mac as compared to an ugly windows box. But hey Bill and Co. know how to market crap to the free world. I am sure Vista will do well when it is sold in the millions, tacked onto every PC (Piece of Crap) that gets sold from every hardware vendor in every pocket of the globe.
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