macOS Big Sur: improving our productivity, or feeding us frills and eye candy?

[Ritsuka]

There is still a visible difference in front and background window.

 

[jchap]

Regardless, a user knows which window is active. It’s the window they are interacting with in the moment. Visual cues that began in the 80s will gradually disappear and every object on the screen will become a live object.

Making every object on the screen a "live object" would be problematic for people using multiple displays. How would you know which window your keystrokes will be going to, when you have several windows open at once? If there are no visual clues to determine which is active and which is not, the user would be more prone to accidentally typing in windows they didn't mean to, or closing or quitting apps on accident. Windows focus is also a core element in programming—it can't be done without. I suspect it also plays a major part in accessibility, for users with screen readers and so on.

 

[jchap]

There is still a visible difference in front and background window.

Thanks for this. I was hoping so...

 

[ArPe]

Making every object on the screen a "live object" would be problematic for people using multiple displays. How would you know which window your keystrokes will be going to, when you have several windows open at once?

Because users have a brain. They clicked on the document when they wanted to type on it. People are aware of what they are doing you know. I can’t logically think of a scenario where someone hasn’t selected the document window and placed their text entry point before typing on it ?

Documents and app windows are already like this in iOS and iPadOS and nobody forgets where they are typing.

Aside from people using their brain, all I originally said was that the corner widgets could fade from view when not in use.

 

[hatchettjack]

I say, both

 

[lupinglade]

Thanks for this. I was hoping so...

Its a lot less prominent though, unfortunately. I find myself losing the focused window pretty often.

 

[leman]

This horrible design even removes simple things like telling the differenece between active and inactive windows.

Actually, I find it easier to distinguish windows in Big Sur. Shadow effects and overall depth has been simnifically increased. I had some problems when they went flat with window hierarchy in Yosemite (especially since I tend to have multiple dozens of windows on my screen).

 

[JohnnyWalker]

Gee, let's put touch UI onto a system with a cursor based input. That's now lowest common denominator design based on Apple's desire to move macOS onto an iPad Pro anytime soon, is it?

Worse than that, this is a half-step, so it's not fully resolved.

I worry that anyone who relies on a great user experience in macOS for the daily job, like me, is going to suffer a lot if we decide to take the plunge. Bug Sur is truly Apple's Windows 8.

 

[JohnnyWalker]

Because users have a brain. They clicked on the document when they wanted to type on it. People are aware of what they are doing you know. I can’t logically think of a scenario where someone hasn’t selected the document window and placed their text entry point before typing on it ?

This is absolute nonsense. Something tells me you don't work in an office. In a busy office your workflow can be constantly be interrupted. You may as well remove the blinking cursor in text boxes because, you know, the user has a brain and knows where the cursor is when they type!

I hate it when Apple fans will do anything to try and defend the company they love.

Documents and app windows are already like this in iOS and iPadOS and nobody forgets where they are typing.

Um. When do you have several windows open next to each other in iOS?

 

[ArPe]

This is absolute nonsense. Something tells me you don't work in an office.

just stop it otherwise you’ll be eating your own words with a lot of salt in the future. ???

 

[jchap]

Judging from the majority of comments on this thread focusing on the pluses and minuses of the shiny new UI, it's now pretty apparent that Big Sur offers very few improvements to general productivity, and is mostly just an Apple Silicon-ready maneuver to support the next thing in their hardware and chipset offerings, without much attention to really bringing the user experience and convenience up to a new level.

In the future, I'd like to see some upgrades to the Finder, Calendar and Mail in particular. Path Finder pretty much shows us the way as far as what greatness and richness of functionality Finder could potentially offer, if Apple put their minds to it. Also, MailMate bests Apple Mail handily in many respects, including UI customization and threaded conversation views.

Thank goodness for third-party developers, who are picking up the slack left by Apple...