One of the reasons that held me off on using Alfred is its lackluster default themes. Fortunately, the paid upgrade comes with a decent theme editor that lets you customize the look at your heart's content.
I am currently using a custom dark theme that I would like to share with all of you Powerpack users. Click the screenshot below to download.
Since its initial launch last May, iA Writer for Mac was subject to two significant icon updates already, totaling three distinct iterations in less than three months.
No one would argue that the original icon was an out-and-out faux pas; not only it looked like an unpolished iOS port, but it failed in providing any easily identifiable cues relevant to the application’s main function, i.e. distraction-free writing.
The second icon gained significantly in polish, but still lacked in symbolism and affordance. Worse still, the 3D effect made the blue cursor look even more abstract and irrelevant.
Last week, iA introduced yet another icon featuring a HIG-compliant 2D perspective and an instantly recognizable typing cursor. Most remarkably, this third — and hopefully last — iteration comes with an interesting twist: each distinct icon size represents a step in typing the word “writer”.
A clever idea that addresses brilliantly the shortcomings of the two previous solutions. Oliver Reichenstein explains in a Google+ :
Figuring out how we can do both 3D and 2D […] and match all needs across platforms, different sizes and environments (app store, springboard, finder, dock), with the same logo is what took us so long.
Good designers strive to get it right from day one, great designers iterate.
Aen Tan invites Apple and iOS designers to reconsider the 44-pixel block in favor of a pixel grid that will preserve vertical rhythm without radically affecting native UI elements. I am sold already.
A slightly-inaccurate-yet-interesting read on MacAppstorm about the evolution of interface design paradigms in OSX. I wouldn’t argue that Apple has historically set the standard of interface design on its platforms, and that its influence is waning in favor of new trends hailing from third party developers and Apple’s own mobile operating system.
However, while Tweetie for Mac can be indeed credited for introducing the icon-based side-navigation pattern to OSX, no amount of third party customization can downplay the influence of iOS on its desktop sibling.
Porting interface paradigms from one platform to another (split-view in the case of Reeder) can hardly be considered genuine innovation if you ask me.
Aaron Weyenberg eloquently explains:
I don’t call myself a UX Designer for one simple reason: I don’t believe experiences can be designed. At least not outside the realm of science fiction or without knowledge about ourselves that we have yet to discover. I view User Experience as a field of study with a range of disciplines within it, not something we author (particularly not by a single designer). Products are designed. Experiences are their resultants.
I wholeheartedly agree. User experience is affected by the product, the user and the context in which the interaction occurs; of the three, only products can be designed, while users and contexts can be predicted at best.
