Thursday, September 8

iTunes 5.0 Interface

Many opinions about the new look for iTunes 5.0. Michael Tsai has collected the reactions from the Mac blog regulars.

I really like the lack of window borders, which fits in with what Aqua’s done from the very beginning. The different corner radius is pretty stupid. I don’t dislike it, I just don’t know why they bothered.

My gripe is that the toolbar is hideous looking. The individual pieces are, if not lickable, at least unabrasive. But the combination is pretty terrible. It’s missing an aesthetic sense of balance. The volume slider looks pathetic — fragile, even — and pixelated. The search box looks as if the middle pane just let one and it’s trying to casually slide away to avoid the smell. Meanwhile, it’s overly pale and dull compared to the polished sheen of the other elements. And there seems to be an overall lack of consistency in shadow and depth that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Ah, well. They can’t all be beauties.