[r48]

The OF 2 icon looks "unfinished" to me, which alludes to the actual status of the app. :)

[dtj]

The anti-skeumorphic religious zealots have now been heard from. Some salient points, some hyperbole.

Originally Posted by dtj

The anti-skeumorphic religious zealots have now been heard from. Some salient points, some hyperbole.

:-)

'Skeuomorphism' is not the issue here, but a clearer view of our projects and tasks would be good.

[Lizard]

To the degree that this thread discusses OmniFocus 2, here is my response: our approach to software development takes time. Some suggestions that came in a month ago that we really like and want to use have not been built yet. We haven't even finished everything we designed last year. So please give us a bit more time before assuming that we have not heard or will not address your concerns.

Also, this thread seems to be primarily discussion of past Apple design and speculation on their future direction. (And the bits specific to OmniFocus have already been discussed elsewhere on this forum.) I'm going to move it to the Omni Lounge.

Originally Posted by Lizard

our approach to software development takes time. Some suggestions that came in a month ago that we really like and want to use have not been built yet. We haven't even finished everything we designed last year. So please give us a bit more time before assuming that we have not heard or will not address your concerns.

… I'm going to move it to the Omni Lounge.

No problem :-)

The essential point in relation to OF2 is that visual quotations of another app need to work well in their own right, and in situ. If they add more clutter than clarity, one has to ask what they are doing there.

A cross-company set of codified deep principles for graphic design could yield a coherent experience for users, but assorted fragments of shared decoration probably won't, especially when they add (without much reward) to cognitive load.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Good luck !

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[dtj]

I assume that lots of "fit and finish" issues are deferred at this point, instead focusing on the infrastructure and flow. As a long time professional GUI developer, i seem to be a little more immune to "seeing the sausage being made" issues. ;-)

With allusion noise, I think while you're probably right that it is distracting, I think that shortchanges our capacity to filter out distractions. For instance, I am told that google search results often have ads associated with them. Same with sidebar ads on websites. I filter that stuff out. I am, however, ready to stab people over long pre-roll ads on youtube, so apparently there are limits to that filtering mechanism. I think if you were quantify the affect of allusion noise, I think it would be in similar range as having a pastel green or blue motif, instead of something more jarring, as it affects productivity.

If you want to make a big impact on productivity, perhaps there is a moral equivalent of the "Dunbar Number", as it relates to projects and contexts, and enforcing that with perspectives would make a dent.

Originally Posted by dtj

I assume that lots of "fit and finish" issues are deferred at this point, instead focusing on the infrastructure and flow.

Doubtless there will be some "finish" issues, but more interestingly, I think, there are also some deeper 'architectural' issues in this early draft of the UI design – best caught and dealt with as early as possible, and I think they're planning to do that now.

My guess is that the central problem has been a tension between:

1. An understandable desire to somehow converge the design of the OS X version with that of the generally well-received iPad version, and
2. an absence of any clearly formulated framework for thinking through the visual implications of ergonomic differences between tablets and larger non-touch displays with keyboards and mice.

That initial unpreparedness can, in part, be attributed to the date. Still relatively early days for thinking about coherence across touch and non-touch media, and Microsoft, with all the professional resources and experience at their disposal, have still been shocked to find that they have pulled a "New Coke" out of the hat …

Tim Cook was fortunately clearer about the fundamentals:

Anything can be forced to converge. But products are about trade-offs.

The key problems for this first draft were, I think, regressions (relative to OF1) in:

1. Visual effort required to see field structure (iPad typographic segmentation rather than OF1 spatial segmentation), and
2. visual effort required to spot the status of projects (state indicator moved to right of text - an analogy with rightward move of iPad checkboxes, which placed them, quite sensibly, in reach of the thumb ?)

I'm sure the next re-draft will focus more on trade-offs that work, (rather than on trade-offs which simply resemble those made in another app).

I also think that a coherent – company-wide – approach to the fundamentals of visual ergonomics is more likely to yield a coherent (and good) user experience.


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[mukka23]

i think "Allusion noise" even leaked into the otherwise excellent Omni app icon project, though the leak was luckily fixed for the iOS versions, which were spared the redundant high-contrast edges, black fills and shadows which were were added as allusions to twisted sheets in earlier icon designs.