iTunes 7: Apple’s Piss & Vinegar
I don’t like being quick to judge things (at least, not very often), but sometimes I just can’t help it. I’ve held off riding the deluge and tidal wave of bad blood towards iTunes new UI because I wanted to form my own opinion. But the kneejerk reaction was simple: I don’t like it.
So I’ve stewed and postulated what exactly I do think and what I would say about the iTunes UI. I stand by statement that it is indeed awful. Let me lay the framework for my own tastes when it comes to the Mac UI. I didn’t make a murmur when the QuickTime UI was changed way back when in Mac OS 9. I did raise a stink with the Mac OS X beta, but Apple has inevitably come around and added spit and polish to each and every gripe. They fixed high contrasting colors, refined the Finder UI, created the “unified toolbar” look (which I actually didn’t mind), nor did I REALLY mind the Y2Kish pill buttons that they introduced in Apple Mail in Panther (that is to say, I actually minded them, but I could tolerate them for the new functionality and look of Mail). I like the Dashboard and I giggle at the fact that some Apple designer(s) popped some acid, watched too much Stanley Kubrick, went to their drawing board, and designed Time Machine. I like Apple’s pro applications UI and often model the bulk of my applications on it. iTunes 6 wasn’t perfect, but it used fairly standard UI components and built on Apple’s own UI and iTunes best practices and traditions.
The fat and bloated dirty bastard that is iTunes 7 uses UI components and metaphors we haven’t seen and don’t want to use. They don’t come across as inspired pieces of code and design, but color-blind and aesthetically impaired designs that move so blatantly backward it almost seems inconceivable that Apple would deliver this. To use the mantra I’ve always associated with Apple (simplicty that belies precision and power) is impossible to say with the new iTunes. Now there is no real editing power in iTunes but there is great functionality to manage our music and have fun doing it. It now feels like we’re stuck on a bad date and as Aerosmith put it “the right dress on the wrong girl makes you feel like you never know what you’re going to find.” Enough bloggers have mentioned what’s wrong with the UI that I’ll leave you to their full critique on the matter.
UPDATE
A rather industrious designer/coder came up with hack/mod to bring back the old iTunes UI. You can read all about it here (thanks to Michael at Binary Bonsai for pointing this out).
