Musings from The Software Underground

As detailed on a bunch of other blogs iTunes 7 has yet another new look and feel for us to deal with.

For anyone who was hoping to see signs of greater consistency in the OS X interface, iTunes 7 only brings disappointment.

The scrollbars are flatter, dark, not at all the “lickable” Aqua that we’ve grown accustomed to.

Is this just a one-off for iTunes, or something we’ll be seeing more of in the run-up to, and release of, Leopard? -- Great, another user interface style

Apple seems to use iTunes as a test-bed for new user interface design styles, and iTunes 7 brings with it an almost complete overhaul the Aqua look we have all grown to love/hate/tolerate. While on the surface, the iTunes 7 interface may seem very similar to that of previous versions, there are a few very distinct differences that I think forebode greater system wide changes to come in 10.5 Leopard. -- Aqua is dead, long live Aqua!

I don’t mind that iTunes 7 is inconsistent with other applications, because I assume that everything will look like this in Leopard. What I do mind is that it’s so internally inconsistent and ugly. I don’t like the reflections (especially on the capacity gauge). The iPod configurator is a bunch of controls on a scrolling white background (with awful tabs); it feels like a Web page. Elsewhere, the swaths of gradient in the background remind me of Windows. -- Showtime

So here we go again. A new release of iTunes, a new look and feel. The new look makes sense, I mean I do think we can sort of assume that this is where Leopard is heading. I'm not sure what my feelings are on it yet, but right now iTunes looks WAY out of place when running next to all of your other Mac apps. At least a scrollbar is still a scrollbar, it's just flatter. I do agree with Michael Tsai though, what IS with the look of the iPod configurator? Cool functionality, but... weird. iTunes as a whole also has this odd feeling of being a sum of it's parts, where the parts aren't all created from the same design mindset.