The space theme is very effective in Time Machine, because it fits in well, but I don't think I could work with it if the whole OS used that theme.

Leopard's UI has both good and bad sides, IMO. The menu bar has been much criticized, but personally after working with it for two months, it's turned out to be very usable and it even looks quite nice with most background. The Dock, though, was a bad move. The dynamic shadows conflict with the real shadows.

The background you linked to looks good, but isn't really usable (for me at least). The white spots from the starts disturb me.

When I first saw the overly-translucent menu bar and default grass background I thought it was a horrible idea. It seemed as though Apple was going for "familiarity" with their switchers rather than true innovation in a stagnant gui for their long-time users. It also seemed like they had amateur designers working on various elements without much communication between the various departments. I thought the menu bar and, especially, the dock were tacky looking and disjointed rather than sexy and useful.

That said, with the introduction of essentially one particular element (the wallpaper), they have managed to pull everything together into, if not the coolest thing I've ever seen, at least something that says to me, "hey, this actually works."

I do agree that the desktop will change much more rapidly in the next few years than it has in the past 20 simply because technology and the user have changed so much as well. Computers have become common-place in much of the world. Why not innovate? What's the point in not stretching and growing? Sure, inevitably some things will not work out and, over time, these things will be phased out with each new iteration of the software. But you never know until you try and oh, is Apple trying new things.

Is Aqua dead? For the most part - yes. Those traffic lights look way too glossy to fit in with the rest of the gui, but that might be changed as time goes on. The scrollbars? Why have different ones in iTunes and iLife if the whole system is not going to get them? If you change those, you might as well change the pills and all the other buttons to something more befitting of the rest of the elements and over all theme. Aqua has been around for a long time and, just as Apple has been shocking the world with it's sharp left turns on the iMac and the rumors of OS X being stripped down to run on everything (iPod, iPhone, etc), I think their gui will follow suit.

What I wonder most is with the lean toward darker elements and unified windows, what is the graphite theme going to be like? Typically, I like my colors bright and cheery on my desktop because I get a little depressed looking at a darker screen all day. But, when I am working on anything important in PS or Illustrator, I like the de-saturated colors of a graphite desktop. I can't wait for spaces, which I think is woefully under-hyped compared to Time Machine, which is pretty and useful, but not something I think I would use as much as the former.

But, when I think about it, most people who are going to be using Leopard will most likely be surfing the web or writing papers for college, so some kind of friendliness toward the non-pro desktop is a necessity, which might mean keeping some "aqua-like" elements or at least some "cheery" aspects. Sure, the whole space theme is intriguing right now: who doesn't like space? But they have to think about how someone will customize that desktop to make it their own, too and how do you do that when you have such a strong theme?

Comparing Apple to Nintendo right now is very relevant in my eyes. Innovate and create, don't stagnate. Evolve.

Aqua is dead. Long live Aqua.

Hey, Phill. If I could toss in my two cents, I wouldn't say Aqua is going away at all, but in fact, preparing for the future, for a variety of reasons.

Every version of Aqua, starting with the ol' public betas, has become increasingly less detailed in every revision- not aesthetically uglier, but just simpler. Transparency, shadows and gloss ruled the early years of 10.0 to 10.2. Panther saw the removal of many of these things despite a move to brushed metal. And Tiger marked a new era of unified windows and experimentation in UI aesthetics. Now, in Leopard, not only do we know where Aqua is going, but this trend we've seen for years isn't diverting, either.

You can see proof of this even in the tiniest details. Titlebar buttons have toned down the gradients and gloss. Windows use simple, gray gradients, and not a mix of pinstripes and the brushed metal abomination. Icons have been simplified, as if they could scale to large sizes. But why would these changes come into play, if not to slowly phase out Aqua?

Apple is preparing Mac OS X's future for resolution independence, and Aqua's coming along for the ride. These changes in detail aren't for the satisfaction of Apple's design team- this is to allow Aqua to scale as beautifully as Leopard will require it. Take Time Machine, for example- windows that flip and scale and zoom could use the ordinary resources they've accessed for years, but the more efficient choice would be vector; indeed, what we're seeing here are the baby steps to a completely-vector Aqua- to look bright and brilliant at any size, and to give the flexibility needed to wow the user with animation and wizz.

But those are just reasons Aqua can survive. There's a whole other argument why Aqua is needed in the future, and that's the competition.

Windows Vista, as known by GUI enthusiasts, can be best identified for its heavy use of transprency, gloss and animation, and while this may look like the same ol' Windows to the novice computer user now, in a few years these effects and style will be ubiquitous with Microsoft.

But this is where Aqua kicks in. If there's anything Microsoft doesn't have, it's style (thanks, Bill Gates!), and despite its high-quality effects, Windows Vista is an ugly duckling once you take away these things. Apple's beautiful gift for good design has been boasted by Mac users since Mac OS X was released, and anyone would be hard-pressed to find a person who doesn't like Aqua's aesthetics over Luna's. So if Apple wants to stand out from Microsoft, not only will it need the special effects to look as "futuristic" as its competitor, it's also going to need the sheer beauty Aqua has always possessed to outscore Luna and Aero.

But who knows? Maybe Aqua WILL eventually be phased out for something new, just as Platinum was in the early 2000s. But nevertheless, there is one thing you can expect, and that's that Aqua is here to stay- for now. Apple's ability to stand out from its competitors aesthetically has never been a challenge, and though some extra steps have been taken (and sacrificing a release date), it's only for the best, and when you open your desktop come October, you'll be seeing a more mature Aqua, ready for the future, and ready to stand out from its rivals.

Hey there Phill,

I don't think that Aqua is necessarily dead, like Warbrain said, It has merely matured. First impressions can often be harsh. Like when the default Tiger gui came out people criticized it as "too boring" or "bland." And look where the Tiger gui is now -- i constantly find myself coming back to the theme because, whether we think so or not, the Apple creative dept. has the crap together, and they know what they're doing.

We'll get used to the changes, and i think we'll grow to like the GUI. Even the dock.

Good article, but your misleading a bit, Leopards interface will not be mostly this space theme, it will be the cheap iTunes metal look, with flat colors, and lifeless buttons. I agree with you that they are trying to phase it out, but they seemed to have taken a step backwards in GUI design, maybe to soften the blow of the next revamp? But I have a feeling everyone would have liked a nicer one off the bat though.

I hope you are very wrong. The whole "each applicaion launches into an alternate GUI with no menu bar or other windows" is a huge leap backward. Hopefully it's a Time Machine-only thing and Apple continues with some variant of the new unified interface.

I don't think that the Leopard GUI is the end of Aqua. It's more like Aqua has matured and and revised itself into something of a 2.0 existence. There are still some things that are relics of the past in the new UI, but there are plenty of new, mature aspects that will distinguish the more mature Aqua from the original.

Hi Phill! Just thought I'd throw in my opinions.

As some other people have stated, I also think that Aqua has merely matured. The first thing that hit me when I saw the latest MacRumors screenshots, were the x-+ glyphs. The green one is ok. The red and yellow one thoug... They are even uglier than Aqua's. Way too over-saturated. It's relatively easy to find slightly changed Aqua resources in the Leopard resources. The Preview screenshot in the before-mentioned MacRumors post shows that the Leopard designers don't quite know how to make the menubar glyphs look good.

I'm gonna stay on Tiger for a while after Leopard's released. At least till I see a ShapeShifter update.

Also, the idea about all apps kinda having they're own special GUI, kinda like Joost and Time Machine, is not good. That would be very resource demanding for my old MacBook. Also, some of the buty in themeing, is making the theme look good no matter what application type you're using.

So, as a conclution, I think Apple should go more towards a grey-ish, completely unified, minimal-bevel- based UI. That would be heaven for me, as I love usable UIs, and in my opinion, Leopard does NOT look usable.

Hope you bother to read my comment! Good post BTW.

Have a good time in Paris.

Here are my two cents.

Through my years of interface design in both the print and web space, I have learned many very valuable lessons in what a UI should achieve, however the golden rule I hold dear and close to my heart is that less is more, and simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

People want to work. When they get on a computer, the want to sit in-front of something that is functional more than anything else. In that case, the royalty of "Aqua" or "Space" or anything else for that matter wares off extremely quickly. What IS important is if the UI can be unbelievably powerful but at the same time stay out of the way. Can a UI fit into my life style in a way where I can not notice its presence but have the power when I need it. Or, is it easy enough for me to hit the ground running 10 minutes after I boot into a machine?

When the graphic user interface was first introduced, it took the industry by storm. If we strip away everything and look at its core concept, we realize that the GUI simplified the way people work. It was radical, but yet it was familiar enough, powerful enough, and out-of-the-way enough for people to sit down, and immediately get to work because the system takes virtually no explanation - it talked for it self. Over the years, as more advanced version of UIs begin to make its way on the scene, we notice a general trend towards the fact that people want simplicity and power in what they have to use everyday. Everything else was secondary, they just wanted something that work.

That really is the entire concept of a UI isn't it? To simplify life on a computer. After all, any company with the man power and resource can add as many bells and whistles on a operating system as they would like. The possibility and technology available for this kind of operation knows almost no end. However, adding the right ones that increase productivity is a much harder challenge. Apple over the years have done a good job in adding some of the most revolutionary UI components in the history of computers. The mouse, icons, the dock, Expose all changed the way we work. But, if you sit down and determine the common characteristic of all these features, you realize that they in fact are not the most wow-aspiring features full of fireworks and flare, but yet they are so powerful and out of the way, you can't live without them.

Is Aqua getting faded out? No. Is Apple reinventing the wheel? No. However, what Apple IS doing is arriving at a solution, than going beyond that solution in search for an even more elegant, powerful and out-of-the-way experience.

What we have seen in 10.0 - 10.4 is a solution. In-fact, many solutions, and Leopard will just be another step in advancing towards the ultimate harmony between user, functionality and productivity. Only time will tell if Apple is on the right track, but Leopard in October will present it self as another possible candidate of finally achieving the "zen" state of power, sophistication and simplicity.

My thoughts...

It's interesting the way the design of the hardware is deviating from the design of the UI. The simplicity of the iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, etc. are very different from the reflection-heavy, glossy GUI. Though they use a somewhat similar color scheme (aluminum, black), they are rapidly moving in two different directions.

This inconsistency along with the inconsistencies within the GUI (Preview.app buttons vs. Finder toolbar buttons vs. glossy Dock) could lead to a very cluttered existence. Apple needs to choose one direction and stick with it. Almost any direction could be nice if executed nicely and is unified through the system. Apple has already proven themselves worthy in many styles of design, they need to choose a specialty.

This is hilarious, 'time machine' is nothing but a raid backup, this is nothing revolutionary - there are tons of programs for Windows, OSx, Linux and even unix/dos that will automate backups for you very seamlessly. They just added a nice design to it, but it's basically the same thing as a Xp's system restore or backup feature, or a little piece for OSx called "Stris" (it was small program, no big marketting). Sorry but this is over-hype, something which Apple seems to do well.

Very thorough and interesting point of view! Just one little tidbit from me. The traffic buttons in the newest release look horrible, and don't fit in at all!

[...] 8/26/07earlier ↓ Great post by Phill Ryu regarding where Apple is headed with their OS interface. The answer? Outer space. The proof? The new menubar and dock in Leopard, Time Machine, the new default wallpaper in Leopard, and the new welcome video for Leopard. # [...]

Correction: It wasn't Steve that spoke about time machine at wwdc 06, it was Scott Forstal. Also it was the second item they spoke about not number 10. Steve Jobs re-introduced us to Time Machine at wwdc 07.

Thanks for the memory refresh Eric, corrected in the post.

to Ian:

Of course, Time Machine is just as ordinary as all other simple backup programs in any OS.

but the INTERFACE is totally diferent, not just from its design, but from its approach to reveil th lost things; just have another look at Steves presentetion above in the 1st video... NOT there? Doesnt matter, hit time machine and flip backwards til the day you missed your file... just as simple as possible (i could imagine for now)

am i right?

[...] Bundled with the background, found here, it seems that Apple is moving to an outer space type design. Phill Ryu talks more about the interface changes and what that means for Aqua. [...]

Your enthusiasm is a bit over the top, but you make a compelling argument.

[...] Phill Ryu had more to say about this intro video and the direction in which Apple is going to take their UI. Rest in peace Aqua, as we knew you. This fall, you’ll be experiencing the beginnings of something new. Aqua’s successor. — Phill Ryu [...]

have you watched 21st century doctor who? the time machine interface and the new welcome video look similar to the title sequence to the new doctor who. if i remmeber correct, in the 1st demonstration of time machine on the apple website, one of he search terms in time machine is 'rose' the name of doctor whos female companion at the tine (now its martha) am i reading to much into thiis??

To everyone mentioning the "evolution" of Aqua, one thing to consider is what has been prioritized in the development of Leopard. Is the gui one of the last things to consider for a developer after the code is stable? I'm not sure because I don't develop programs, but it seems a logical way to go, especially since tweaking an already stable gui a little at a time is rather easy.

Also, on the flip side, how would they keep things familiar while not making the upgrade a jarring experience? Evolving Aqua, of course.

Anyway, it seems like bits and pieces are being updated in the resources but we still have two interesting months to go.

Evolution of the design aesthetic.

Aqua (software look and feel) has evolved as the hardware has evolved, albeit at a slower rate. Aqua (pinstripes, glossy buttons) was introduced circa 2000 when apple was making use of pinstripe motifs, bold colors in their computers.

Apple's design aesthetic has gone from playful and whimsical (Bondi Blue, Grape, Tangerine, Dalmation, FlowerPower) to sophisticated (iPhone, MacBooks).

More recently, Aluminum has started to play an important role in the aesthetic, this is simply being reflected in the evolving OS interface. As the hardware aesthetic has evolved, so has the software. Dashboard gives a silent nod to the Deiter Rams inspired PowerMac towers and the isight cameras (external).

Of historical importance is that the predecessor to OS X (Nextstep) had a close match to the hardware (black) that it ran on...

To understand where the software aesthetic will evolve, just pay attention to the hardware.

@VidiMonkey

I'm not sure what a "RAID Backup" is but Time Machine has nothing to do with RAID. Windows Backup is nothing at all like it. System Restore is close, but that only monitors system files, not user files. Time Machine doesn't just back-up files - it keeps track of all versions of a file. I can go back to a version of a document I created last Tuesday, or I can go back to March 3rd, or I can go back to the document when I first created it in November.

You're sort of right about it not being entirely new, however. OpenVMS has had a similar feature for years (without the pretty GUI) in it's filesystem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenVMS_filesystem). The OpenVMS solution is actually much nicer, as its integrated directly into the filesystem. Sun's ZFS can also accomplish something similar - hopefully future versions of Time Machine will be built on top of ZFS. ZFS is especially nice in that it only tracks the bits that've changed - it doesn't keep multiple copies of the file around (Not sure if that's how the VMS version works).

All that being said, Time Machine is the first time such options have appeared in a desktop OS. I personally don't think I'll even use Time Machine, but I still think its deserving of the hype its received.

So that's what it sounds like after you've officially drank the kool-aid.

I am sorry, but you lost me at "Leopard's most guarded and revolutionary features [Time Machine]". Don't misunderstand me: I think Vista was a huge waste of time, but Time Machine is not revolutionary. Time Machine is blatant rip-off of Shadow Copy that has been available in Windows for years. If you actually believe that Time Machine is revolutionary...well, then you've definitely drank the Apple fanboy kool-aid.

On a similar note, I think your space vision is mistaken. I severely hope that Apple does not plan on taking this space idea any further beyond Time Machine because it's absolutely god awful in terms of visual appeal. Dark empty black space? Yeah, that's definitely inviting. Apple had the right idea with the other default wallpaper that came with the WWDC leaked build (the inviting green trees). One of Vista's biggest mistakes visually (they made plenty of other mistakes) was the default desktop's dark and dreary appearance.

It's mind blowing that Apple would directly copy the idea of a transparent taskbar (the top menu bar inside OS X) right on the heels of Vista's release. The transparent menu bar looks sloppy and greatly reduces readability of the menu bar. I hope they at least offer an option to turn off that "feature".

I see very little to be excited about in Leopard. This is based on hands on experience I've had with a few of these Leopard builds as well as based on the publicly announced feature set. I hope I'm wrong, but at this point it doesn't look like I will be.

Let the flaming begin even though I've already expressed my dislike for Microsoft's half-assed product. The difference is that I haven't been brain washed into believing that Apple is infallible. I believe Apple is equally capable of creating over-hyped crap.

@PygmySurfer

"Time Machine is the first time such options have appeared in a desktop OS."

You're incorrect. Vista has it. If your copy of Windows XP was connected to a domain it likely had "previous versions" as well. So across the board you're just incorrect.

The only thing that Time Machine has done was to place (in my opinion)a hideous GUI on a feature that was "borrowed" from a competitor.

The paradigm for Apple and Leopard's futuristic UI direction isn't "Back to the Future" or "Star Wars" -- it's "Lost in Space."

I leave connecting the characters and their psychodrama to figures in real life as an exercise for the reader.

Interesting thoughts, but you're reading too much into a desktop background, imo.

Aqua isn't being phased out, it's just been refined slightly. In fact, not any more than 10.2 or 10.3 or 10.4. And that's what I'm disappointed most in Leopard—The brand new Finder? Turns out it's some slight visual tweaks and some questionably useful additions (CoverFlow View, Stacks). Maybe when I've used it day to day I'll think they are more useful than they appear now.

I would have liked to see some bigger changes that really would indicate that they are trying to "reinvent the OS experience."

FWIW, I like the new dock look but not the new menubar. And the new dark window look retains much of what was distasteful about metal, imo.

I dub thee, Spock-qua!

Just so you know, your use of the word "reek" is erroneous. Unless, you actually meant to suggest that the forthcoming changes really suck (and hence stink).

[...] read more | digg story [...]

hmm, given that they have used just about every big cat there is, i wonder if not they will start using planets next.

The concept of Volume shadow copy and Time Machine is very similar, but the implementation in retrieving previous/lost files is completely different in Leopard.

For instance, I can be in Address Book and search for John Doe. If he isnt there, I click Time Machine and go back in time in the Address Book to where he was last seen as an entry. You just cant do that in Vista.

[...] There is a quite interesting post on Phil Ryu’s blog in which he explains how he thinks Apple is getting rid of the Aqua look-and-feel to move to a new space-themed UI experience. [...]

[...] Where we’re going, we don’t need roads. 2007-08-27 7:50 | Uncategorized | Permalink | The latest builds of Leopard are showing further signs of Apple phasing out the Aqua userinterface that has been the mainstay of the OS X interface since 10.0 for something more futuristic. Rest in peace Aqua. Hello outer space.read more | digg story [...]

[...] I just read an interesting article that considers Apple’s new design direction for their next version of OS X, “Leopard.” He addresses the new look of the Finder and the Dock as well as Apple’s new obsession with outer space, as seen in the new app Time Machine as well as the new welcome video (available below courtesy of the You Tubes). [...]

An interesting article, but I don't really see the connection being made betweeen the Time Machine application and the new interface. To be a honest, Leopard looks a lot more like Vista than most Mac fans and Jobs would believe - and I like the direction in which it is heading. But the OSX interface is by and large still very reminiscent of the Aqua interface - I don't see it being phased out.

Oh... Wow... Kinky-pinky starfields, hard to see black widgets on a black background and ugly transparency/reflection effects that reduce legibility. That's just... Wow, man. Like, totally revolutionary, dude. Wow!

Aero's like, so yesterday!

;)

@Jamie: In X.5 the shadow copy implementation is application-centric. In Vista it's document-centric (i.e. you open a previous copy by clicking on it in the documents' properties). I don't see that as much of a difference, both from a logical and usability point of view. However, it's interesting to notice how Apple's and Jobs' views have changed through the years...

Up until now, the *document-centric* approach was favoured and claimed as being natural. In fact, Jobs stomped outright on Raskin's original application-centric Macintosh concept back in the eighties! Now, suddenly, individual documents are eeveel and applications are to rule the GUI experience? What gives?

[...] As Phil Ryu notes, with the cosmic backdrop, Leopards’ interface looks like the control deck of a futuristic spaceship looking out into void. [...]

[...] As Phil Ryu notes, with the cosmic backdrop, Leopards’ interface looks like the control deck of a futuristic spaceship looking out into void. [...]

Hey, I like church spires. But I don't like Vista.

"...as if it was there all along."

I love that!

I do think that Apple is just scratching the surface here with Leopard (and honestly, I was expecting much more). CoreAnimation provides the foundation for a really radical UI transformation, and I suspect Apple just hasn't figured out what that *be* just yet. That's fine -- better to focus right now on "new" OSes like OS X Mini that has the extraordinary potential of reaching a larger user base than the Mac OS has been able to gain in almost 25 years, and spend some time figuring it out -- but Apple better provide something seriously interesting in Leopard+1. Microsoft has a similar (if not equivalent) foundation too now, and they can't depend on Windows 8 being the development quagmire that Vista was.

[...] Phill Ryu nos deja (bueno, nos dejó hace un mes) una interesantísima reflexión sobre la nueva dirección que está tomando Apple con su nuevo sistema operativo: Mac OS X Leopard. Habla del cada vez más lejano aspecto Aqua de los elementos del sistema y comenta un punto bastante importante, la claridad y brillo del estilo anterior del sistema está dejando de pertenecer al mundo puro del agua y se acerca más al brillo de las estrellas. [...]

[...] Where We’re going, We don’t need roads, or Aqua. Where We’re going, We don’t need roads, or Aqua. [...]

[...] Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads. The latest builds of Leopard are showing further signs of Apple phasing out the Aqua user interface that has been the mainstay of the OS X interface since 10.0 for something more futuristic. Rest in peace Aqua. Hello outer space.[…] Thanks to fcuk for providing this nice story on Digg (more than 934Diggs). [...]

[...] read more | digg story [...]

[...] Phill Ryu had more to say about this intro video and the direction in which Apple is going to take their UI. Rest in peace Aqua, as we knew you. This fall, you’ll be experiencing the beginnings of something new. Aqua’s successor. — Phill Ryu [...]