Unified Leopard Interface

While there have been many reports and rumors on Leopard’s interface and the top secret features that we can expect from the latest version of OS X, some things have largely slipped unnoticed under the radar.

The latest Leopard build shows a change that will never make it on any feature list, and will probably go relatively unnoticed to the majority of users… A unified interface. The inconsistency between the interface of various applications, all made by Apple, has been a constant sore spot in the minds of designers and perfectionists for quite a while.

The brushed metal look, which first made its big splash in Panther, is history. All applications that still used the look, such as Finder, Photo Booth, and Safari have been changed to the new gradient look present in Apple Mail 2.0, Leopard's version of iChat and iTunes 7.

While nearly everyone agrees that a unified look is what was needed, not everyone is happy with the actual look. The new interface is a lot blander than any of the previous ones, almost generic. Both the Aqua and the Brushed Metal looks were very distinctive, just one glimpse spelling out OS X. The new look fails to achieve the same thing, and some say that it is not different enough from the Aero look in Vista to clearly differentiate itself.

However, they may be a lot more to the new look than just aesthetics. The new simpler interface, that is all vectors and gradients is ready for any new features that Leopard may bring. Resolution independence and a self resizing interface like the one seen in the one of the touch screen patents, are both likely candidates. Likewise, there have been rumors about the use of three dimensions in the Leopard interface, which can interact badly with interfaces that are bitmapped.

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