14 DAY TRIAL // OS X Yosemite is really growing on me. The gradients are pleasing to the eye, and the color palette, as washed out as it may be, is like a breath of fresh air.
For example, browsing the web using Safari makes half of the Internet look old and outdated. Chances are this is not just an impression caused by the discrepancies in design, but actually an accurate view of how things are out there now that I have something better to compare against. But that doesn’t mean I’m in love with Yosemite. Far from it, actually.
Apple just refuses to change some things
The Cupertino company prides itself on having the best people to come up with designs, and we can’t really argue there. Both in hardware and in software, Apple indeed shines (albeit with a few very small exceptions).
But if there’s one area where they don’t seem to have the right people is the audio department. I’m sorry, die-hard Apple fans, but someone had to say it.
Ever since I started using a Mac about a decade ago, I’ve always been somewhat unimpressed by the system’s sound set. With every major release of the Mac OS I’ve kept my fingers crossed for a change in this area, but no cigar.
In fact, things have grown so much worse for me that I’ve actually kind of started to hate some of the sounds that come with Apple’s desktop OSes. Such as the intrusive start-up chime. I don’t know why we even call it a chime. A wind chime makes a chime. The OS X start-up sound is anything but that.
Same goes for the paste sound, which causes my brain to picture a clunky file cabinet having its drawers slammed back into position. Or the invalid-command sound when you attempt an action in a place where you can’t actually perform that action. If you're going to make the GUI nice and sleek, why not bother to include some matching sounds?
One of the few sounds I do like in OS X is the "whoosh" that kicks in when I remove an icon from the dock. But that’s just about it. Everything else just needs an upgrade. Badly.
Why redesign just the GUI?
It’s a perfectly sane question. I’m not saying do it every year, but at least once a decade the engineering teams could get together, settle on some new beeps and hisses, and get on with their regular duties.
I know it takes some testing to get the right sound effect to trigger the right idea in a person's brain, but sounds aren’t really all that complex. They don’t require programming (at least not in the way GUIs do), and I'm confident that Apple could nail it in a week, tops.
Sounds can certainly make an OS feel like something truly unique. Bundling the same old raw, midi-like sounds with such an impeccable-looking OS seems like one of Apple’s biggest oversights over the past few years.
You may think I’m overreacting here, but I’m not. Let’s put it this way. Think of one movie that made you cry like a baby. Now, try to watch those touching scenes without the violins, or the piano, or whatever score that movie had, and see if you can still shed a tear.
In the same way, an OS needs to offer a complete look and feel. As it stands, experiencing Yosemite is like being at an art gallery where you have to kick cans to make your way through the corridors.