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Comment by beambot | Hacker News Reader

You can blame Apple... they convinced everyone that design was important, so now every shitty company in the world is ineffectually trying to push the boundaries to create something "iconic."

(I only semi-jest... I've seen this process IRL.)

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I know where you're coming from, but Apple is IMO much better at modernising UI. They usually don't just change for the sake of change, there tends to be an advantage over the old way. And the new way is often even more tactile than the old. Only discoverability of advanced features is a problem, but that's IMO less of a problem with a device that you use daily.

I believe you are agreeing with me... Apple does a damn-good job of design -- applied correctly. Their stodgy contemporaries' poor imitation is the problem. (Eg. Honeywell -vs- Nest)

Honeywell may be stodgy, but I'll take my ugly Honeywell programmable thermostat over the slick Nest that can get bricked remotely.

I think by "poor imitation" he's referring to this. Would you trust this over a smart device created by a software-first company? http://yourhome.honeywell.com/en/products/thermostat/lyric-t...

Actually it's the other way around: http://www.wsj.com/articles/honeywell-google-settle-lawsuit-...

Yeah... because Honeywell produced a product that everyone was talking about with their friends and family? Nope. They've been sitting in a dominant market position for decades without any real innovation. Innovator came along and produced a great product; Honeywell went into full patent troll mode.

> They usually don't just change for the sake of change, there tends to be an advantage over the old way

Did you carefully couch your statement because of iOS7 specifically? Gossamer font-faces and weights, "abstract art" choices for icons and palette really felt like "change for the sake of change" to me, an overcompensating reaction to the "skeuomorphism" backlash.

Yep, that's exactly it. Let's say I fall somewhere in between - I found the old time machine way overdone and I also agree that the old floppy disk symbol needed to go at some point. But giving Jony free range was a mistake as well. Apple really is missing a curator and uncomfortable UX questioner with decision power. But what comes from them today is still way better than the competition - with some (very big) exceptions like iTunes / Apple Music.

Fortunately they are back-pedalling quite a bit in iOS 10. Bolder everything buttons that actually have outlines and such.

I don't think we can safely say that about Apple anymore. Here's a nice analysis of UI decisions Apple has made in recent years that are right in line with what the above states:

http://www.nicholaswindsorhoward.com/blog-directory/2016/7/2...

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