The latest version of iTunes may sport a few new improvements but one thing that is certainly not improved is the user interface. Perhaps with Steve Jobs reportedly working solely on the new Apple netbook nobody has applied a critical eye to the latest iTunes release. After getting the upgrade via software update I opened iTunes up and immediately felt a few things were off. Firstly they increased the opacity of the white drop shadows underneath the play, forward, and rewind buttons; while this is a little detail the problem is that it makes the buttons no longer feel like they are inset into the interface. They did the same thing to the volume bar, the coverflow icons, the search box and every other button in the whole interface. Compare the new screenshot above to the old iTunes 8 screenshot and it’s pretty easy to see how they have ruined the subtlety of the buttons. Design is in the details.

Taking a deeper look you can also see how they have ruined the album art preview page by looking at the old album art page and then look at the new album art page. The whole interface is now set on white instead of a solid gray, a hideous black box now outlines each album, the drop shadows are a little too strong and they lost the tabs and the ability to control how big or small the artwork displays.

Oh Apple what are you doing? Did you just hire UI designers from Microsoft?

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 13th, 2009 at 8:23 am and is filed under Design, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.