I'd like to throw my hand in with this sentiment. I always liked Adwaita because it was modern but independent, not chasing trends for the sake of it. Now all of a sudden they're not only chasing...
I'd like to throw my hand in with this sentiment. I always liked Adwaita because it was modern but independent, not chasing trends for the sake of it. Now all of a sudden they're not only chasing the flat trend, but chasing the much more extreme older version of it that reminds me more of the initial Material apps than anything going on in 2022. It's hard to read, much uglier, and gives up much of the identity GNOME has held onto compared to other modern desktops.
A lot has been said about libadwaita and the wrench it throws into the world of themes, but the pill would be a lot easier to swallow if it didn't come at the same time as the worst theme the project has ever deployed. It honestly really surprises me, as Adwaita and Clearlooks before it were both top-notch visual styles and I never thought such a regression would come from the GNOME team.
It feels like UI design has taken several steps backward over the past few decades. I miss standardized UI widgets and the ability to theme them. I miss big clickable buttons with clearly visible...
It feels like UI design has taken several steps backward over the past few decades. I miss standardized UI widgets and the ability to theme them. I miss big clickable buttons with clearly visible borders that are more than 1px wide.
At work I use Windows, and do you want to know what the worst thing about Windows right now? The actual windows. They have no border so if you have a couple stacked close together you better be very careful about what “X” you click because you might close something important.
I don’t understand why desktop application developers are so obsessed with making their programs look like web apps. I don’t know why everything has to be animated now. Am I supposed to be entertained by apps now? If you’re trying to tell me the app has done what I wanted it to, it would be a whole lot less ambiguous if you just tell me in words than if you pulse random colors.
I know designers are constantly chasing trends but the things that UI designers keep coming up with only seem to be popular among UI designers. I don’t know anyone who thinks that this stark and nearly brutalist look is attractive or helpful.
Just a guess, but in the age of YouTube looking good became a lot more important. There is more people looking at cool UIs on YouTube than actually using them. Maybe that leads to a shift in priority.
Just a guess, but in the age of YouTube looking good became a lot more important. There is more people looking at cool UIs on YouTube than actually using them. Maybe that leads to a shift in priority.
This is an excellent articulation of what I've been thinking for years. I hate the flat design trend of the last decade. It's made things so much harder to use. We've moved away from...
This is an excellent articulation of what I've been thinking for years. I hate the flat design trend of the last decade. It's made things so much harder to use.
We've moved away from skeuomorphism, which is fine. Design trends change. But we've swung way too far in the other direction. There has to be a happy medium somewhere in the middle. Apple, Microsoft and Google have all been on a quest for the last few years to "simplify" their interfaces and make them look cleaner. They've mostly accomplished that by just throwing everything into a junk drawer.
I'll single out Apple in particular here. They've been moving more and more toward hiding features that have to be accessed in non-obvious ways. It seems like all of their designs over the past few years are made just to look good in screenshots and not to maximize usability. It seems like GTK 4 is moving in the same direction.
I can't tell you how many times I've been on the phone with a family member doing tech support and asked them to click on a button only to have them reply, "What button?" because they just don't realize that a random string of text is actually a clickable button.
We might look at something like Windows XP or the original Mac OS X Aqua and think it looks dated, but at least it's easy to discern how to use it right away.
I think that the GTK 3 Adwaita theme does an excellent job of striking that balance of looking modern and still being functional. I remember the first time I tried Linux Mint (which shipped with Adwaita as the default Cinnamon theme). Even in 2008, it looked beautiful and well designed.
And honestly, I think that Windows 7 and the mid-2010s versions of Mac OS still look pretty good. They could easily be updated to have a modern look.
I didn't use a Mac so I can't comment on it's design, but I don't think Win7's design needs updating. I personally believe it's a pretty damn good middle ground between usability and "modern"...
And honestly, I think that Windows 7 and the mid-2010s versions of Mac OS still look pretty good. They could easily be updated to have a modern look.
I didn't use a Mac so I can't comment on it's design, but I don't think Win7's design needs updating. I personally believe it's a pretty damn good middle ground between usability and "modern" polish, though it's definitely not "flat".
If we absolutely had to have flat designs, I'd personally prefer something like AOSP 7 ("stock" Android)'s Material, than anything "too new", though it probably will still need tweaking to make it as intuitive as something like Win7's Aero.
I think if you toned down some of the gradients and transparency, you could make a more muted design that would be even more in line with modern sensibilities.
I think if you toned down some of the gradients and transparency, you could make a more muted design that would be even more in line with modern sensibilities.
I just really love the old Windows XP with 98 style. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ug1CwkOy2c4/maxresdefault.jpg It always makes me happy when i use an old program and that design pops up. it just is so...
I just really love the old Windows XP with 98 style. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ug1CwkOy2c4/maxresdefault.jpg
It always makes me happy when i use an old program and that design pops up. it just is so reduced, no noise, no bells and whistles.
but then, that might be because thats what i learned and nostalgia is clouding my view.
Kind of off-topic, but this is a really tiresome sentiment. Of course one is allowed to have opinions - the author is clear that they have been making themselves heard repeatedly. Other people...
Now one of the worst parts is that everywhere I only even hint at not completely loving the new libadwaita theme I instantly get shut down and disagreed with before I can even get the chance to give some feedback. Apparently not liking flat themes makes me a madman in this world. Why am I not allowed to even have opinions about the look of the operating system I'm using?
Kind of off-topic, but this is a really tiresome sentiment. Of course one is allowed to have opinions - the author is clear that they have been making themselves heard repeatedly. Other people also also allowed to have opinions, and importantly, they are allowed to disagree with yours. Just because your opinion isn't in the majority as you'd like it to be, doesn't invalidate it. What must be meant by this is "why am I not allowed to even have opinions without being disagreed with?" and I hope the answer to that is obvious.
Not to mention this blog post itself, which does not have comments. There's your opinion!
I'd like to throw my hand in with this sentiment. I always liked Adwaita because it was modern but independent, not chasing trends for the sake of it. Now all of a sudden they're not only chasing the flat trend, but chasing the much more extreme older version of it that reminds me more of the initial Material apps than anything going on in 2022. It's hard to read, much uglier, and gives up much of the identity GNOME has held onto compared to other modern desktops.
A lot has been said about libadwaita and the wrench it throws into the world of themes, but the pill would be a lot easier to swallow if it didn't come at the same time as the worst theme the project has ever deployed. It honestly really surprises me, as Adwaita and Clearlooks before it were both top-notch visual styles and I never thought such a regression would come from the GNOME team.
It feels like UI design has taken several steps backward over the past few decades. I miss standardized UI widgets and the ability to theme them. I miss big clickable buttons with clearly visible borders that are more than 1px wide.
At work I use Windows, and do you want to know what the worst thing about Windows right now? The actual windows. They have no border so if you have a couple stacked close together you better be very careful about what “X” you click because you might close something important.
I don’t understand why desktop application developers are so obsessed with making their programs look like web apps. I don’t know why everything has to be animated now. Am I supposed to be entertained by apps now? If you’re trying to tell me the app has done what I wanted it to, it would be a whole lot less ambiguous if you just tell me in words than if you pulse random colors.
I know designers are constantly chasing trends but the things that UI designers keep coming up with only seem to be popular among UI designers. I don’t know anyone who thinks that this stark and nearly brutalist look is attractive or helpful.
Just a guess, but in the age of YouTube looking good became a lot more important. There is more people looking at cool UIs on YouTube than actually using them. Maybe that leads to a shift in priority.
This is an excellent articulation of what I've been thinking for years. I hate the flat design trend of the last decade. It's made things so much harder to use.
We've moved away from skeuomorphism, which is fine. Design trends change. But we've swung way too far in the other direction. There has to be a happy medium somewhere in the middle. Apple, Microsoft and Google have all been on a quest for the last few years to "simplify" their interfaces and make them look cleaner. They've mostly accomplished that by just throwing everything into a junk drawer.
I'll single out Apple in particular here. They've been moving more and more toward hiding features that have to be accessed in non-obvious ways. It seems like all of their designs over the past few years are made just to look good in screenshots and not to maximize usability. It seems like GTK 4 is moving in the same direction.
I can't tell you how many times I've been on the phone with a family member doing tech support and asked them to click on a button only to have them reply, "What button?" because they just don't realize that a random string of text is actually a clickable button.
We might look at something like Windows XP or the original Mac OS X Aqua and think it looks dated, but at least it's easy to discern how to use it right away.
I think that the GTK 3 Adwaita theme does an excellent job of striking that balance of looking modern and still being functional. I remember the first time I tried Linux Mint (which shipped with Adwaita as the default Cinnamon theme). Even in 2008, it looked beautiful and well designed.
And honestly, I think that Windows 7 and the mid-2010s versions of Mac OS still look pretty good. They could easily be updated to have a modern look.
I didn't use a Mac so I can't comment on it's design, but I don't think Win7's design needs updating. I personally believe it's a pretty damn good middle ground between usability and "modern" polish, though it's definitely not "flat".
If we absolutely had to have flat designs, I'd personally prefer something like AOSP 7 ("stock" Android)'s Material, than anything "too new", though it probably will still need tweaking to make it as intuitive as something like Win7's Aero.
I think if you toned down some of the gradients and transparency, you could make a more muted design that would be even more in line with modern sensibilities.
I just really love the old Windows XP with 98 style.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ug1CwkOy2c4/maxresdefault.jpg
It always makes me happy when i use an old program and that design pops up. it just is so reduced, no noise, no bells and whistles.
but then, that might be because thats what i learned and nostalgia is clouding my view.
Kind of off-topic, but this is a really tiresome sentiment. Of course one is allowed to have opinions - the author is clear that they have been making themselves heard repeatedly. Other people also also allowed to have opinions, and importantly, they are allowed to disagree with yours. Just because your opinion isn't in the majority as you'd like it to be, doesn't invalidate it. What must be meant by this is "why am I not allowed to even have opinions without being disagreed with?" and I hope the answer to that is obvious.
Not to mention this blog post itself, which does not have comments. There's your opinion!