typestorming
apple.com new design
2007June 14
before (November 2000)
before (2007)
now (white)
now (black)
submenu before
submenu now
very nice “side salad”—particularly the left one:
Hopefully Apple fixes this Quicktime bug (overlay) and comes up with a solution – we would also need that pretty bad for one of our projects.
Overall very intuitive, though on some pages the “transition” is not quite completed yet. Also love the use of JavaScript goodness, and they choose to use the script.aculo.us effects framework for that, which is extraced from wollzelle’s fluxiom application. So check it out: www.apple.com
Other nice things announced at the WWDC:
Safari 3.0 for Windows. This will make it easier for Windows users to test their websites and implement iPhone apps.
Design Awards—this year’s winners!
by warpech on 17 Jun 14:18
congrats, I guess seeing script.aculo.us on apple.com is something big for you at wollzelle. keep up the good work!
Comments closed
by John Fredrickson on 15 Jun 02:53
I’ve been wondering when Apple was going to get around to updating their website. The old one felt so out-of-date with their latest design trends, and I am really glad that they have decided to move away from the plastic theme to the much more professional feeling high-contrast, metal look.
I noticed the scriptaculous effects right away, and especially the smooth-scrolling, horizontal submenu. That’s an effect I’ve been trying to capture for a while (and have only managed much more primitively), and I am really impressed with how well they pulled it off and how perfectly it works for their product menus.
I have to admit I have never been a big fan of the sliding menus though. Perhaps it is just the slight learning curve that comes with them because they are a bit counter-intuitive to how most people are used to seeing menus behave. They aren’t so bad when you get the hang of them and know what to expect as you mouse over each menu header, but I wonder how people are responding to them initially. I imagine most people have come to expect that kind of envelope-pushing design from Apple though, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if things don’t behave exactly as you would expect them right away. Since it makes sense after a second or two, it isn’t too bad.
Anyway, thanks for the nice write-up about the design evolution. I had forgotten how much worse the pre-2000 Apple style was as it was really before my time.