David Emery OnlineNot everyone is a UI designer
25 September 2007
Rogue Amoeba have just launched a new app called Radioshift, and by all accounts it’s pretty nifty allowing you to record internet radio (“it’s like Tivo for radio!”). However…
Radioshift is the very definition of a bad mac interface, and sums up all of what is wrong with the state of mac UI design at the moment.
Sorry to be all, like, negative.
The base functionality of the app is very good – in fact I’m very tempted to buy it anyway – but the UI is the product of a mind that’s noticed lots of other apps forging their own custom UI (Apple being the biggest culprit here) and then tried to do it themselves, but without the skill to back it up. This is why we need guidelines – and good ones at that – because while a lot of people can get away with making their own custom UIs, preserving good usability and aesthetics in the process, most people can’t.
We’re right on a precipice here, people.
One step away from the mess that is UI design on Windows.
The main interface of Radioshift is just plain old weird. Instead of using any form of traditional browsing interface to quickly navigate the hundreds of radio stations in its catalogue, it’s split into three sections on a black gradient background. Using black as a background colour is an odd choice, as it’s quite obvious that the logos they’ve got for radio stations mostly have a white background, so have a nasty white halo round the edge.
So, to actually browse radio stations, you first have to click “See All…” (which is an action, so should be a button, but is actually just text) in the “Popular” section (which, interestingly, seems to only ever show 3 popular stations no matter what size you make your window). This triggers a slightly jerky (on my MacBook, at least) animation that reveals a view of the 10 most popular stations. The interface has got weirder though, as there’s now a fairly incomprehensible row of shiny black buttons at the bottom. The first one is obviously a view switcher, but then there’s also “Spoken”, “Music”, “Sports”, “Stations”, “Programs” and “Now Playing”. After a little bit of experimentation, these buttons (which is what they look like) are actually filters, so you can select “Music” and only see music stations. It really took quite a while to figure this out, and is very non-standard.
So, we’re still not browsing yet, as we’ve got to hit the toggle button on the bottom left to go into list view to see them all. You can also browse by genre by hitting a button in the top bar, which also contains back and forward buttons for when you get lost in the interface.
There’s several aesthetic issues in addition to the general lack of usability. Almost the whole UI is custom, but sadly they don’t seem to have paid attention to any of the fine details. So, the blue selection in the source pane on the left has a dark grey outline, unlike any other source pane I’ve seen; the aforementioned top bar back/forward buttons have a nasty grey on dark grey outline; the weird filter buttons all highlight in bright shiny blue; there also seems to be problems with things not quite lining up all over the place (like the list view field not lining up on the right with the filter buttons).
The conclusion of all this slightly mean ranting is that please, mac developers – unless your name is Apple, Panic or Delicious Monster, don’t try and make up your own UI. I don’t blame you, though, as Apple are sending out so many mixed singles – look at the usage of some iPhone-like UI elements in both iLife ‘08 and Leopard – but just because Apple does it doesn’t make it right.