I’m gonna ask a dumb question here and hope for a not dumb answer. When the author says “I know UI consistency has been a dirty word ever since the web and then iOS rose to prominence”, what exactly are they referring to?
Best guess : Web interfaces are known for being inconsistent because they don’t follow any particular OS-specific design language. And I’ve seen people complaining about MacOS being really inconsistent, especially in its use of menu icons (what an essay!), and I’ve seen some people complain the bad UI practices come from iOS.
Going further down the rabbit hole, most software now, if not bundled with the OS, is produced 3rd parties who often have their own established brand and design language.
It used to be if you were making an app for Windows, you somewhat tried to use the existing design language for your app. Nowadays if you’re a big company you want your interface to be consistent no matter what is it’s running on, so you set your own rules.
Linux still has this as well, but its less prominent because of the general ethos of trying to create an app to do one thing and do it well. Things are shifting as big companies jump on the Linux train though, who knows what it’ll look like in 10 years.
I’m gonna ask a dumb question here and hope for a not dumb answer. When the author says “I know UI consistency has been a dirty word ever since the web and then iOS rose to prominence”, what exactly are they referring to?
Best guess : Web interfaces are known for being inconsistent because they don’t follow any particular OS-specific design language. And I’ve seen people complaining about MacOS being really inconsistent, especially in its use of menu icons (what an essay!), and I’ve seen some people complain the bad UI practices come from iOS.
Going further down the rabbit hole, most software now, if not bundled with the OS, is produced 3rd parties who often have their own established brand and design language.
It used to be if you were making an app for Windows, you somewhat tried to use the existing design language for your app. Nowadays if you’re a big company you want your interface to be consistent no matter what is it’s running on, so you set your own rules.
Linux still has this as well, but its less prominent because of the general ethos of trying to create an app to do one thing and do it well. Things are shifting as big companies jump on the Linux train though, who knows what it’ll look like in 10 years.