Application UI on the Mac is interesting. The goal for most application UI appears to be minimalist approaches. For many apps there are not any tool bars .. just a title bar and the app. Everything is controlled through the standard mac menu bar at the top of the screen ... or through shortcuts.
The little button in the top right helps to minimize any menu bars down further which in turn create more space on the screen. I kind of slammed this in an earlier post a few days ago but then I thought ... maybe that makes sense.
I have since gone through and minimized most of my apps to just a title bar. I have found that I use the menu bars far less than I thought. It seems once I get all the settings the way I want it then I don't mess with most of the available options. I also tend to know short-cuts for many common functions.
Obviously, applications such as MS Office are an exception.
However, there are some UI elements that are just bizarre (we will ignore the atrocity of Mac:Office). Some apps have multiple toolbars controlled by these weird text bubble icons. They kind of remind me of the MS Office 2007 ribbon ... but more poorly done.
Also the green plus acts strange. Sometimes it maximizes the window to the full screen but sometimes it just makes the window bigger. Hitting it again shrinks the app to only visible content. This again seems like a screen saving measure.
Suffice to say .. the conclusion is that apps and the Mac in general is intended to take a minimalist approach to everything. Show only what you need and keep the content relevant. This actually makes some sense. However, I have found it frustrating when I can't find what I am looking for ... since it is hidden in some menu somewhere ... wait that sounds like Windows apps also .. haha.
Apps are formatted much like all of OSX with the ugly grey everywhere. I still think Aero is much more engaging and beautiful experience.
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