For most PC users, this could mean nothing. But I have always been fascinated by the beauty of icons used in Apple. Almost all of them (specially the Apple designed ones have visual story to tell and each time you look at them you are likely to find a new element or nuance. The attention to detail is sometimes seen to be believed. For example, the TextEdit icons looks like any other but it actually has the copy of the ‘Think Different’ TV commercial.
Most of the well designed icons have a drool appeal which I find rarely in PC-based applications. There are exceptions of course and some of the icons have not grown up from their OS9 days. Apart from icons, the general aesthetic sense seen in user interfaces of applications in PCs is quite appalling. No offense meant but just take a look at the popular Winamp skins and you will know what I mean. No wonder that ‘themes’ and ‘skins’ are so popular for PC’s and one of the most downloaded skin or theme on a PC is the Mac theme. Maybe the average PC user does not care as long as the application works. For me, it is both form and function. Here’s a look at some of the icons used in Snow Leopard – both Apple and non-Apple designed, to see what I mean. For a detailed look at some more icons, see here.
Icons for System Preferences, Activity Monitor and Disk Utility are classics. Among the non-Apple designed icons, I loved the MacGourmet and the Netnewswire icons. Which ones are your? And if you are a PC, when are you switching?
1 Comment
Thanks for this list. I’m a recent Mac convert and discovered quite a few cool apps via this post. It would be great if you could have a similar post on the apps you find indispensable on your Mac.