Submission details
Inconsistent look for alerts in iTunes 8, iPhone and iPod touch
Even I'll admit this is nitpicking. There are varying styles for alerts within iTunes and the iPhone/iPod touch interface. As you can see, the iTunes sidebar uses a pill-shaped bubble with the same font as the iPhone and iPod touch. Grid view in iTunes shows a bubble similar to the iPhone and iPod touch but with a different font and color.
While iTunes and the iPhone/iPod touch probably don't need to be precisely the same, iTunes should at least be consistent within its own interface. Ideally both should use a standard shape, font and color for unplayed media, new e-mail, app updates and the like.
Low
Low
Not fixed
Discussion (5 comments)
abitgone,
Indeed the sidebar alerts are fairly consistent across Leopard. I did allow for the fact that Mac OS X and OS X iPhone are different for a reason, that they "don't need to be precisely the same". There is still the issue of the different fonts on the left of my image. Both are for podcasts, but the sidebar font is different from the circle alert font in Grid view. I sould have made it clearer that this was the most annoying inconsistency.
Like I said, it's obviously not a serious problem. If you disagree, that's perfectly fine.
Honestly, that's not a problem per sé. The only one that is a little off-color is the blue one, but the other two are consistent across their respective boards (MacOS X and iPhone OS, no the iTunes board). I'm not sure, but maybe this blue bubble is consistent with similar interfaces found in iPhoto or something like that? I haven't noticed it before, but it could be. On the other hand, the reason it is blue is because iTunes' appearance is based on calming blue. The difference in font is, in my opinion, for readability. Blue fits with iTunes, but a white Helvetica number is not enough white to make it quickly distinguisable.
I disagree.
These are two entirely different UI elements. IE: Icons vs sidebar entry. They don't need to look the same. I prefer things as they are.
I agree they should all look the same. Constancy issues
abitgone wrote on September 22, 2008, 6:39pm
The list/source view on the left hand side of all windows is consistent amongst pretty much every app - the other view - a circle or starburst containing the number of alert items - is consistent everywhere else. An alert designed for a list view wouldn't necessarily work well in a grid view.
With regards to cross-platform (and let's not forget here, Mac OS X is not the same as Mobile OS X) notifications, Mobile OS X's notifications are very consistent.