I especially notice this with iOS. iPhone OS (back when it was called that) was a masterpiece of design with every app having its own, different personality while being simple & efficient to use.

The last few iOS releases are a disaster on both fronts. Design-wise it’s completely blank, flat & empty, and usability wise a lot of the apps are just shadows of their former selves. Music, messages, maps, App Store, podcasts, etc. Even basic text editing was downgraded.

It comes down to your taste, I thought aqua and the lickable interface was ugly then, and now.

the original osx pinstripe look is pretty hideous, and the faux glossy emboss look hasn't aged well either

https://images.techhive.com/images/article/2016/01/mac-os-x-...

As a designer, I couldn't disagree more. The screenshot you linked is far better than 99% of design today. It took time and effort to create such engaging and aesthetically pleasing design. Today's designers don't care — the profession is overrun by MBAs calling themselves UXers.

The 10.4 version and especially the 10.9 version of Aqua was basically perfect in my eyes… they had dimension and contrast without being overbearing and were bright and cheery without being blinding. I know people are fond of the 10.5 and 10.6 Aqua but I found its darker grey window chrome a bit too dreary looking.

We have gained so much along the way (I.e. fast computing), but we’ve lost a lot as well - computers are nowhere near as friendly/stylish.

Great point. I think part of this is that computers are now so ubiquitous, there is less call for making them approachable to people who are not using them.

Personally I like the friendly stylings of old which were empathetic to users' needs. Computers these days seem to take themselves too seriously, and we've lost a bit of the fun as a result.

I've never used them, but from what I've read 10.0–10.2 were pretty bad across the board, and 10.3 (Panther) was when OS X became a truly viable product.

I think Apple knew this, too. If you look at the timeline of macOS releases, 10.0–10.2 were released in the span of just over a year, and 10.3 had barely a year of life before Panther replaced it (incremental annual releases are the norm now, but they weren't then). And of course, Apple was still supporting OS 9 at the time.

10.0 -> 10.1 = 6 months

10.1 -> 10.2 = 11 months

10.2 -> 10.3 = 14 months

10.3 -> 10.4 = 18 months

Is there a good design book, or program that would teach design principles/philosophy like this?

To me, a lot of these modern interfaces (eg Unity) feel like staring at a dark concrete city. I’d love to see some more of this come back.

I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe the text shadows on the window title there are overdone but otherwise I think that looks great!

OSX Tiger was not like that, it was the most polished UI from Apple ever since System 7.

Meanwhile I'd go out of my way to use system themers and programs that supported skins just to get that aqua aesthetic in Windows.

I love the vaporwave aesthetic of this photo! Thanks for sharing.

When this design came out, I thought it was bold and futuristic. The "juicy" look is dated now, but to hear it described as "vaporwave" makes me feel old.

This. When I say OSX Tiger after sufffering Windows 98 (and having KDE3 in parallel) I was amazed, that doesn't look vaporwave at all. If anything, Amiga OS 3.1 and before is vaporwave. OSX Tiger was "UI done right".

Fortunately they were toned down in 10.2.

We'll say the same about flat buttons-that-don't-look-like-buttons too.

The good thing about Material Design is that we don't have to wait for it to go out of fashion among developers. People have been saying it's butt ugly from day one.

sure, but the discussion is about "timeless" design