{"id":360040,"date":"2025-12-21T16:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T16:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/360040\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T16:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T16:41:10","slug":"apple-ux-pioneer-on-reviving-computer-desktop-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/360040\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple UX Pioneer on Reviving Computer Desktop Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scott Jenson<\/a> is sad over the stagnation of computer desktop design, a field with still-untapped potential for making humans way more productive.<\/p>\n

\u201cDesktop UX has not meaningfully changed in 20 years,\u201d he lamented, sharing his thoughts at the Canonical Ubuntu Summit 2025<\/a>, in London earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Jenson was the first member of Apple\u2019s Human Interface group in the late 1980s and went on to do key product design for Symbian and Google<\/a>. Currently, he is a UX strategist in the open source world for both Mastodon<\/a> and Home Assistant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople completely forget how powerful desktop is, because it is boring,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n

A UX Pioneer<\/p>\n

Among his many achievements at Apple, Jenson originally had the idea to put the ellipse in the middle of a too-long filename, rather than at the end, making it way more readable in tiny Macintosh windows.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so fun to see that code that you had an impact on 40 years ago is still running,\u201d Jenson said. \u201cBut it\u2019s also, I think, a good sign of how subtle a lot of details are for desktop UX.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also pointed out how, on Macs, the user can bring a file in from a background window to the main window, or even into another application.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn almost every Linux system, you cannot do this because the window comes forward on mouse-down, not mouse-up,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood desktop UX enables new ways of moving data and handling things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A Call for Innovation<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s desktop interface is a copy of a copy of a copy, with the original desktop metaphor coming from the Xerox Star<\/a> prototype in 1981. Apple\u2019s original Macintosh copied this \u201cwindow\u201d-based interface, with a number of refinements. And thus begat Windows, which begat GNOME and KDE.<\/p>\n

This copying of the window-based system makes it easier for both the designer and user. \u201cWhy would you want to reinvent the wheel?\u201d Jenson asked.<\/p>\n

But, at the same time, it has left the interface designer bereft of ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cDesigners think statistically and programmers think mathematically.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking a jab at Apple\u2019s new liquid display<\/a> for the iPhone, Jenson said, \u201cIf your big claim to fame to your operating system is that you\u2019ve got some fancy shiny pixels, you\u2019ve really lost the plot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Microsoft<\/a> Windows has had some serious lapses lately as well, in Jenson\u2019s mind, including \u201cthirsty signups,\u201d and the botched rollout<\/a> of the Recall feature, Jenson said.<\/p>\n

But the real problem is that there is nothing left to copy.<\/p>\n

The Foundations of User Design<\/p>\n

Today, too many people think of user design as moving pixels around. Thanks in part to the success of Figma<\/a>, a depressingly large amount of \u201cdesign\u201d work involves icons.<\/p>\n

But far from prettifying the surface, user interface design goes through<\/a> four steps (understanding, bridging, flowing and refining) to bring all involved into a shared perspective of what a thing is and how it works, Jenson explained.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Slide\"<\/p>\n

The four-step process of user interface design. (Scott Jenson)<\/p>\n

UX is all about shared perspective.<\/p>\n

At Mastodon, Jenson participated in the debate over whether a response to a response post should appear above or below the original post in the user\u2019s feed.<\/p>\n

Twitter put the original post underneath, assuming that it would downplay toxic content. And when Mastodon researched this matter, it came to the same conclusion, but for a completely different reason. It found that most original posts were overwhelmingly positive in nature, and users said they preferred the repost-on-top format, as it would amplify the good news in the original post.<\/p>\n

From either perspective, Jenson pointed out, the post at the bottom came out on top.<\/p>\n

Mobile Consumes, Computers Produce<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s a computer?\u201d<\/p>\n

When the fresh-faced youth asked that question in the 2017 Apple ad<\/a> for the iPad, a little part of Jenson\u2019s heart crumpled. That was when Apple definitively finally broke off its love affair with the Mac (\u201ccomputer\u201d) in favor of the mobile platform.<\/p>\n

Mobile may have since won the market for consumers, but when it comes to productivity, the computer is still king. The iPhone was made for consuming data, not producing it.<\/p>\n

Mobile designers equated taps on the phone screen with computer clicks, when in fact the two varied quite a bit in functionality, much to the confusion of early mobile users who tried to type out text as if they were on a computer.<\/p>\n

A single tap on a phone\u2019s text editor can lead to four possible actions, leading to myriad befuddled users.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the average desktop has a very clear pattern for the click button when it comes to text. First, you may learn to simply click on a word. Then you learn to click and drag for more words. At the final level of understanding, you double-click once on as many words as you want.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still a need for similar interfaces optimized for producing content, not just consuming it.<\/p>\n

Jenson did not offer much in the way of ideas of large-scale revisions, but did offer a way forward.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all about thinking in loops, he said. A user starts an action, and that action is executed. What series of actions can unlock current pain points?<\/p>\n

He offered a demo where a window manager could keep track not only of files, but also manage text clippings and images, all through the same set of keystrokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think in loops, you think about the OS in a more nuanced way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Enjoy the whole talk here:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoab Jackson is a senior editor for The New Stack, covering cloud native computing and system operations. He has reported on IT infrastructure and development for over 30 years, including stints at IDG and Government Computer News. Before that, he…\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tRead more from Joab Jackson\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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