The inscrutable purpose of Mac controls

I just got a new Mac for the first time in ages. I was a complete Mac fanatic at the dawn of the Macintosh age, but eventually moved over to Windows since that's where the action was. I've taken a look at OS/X numerous times, but playing around with a product for a short while isn't the same thing as sitting down and really trying to use it to get something done.

I'm constantly struck by how little effort OS/X Tiger expends in bothering to explain the purpose of controls. Most of the bundled apps include their own collection of beautifully rendered little widgets whose purpose is often difficult to discern. My favorite example is the little glass bead found in the upper right corner of numerous windows for expanding and collapsing the toolbar and sidebar:

The glass bead in the upper right corner surely represents some sort of high water mark for obscurity. No text or icon to detract from the purity of the lovingly rendered glass! Maybe hovering the mouse over it produces a little tip window? Nope. (Why the heck not?) The search box, at least, uses a magnifying glass icon to suggest its purpose, even if the icon is highly abstract in both visual representation and concept. It's hard to think of a control that communicates less about its purpose than this little glass bead. (But not impossible -- perhaps we should be grateful the bead is at least adjacent to the region of the window it affects.)

The new user looks at the control and wonders, "What the hell do you do?"
The control gives its stony reply: "If you must ask, you are unworthy."

Comments

[Dave Murdock]

I have a different interpretation of why these controls are "unmarked". There is very little benefit of placing descriptive text around these things, because you only need to know it once, the first time you try it. This is the key part, in OS X you don't get punished for trying things, I can't really think of doing something in the OS right now that results in a cascade of changes that aren't undoable.

When I first started using OS X I too wondered what the title bar button did, but then I just tried it and now I now exactly what it does. Here is another one, if you hold down the Command key (the Apple key) and click the button, it changes how the toolbar looks. This is all doable for newbiews through the menus, which I think is the intent, the button is for non-newbs to get a shortcut.

[Paul Farnell]

Dave, I'd disagree with you there. Sure you can click it to find out what it does, but a tooltip wouldn't go amiss. That wouldn't complicate/clutter the interface either.

Jan - just wanted to say, this is a fantastic blog. I just came across it today and have already read every post. I've subscribed and I think this will become one of my favourite sites to read - please keep up the great work!

[Sean M]

I have to agree: Great content. Thank you!

[Yrian]

I always thought the magnifying glass was a stylized letter Q standing for, say, "Quick search".

Well, not really, but someone could.

[Max Howell]

I have to agree with the first poster. Click it once and you know what it does. But I agree a tooltip is lacking, and yes it's absent because Apple products place form and factor very close to polish and usability in their priority lists.

And I also agree that, despite their uncluttered interfaces, Apple products have a good deal of widgets and controls that don't have immediately obvious functions.