It's a damned if you don't, damned if you do. Apple could release a new system with zero UI updates and tons of internal improvements and people would call it 'old' and 'dated' and 'lack of innovation'.
It's a bit like adding new emojis in an OS release. There's been reports that new emojis are one of the drivers for getting people to upgrade. No one cares about a zero day security flaw, but that new kiss emoji everyone wants.
> Apple could release a new system with zero UI updates and tons of internal improvements and people would call it 'old' and 'dated' and 'lack of innovation'.
Apple has released incremental upgrades to macOS for years, and I've never heard this criticism of them. On the contrary, I ofter hear people missing Leopard design, and when UI has changed I've heard pushback (ie, when System Settings was renamed and redesigned). On macOS people care about the apps and interactions, not wether the buttons got a new look.
> There's been reports that new emojis are one of the drivers for getting people to upgrade. No one cares about a zero day security flaw, but that new kiss emoji everyone wants.
I agree with this. New emojis are new functionality; you can now express something you couldn't. A zero day security flaw brings no new functionality. Equally, updates to to apps and interactions bring new functionality. A re-skin of the OS doesn't.
I agree, but I'm pointing out why UI changes happen. Apple could certainly do UI changes as part of a cleanup release though. Basically start with getting back to consistency pointed out in the article.
But, having worked with users I've seen first hand out tons of internal improvements are ignored while one small UI change makes 'everything seem new'.
Don't you feel that the circumstances are similar though? There was a pressure (expectation and competition) for new features. There were rapid changes in the UI and UX. But also bugs. And IIRC Mac OS X upgrades were still paid-for.
It was a brave move to spend a major release without adding feature. And people were grateful for it, once it happened.
I'm all about them spending a major release bug fixing. I've been on their side with a much smaller project and see what users say though.
The analogy I use is that no one thinks about plumbing until it's not working. I could stand up and tell people we have the best plumbing ever, it's been improved, is less likely to break, etc... and as long as it works at a surface level it seems the vast majority of user don't care. We actually save little UI tweaks/fixes to point to when doing major behind the scenes upgrades so users 'see' we're doing something. It's silly, but /shrug.
It's a bit like adding new emojis in an OS release. There's been reports that new emojis are one of the drivers for getting people to upgrade. No one cares about a zero day security flaw, but that new kiss emoji everyone wants.