Ready? Set? No.
It's been three days since Flow has been released, enough time for people work out the hype from their systems, to finish shouting praise from the rooftops and let them actually do such a mundane thing as use it. And so today I gave it a whirl. I remember Flow as it was first previewed. It had interesting features and looked attractive and since that tentative glimpse it has steamed forth on the railroad of the almighty Beta. Powered by the united hype and anticipation of clingy users everywhere.
Quite a few months back, Flow's page turned from a modest preview to a very snazzy "Product" site. Full of the usual this and that reasons why it should be the reason for you to part with change from your wallet. It was lovely. I thought it was well presented, nicely written and had some nice touches.
Imagine my horror when I actually decided to download Flow and all this had become a bland, single page. I thought for a moment I'd actually reached an out-dated page somehow through Google - but no. Apparently this was indeed page. It even had a download link and everything. You know you've swung a miss, however, when someone who's actually familiar with your product closes the tab because he thinks he's found an old work in progress page.
Next up, the first launch. I must say I do like the Flow icon even if it tells me absolutely nothing about what the application does, or how it functions, or presents any real world analogy. Heck, it's pretty. Who cares. I typed in my FTP hoodickies and away I went on the exciting journey of file transfers! Wait, it won't save those details if I disconnect? Or give me an option to save them? Right.
However, it does slide the file list in to view. Wait, list? No column view? Oh, okay. The very first thing in this view that struck me was the rather large space with the ominous writing: "Nothing selected". As if the gods themselves were demanding that my cursor click something to prevent their wrath. Okay that's facetious, but why do I need to be told this? The default behavior should be to hide the information bar (Box? Pane?) whilst there is nothing selected and reveal itself when I actually do want to see it.
Now the horrifying part: I noticed the toolbar. Jesus Fuck.
Wait, let's back up. The pleasant site to Lord preserve us boring one. Apparently, Mr. Flow McFlow (I couldn't actually find a name in my two minutes trying to find one on the ExtendMac site) fired Adam Betts to use a different designer. Betts also does web design -- I've always rather enjoyed his style -- so I'm going to guess that he didn't like the idea of Mr. Flow using his things after they split up. Evidentially, whoever followed isn't a large fan of eye catching or keeping the viewer awake. A pigeon tells me this is also a reason for the appalling toolbar icons. I generally, as a rule of thumb, don't rip in to people that much. But if you are doing icon work for a pretty widely anticipated application you kind of actually, you know, try at least.
The Disconnect icon is sparkly, upper class shit. I'm actually amazed it can be as bad as it is. First of all it shares no style with any of the other buttons in Flow, nor with any other toolbar icons. I love the Milk look too, but it doesn't fit at all. The body of it tells me nothing about it's function and it's glyph is generic. It could mean cancel transfers. It could mean close a jonglehopper.
Of course I'm glossing over the most distressing things. It's a circle that's not even properly circular. It's not symmetrical. Hell, even the glyph is misaligned and has a staggeringly blurry cross. I'm shocked anyone that's used whatever they use for more than a day pumped it out.
And just using the Safari icon for View in Browser? Not redone, not restylized to fit in. Just literally grabbed the icon and resized? Seriously? From the huge time in beta testing, no-one would of questioned waiting... Oh, an hour for an actual well done one?
The depressingly funny part is, ExtendMac's own blog states there were nearly two thousand beta testers (Look at me! I'm so popular!), and not one of these said: Dude, look, that toolbar? Fuckbats man.
Not one? Or certainly not enough to slow the train to mediocreville.
At least the icon is pretty.
Sunday, 6 April (Permalink Suds: 3) Entries: Previous Next
Comments
My thoughts.. and better than I could have ever said it. *applauds*
Posted by: Philipp Antoni at April 7, 2008 1:10 AM
I totally said "Dude, look, that toolbar? Fuckbats"
Posted by: Heather at April 7, 2008 10:59 PM
Lovely article. I too was quite a bit horrified with the new website and overall look and feel of the UI in this application. It's just... plain and boring!
/me adds this soap to his RSS.
Posted by: Piotr Gajos at April 16, 2008 12:53 PM
