When most people think of Apple these days, products like the iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch are probably the first things that come to mind. That makes a lot of sense, because with these mobile platforms, Apple, along with Google and its Android operating system Android, has fundamentally changed the way people interact with technology on a daily basis.
Although laptops go nowhere, despite how many strange ads Apple releases, asking what a computer is, there is certainly a lot to be said about finding ways to fuse the user experience between these different devices.
That’s been tried before – with both Windows 8 and ChromeOS – with mixed results in terms of usability. However, it is with macOS 11 Big Sur that Apple may have just cracked the code. This is thanks in part to the new design elements of the update and Mac Catalyst, which will bring essentially every iOS and iPadOS app to Mac.
Try to tear down the walls
When the iPad launched 10 years ago, I don’t think anyone expected it to be as enormous as it ended. I had a lot of friends who just laughed it off like a “dehydrated” computer, instead of something that would ignite a tablet revolution. And, to be clear, it was definitely not the first tablet, but you can not tell me that the iPad was not what popularized the form factor.
A few years later, Windows 8 was released, with its touch-friendly UI, and removes the start menu that so many people have grown over the years. This was done for the most part to operate Windows tablets, phones and computers all on the same platform, in theory promoting the compatibility between the three.
However, Windows tablets never really took off in the same way that iOS did as even Android tablets did. In practice, this meant that desktop users were stuck with an interface that was unfortunately inept for desktop use. Microsoft has finally eased some of this pain by reintroducing the Start menu with Windows 8.1 and then Windows 10, but there are still a ton of people who crave it instead of the days of Windows 7 and Windows XP.
Just to give credit where it comes from, Microsoft has made a lot of progress from where things were with Windows 8. In terms of making Windows 10 touch-friendly, it’s not yet as desktop-friendly as Windows 7 or XP were. There is a wealth of mods and software out there to bring older Windows interfaces back to Windows 10, and that should speak volumes about how many users want to completely lose touch-friendliness.
Ideally, Microsoft would make a touch-friendly interface optional, such as a place somewhere in the settings that can enable or disable the tile interface in the new touch menu, without users having to scroll the web for potentially malicious software. But for now, it seems like Windows 10 is stuck in this “is it touching or not” limbo.
The seeds sow
When macOS hit 10.14 Mojave, it brought four iOS apps with it: Home, Apple News, Stocks, and Voice Memos. None of this was particularly exciting, but it did give us a look at what a unanimous – if more united – Apple ecosystem could look like that. Apple further expanded this with macOS 10.15 Catalina with Apple Catalyst, which gave Apple developers a full suite of tools to port mobile apps to macOS.
This is further expanded with macOS 11 Big Sur, where Apple claims that every iOS app is compatible with your Mac, which is absolutely enormous. Add the shift to Apple Silicon later this year, and there’s a big shift in the way Macs function, even if they functionally serve the same purpose.
But it’s more than just app compatibility here. The macos Big Sur UI brings a ton of inspiration from iOS ‘design philosophy. This may cause some concern for anyone who has flashbacks to the wedding of Windows 8 of desktop and mobile design, but there is one thing to keep in mind: there will be no touchscreen Macs yet.
Mice can stay
Now this may be a hot take, but I think touchscreens are a bit too much on Windows devices. Even after using hundreds of laptops for touchscreen, none of me really cared about me needs a touchscreen. There are certainly artists-focused devices, however it seems that drawing tablets are typically still the way to go if you want to create art on your device – also a cheaper solution.
However, Apple still refuses to release a MacBook with a touchscreen, which means that there is one core way to interact with a computer – and that is with a keyboard and mouse (as a trackpad). What this means is that the UI is therefore purpose-built, and there are no real growing pains.
So, when Apple released many design pages from iOS, it more than took the iOS design from something like, say, Control Center, and turned it into a desktop setup.
On macOS Big Sur, when you click to open Control Center, the full screen does not take up as it does on your iPhone. Instead, you just get a small drop down menu that has a similar design but does not take up too much space.
In today’s Beta build, it’s not the most useful menu in the world, but having a fast way to turn on Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, change volume and brightness is really useful – especially if you have a MacBook Air use as a Mac desktop that does not have easy access to sliders like that via the Touch Bar.
Plus having easy-to-use widgets that I can access anywhere by simply swiping left with two fingers is very useful. Right now, the only widgets I have on that bar are the World Clock – because I work with people all over the world – and a Weather app, so I can tell with one glance when I’ll be in the new melted York sun as soon as I ran outside.
This is also a very uninspired feature, but it has been re-implemented in a way that does not matter what you are working on. The notification box where the widgets reside is transparent with Big Sur, which means they take up as little as much of your screen as you want. This is huge if you just control the amount of time you spend working on a Photoshop project.
And, yes, you can do the same on a Windows laptop. But try not to even tell me that Windows trackpads anywhere near as responsive and gesture-friendly as a Mac trackpad. Apple ignored the trackpad years ago, and no one picked it up – even as Dell and Razer started getting too close.
The only real issue I’ve had so far with either is the lack of customization for the Control Center. My favorite thing about the feature on iOS is that I can add keyboard shortcuts to things like the Screen Recorder, the camera as a calculator. But again, we are still early in the macOS Big Sur Public Beta – so that could definitely change.
It’s not here yet, but Apple kind of wins?
I have by no means unpacked all the good stuff that comes to macOS Big Sur, and there is definitely a lot. But all my time with the new operating system I can only think of Windows 8.
I have had hot tasks in the past defending Windows 8, and to this day I think the operating system is a bit too bad. But Apple fused mobile and desktop design in a great way here, and I will say it.
And I’m sure Apple would sell you both a MacBook and an iPad for users who want that touchscreen experience, and a touchscreen MacBook would beat that kind of thing. But hey, that’s a discussion for another day.
For now, however, Apple deserves some praise for bringing this new design philosophy to macOS without falling into the same trap that caused Windows 8 to become the joke it is today.
