Comments on: What Makes a Mac App

By: iPhone app reviews

iPhone app reviews — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:14:20 +0000

What makes a Mac App detail, reliability and simplicity. The Mac is know for its easy to use applications that do not sacrificing the most useful features. Mac apps are made for consumers and are great for simple use or introduction to more powerful tools. Also the fact that they work and do what you expect them to do is key in making a Mac app.

By: Jon Buys

Jon Buys — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:35:34 +0000

@ Rupert – I agree with you, I don’t feel that Evernote is “Mac Like” either.

@ Xairbusdriver – Thanks!

@ johnnyc – The point I was trying to make is that when an app doesn’t do what I expect it to do, or if it doesn’t function like the rest of the apps on my Mac, it throws me off. When an app stands out, or when an app makes me pay more attention to it then I really want to, it gets in the way of me and my work, which is exactly the opposite of what it should be doing. I feel like an app should provide a service and get out of the way.

By: dan

dan — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:29:02 +0000

Evernote feels nothing like a mac application. However, those than can even tell the difference are dwindling. As more people switch to the mac OS, it seems the concept of how a mac application should be designed is being lost.

Even merlin mann pushes evernote every time you turn around. Sad.

By: johnnyc

johnnyc — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:03:04 +0000

Could someone please explain what the “Functionality” paragraph is trying to convey?

I’m sure there are other non-users of Evernote out there, like myself, that are having trouble making sense of a paragraph that seems to assume the reader uses the application frequently… Because of that I became slightly de-railed while reading this article.

The remainder however, rings very true. It’s a compelling advantage that OSX has over other systems for sure, and interestingly, one that isn’t cited very often as a selling point (widows apps are notoriously unintuitive and non-standard in design from one dev to the next). Perhaps the reason for thelack of attention this advantage enjoys is as mentioned in the article, it’s difficult to identify specifics of what makes good design (in both GUI and back-end) to the end user.

By: Xairbusdriver

Xairbusdriver — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:07:29 +0000

Unfortunately, few people, outside only a few Mac users and even fewer PC users (IMHO) even notice details in much of life, much less an application. :-( If all you know is poor quality, that’s all you’ll ever expect. Or maybe I’m just too cynical! ;-)

Well written and insightful article, I’m sure your apps will be super, even if they don’t make you rich! Keep up your standards, you are your most important critic! ;-)

By: Rupert

Rupert — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 03:28:49 +0000

I’d disagree th that Evernote is very “Mac like”. Their way of doing pseudo Smart folders with saved searches is not a nice “get out of my way” type of feature. First they reside in the sidebar as separate items, clicking a saved search opens the tags subtree (if part of the saved search) and highlighting the involved notebook. This is causing a change in the sidebar when there shouldn’t be any and makes the UI “jump” a lot.

Having real Smart Notebooks (that sync properly, can be published, etc.) would IMHO really make the app more Mac like.

Just my 2 cents on a very cool app I use a lot every day.

By: Stan Scott

Stan Scott — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:27:15 +0000

Jon, change your Evernote settings:

From Evernote’s menu, select Preferences, or use the standard CMD – ,

Uncheck the third checkbox, “Bring Evernote to the front after a clip”

Stan

By: Tom Reestman

Tom Reestman — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:49:32 +0000

What also SHOULD make a Mac app is remembering where I put my windows. For reasons unknown to even our best scientists, the new iWork 09′s template files insist on being centered on the screen when a new one is opened. This is an issue for me as I have a default template created for each app, and I want that window to be in a certain place. iWork 08 had no issue with this, iWork 09 won’t play nice.

A minor rant? Yes. Sue me. :-)