Apple Ux Pioneer On Reviving Computer Desktop Design

Scott Jenson is sad complete nan stagnation of machine desktop design, a section pinch still-untapped imaginable for making humans measurement much productive.

“Desktop UX has not meaningfully changed successful 20 years,” he lamented, sharing his thoughts astatine nan Canonical Ubuntu Summit 2025, successful London earlier this year.

Jenson was nan first personnel of Apple’s Human Interface group successful nan precocious 1980s and went connected to do cardinal merchandise creation for Symbian and Google. Currently, he is simply a UX strategist successful nan unfastened root world for some Mastodon and Home Assistant.

“People wholly hide really powerful desktop is, because it is boring,” he admits.

A UX Pioneer

Among his galore achievements astatine Apple, Jenson primitively had nan thought to put nan ellipse successful nan mediate of a too-long filename, alternatively than astatine nan end, making it measurement much readable successful mini Macintosh windows.

“It’s truthful nosy to spot that codification that you had an effect connected 40 years agone is still running,” Jenson said. “But it’s also, I think, a bully motion of really subtle a batch of specifications are for desktop UX.”

He besides pointed retired how, connected Macs, nan personification tin bring a record successful from a inheritance model to nan main window, aliases moreover into different application.

“On almost each Linux system, you cannot do this because nan model comes guardant connected mouse-down, not mouse-up,” he explained.

“Good desktop UX enables caller ways of moving information and handling things,” he said.

A Call for Innovation

Today’s desktop interface is simply a transcript of a transcript of a copy, pinch nan original desktop metaphor coming from nan Xerox Star prototype successful 1981. Apple’s original Macintosh copied this “window”-based interface, pinch a number of refinements. And frankincense begat Windows, which begat GNOME and KDE.

This copying of nan window-based strategy makes it easier for some nan designer and user. “Why would you want to reinvent nan wheel?” Jenson asked.

But, astatine nan aforesaid time, it has near nan interface designer bereft of ideas.

“Designers deliberation statistically and programmers deliberation mathematically.”

Taking a jab astatine Apple’s new liquid display for nan iPhone, Jenson said, “If your large declare to fame to your operating strategy is that you’ve sewage immoderate fancy shiny pixels, you’ve really mislaid nan plot,” he said.

Microsoft Windows has had immoderate superior lapses lately arsenic well, successful Jenson’s mind, including “thirsty signups,” and nan botched rollout of nan Recall feature, Jenson said.

But nan existent problem is that location is thing near to copy.

The Foundations of User Design

Today, excessively galore group deliberation of personification creation arsenic moving pixels around. Thanks successful portion to nan occurrence of Figma, a depressingly ample magnitude of “design” activity involves icons.

But acold from prettifying nan surface, personification interface creation goes through 4 steps (understanding, bridging, flowing and refining) to bring each progressive into a shared position of what a point is and really it works, Jenson explained.

UX is each astir shared perspective.

At Mastodon, Jenson participated successful nan statement complete whether a consequence to a consequence station should look supra aliases beneath nan original station successful nan user’s feed.

Twitter put nan original station underneath, assuming that it would downplay toxic content. And erstwhile Mastodon researched this matter, it came to nan aforesaid conclusion, but for a wholly different reason. It recovered that astir original posts were overwhelmingly affirmative successful nature, and users said they preferred nan repost-on-top format, arsenic it would amplify nan bully news successful nan original post.

From either perspective, Jenson pointed out, nan station astatine nan bottommost came retired connected top.

Mobile Consumes, Computers Produce

“What’s a computer?”

When nan fresh-faced younker asked that mobility in nan 2017 Apple ad for nan iPad, a small portion of Jenson’s bosom crumpled. That was erstwhile Apple definitively yet collapsed disconnected its emotion matter pinch nan Mac (“computer”) successful favour of nan mobile platform.

Mobile whitethorn person since won nan marketplace for consumers, but erstwhile it comes to productivity, nan machine is still king. The iPhone was made for consuming data, not producing it.

Mobile designers equated taps connected nan telephone surface pinch machine clicks, erstwhile successful truth nan 2 varied rather a spot successful functionality, overmuch to nan disorder of early mobile users who tried to type retired matter arsenic if they were connected a computer.

A azygous pat connected a phone’s matter editor tin lead to 4 imaginable actions, starring to myriad befuddled users.

In contrast, nan mean desktop has a very clear shape for nan click fastener erstwhile it comes to text. First, you whitethorn study to simply click connected a word. Then you study to click and resistance for much words. At nan last level of understanding, you double-click erstwhile connected arsenic galore words arsenic you want.

There’s still a request for akin interfaces optimized for producing content, not conscionable consuming it.

Jenson did not connection overmuch successful nan measurement of ideas of large-scale revisions, but did connection a measurement forward.

It’s each astir reasoning successful loops, he said. A personification starts an action, and that action is executed. What bid of actions tin unlock existent symptom points?

He offered a demo wherever a model head could support way not only of files, but besides negociate matter clippings and images, each done nan aforesaid group of keystrokes.

“When you deliberation successful loops, you deliberation astir nan OS successful a much nuanced way,” he said.

Enjoy nan full talk here:

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