Unwatching the detail?

Big problem just about every project I’ve ever worked on has been the rush to get something out the door. Estimates rarely stack up. Last minute changes and scope creep mean that there’s always more to do than was first thought. However, when it came to Apple’s software I was always impressed by the level of polish it exhibited. Over the years and no doubt in part due to increases in popularity and complexity we’re now in a situation where little things like the image below make it into releases.

I can’t very well unwatch this podcast given that it’s an audio podcast! What’s sillier is that I think the previous menu item in that place offered the option to simply mark it as new. What was wrong with that? This menu has also grown beyond all recognition and is now crazy long. I’m sure we didn’t really need all of those options in response to a right click.

It’s only a tiny thing but it’s the kind of issue I think we in the design community in open source strive to avoid because it makes us look shoddy. I can’t help but feel that a company like Apple with such a fine pedigree shouldn’t be showing it’s working like this. I like to hold up Apple as an example of coherent thinking and good design. I hope that this and the issues being reported with the iPhone 3.1 updates aren’t part of a trend. On the plus side it does at least show that they’re only human after all