What Happened to the Menu Bars in Vista?

While the candy-colors-and-lots-of-transparent-effects cosmetic look-and-feel of Vista is quite obviously inspired by Mac OS X’s Aqua, at a deeper level, Microsoft’s and Apple’s UI design patterns are diverging. It was one thing when Mac menu bars were anchored at the top of the screen and Windows menu bars were tucked under each window’s title bar — that’s just placement. But it’s a deep fundamental shift not to have menu bars at all.

This trend is dangerous for Adobe, methinks — it’s getting less and less tenable for them to continue shipping Mac and Windows apps that are so similar in design. They’re either going to ship Mac versions that don’t feel Mac-like, Windows versions that don’t feel Windows-like, or, both.

(Via Michael Tsai.)

★ Thursday, 21 September 2006