Comment by Tagbert
8 months ago
All designs involve compromise. That doesn’t mean that those designs are bad, just that they are taking into account factors which are in opposition. Factors such as size, capacity, function, and legibility are examples of the kinds of oppositional factors that designs often need to take into account.
The MacBook notch is a clever design that increases the size of the screen without increasing the size of the overall case. There are some, relatively minor, downsides.
1. Some applications have an unusual number of menu items. The system takes this into account and renders those menu items to the right of the notch. In many cases, those are the less often used menu items “Window” and “Help” so the impact is lower.
2. When there are large numbers of app icons in the menubar, they may not all fit and some are truncated. This has always been a problem with that feature and many people have solved this by using utilities such as Bartender that hide extra app icons and move them to secondary panels.
3. There is an additional visual element on the screen. Many people quickly learn to ignore the notch and soon forget that it is there. For those who are bothered by it, there are a couple of simple ways to reduce the visibility of it. One method is to change the resolution of the screen so that all content appears below the notch. The downside of that solution is that there is less screen area. Another method is to use a utility to turn the menubar black. This makes the notch blend into the menubar so that it is much less visible.
Do you agree that there is good and bad design? Furthermore, I don't see what is wrong in criticizing bad design when the Vendor also acknowledges that it's bad and they're rushing to fix it. This isn't software where you can just run an update. No, you have to re-buy the machines to get the fixed design.
I do believe that there is bad design and Apple occasionally falls prey to it. Design that is not suited to purpose, like the late-2010s keyboards, is bad design. Design that is intentionally anti-human (anti-loitering architecture, HP printer locks, etc.) is bad design.
The notch is not bad design: it is a design compromise. In reality the presence of the notch increases the overall screen space with the reduced bezel. That electronics wizardry and physics do not currently permit under-screen high definition cameras means that you need bezel space for it. That Apple managed to get it to be ~35mm x ~9mm is impressive. On every other laptop in the world with a webcam at the top, that ~9mm is required forehead on the laptop, meaning at least a ~9mm bezel.
And Apple is not rushing to replace this. After all, we've had three generations of Apple laptops released with the notch. Sure, if/when they prove they can do a quality under-screen camera, they will update this (after they update the iPhone family). But calling this "bad design" is suggesting that you could do better.
It's horrible for consuming media, among many other things. I honestly don't get why you're defending something that is bad design. And yes, I could do better. Remove the notch. ta-da ! Instantly better. Users, developers, testers, device repair folks, part suppliers, all will thank me :)
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