iTunes 12 Interface Problems

Federico Viticci:

…I’m baffled by Apple's choices. This used to be simple: there was a sidebar with a Store button and you clicked the button and then you changed sections in the Store. Now, you have to account for “stickiness”.

I look at the screenshots of the new iTunes, I try to use the app, and I don't know what's going on. Maybe I'm the problem because I'm not “committed” to learning iTunes enough – but that's not supposed to happen with good interface design.

I’m with Federico here. The old sidebar interface may have been ugly, but it was functional. The new interface is like 5 other apps with different interfaces fused together, there is a complete lack of unity and direction. The My Music tab is a list with no sidebar, the Playlists tab is a list with a sidebar, iTunes Radio is a grid of boxes. Then there’s the iTunes Store, which has a large side scrolling banner at the top, a grid of boxes beneath, and a sidebar on the opposite side of the sidebar in the Playlists tab. All that is just in the Music tab. (▼)(▲)Yes, there is a Music tab which is not the same thing as the My Music tab, although they are located on the same horizontal bar at the top.

iTunes 12 is a mess. Apple either needs to break the app out into smaller, separate apps, or get its act together and unify the interfaces into something that makes sense and is easier to navigate. Hopefully they go with the former, as they’ve been trying the latter for years and are clearly unable to execute on the idea.