Cross posting for poll:
I don’t have a big enough following to get the data, but y’all are driving me crazy with this! This is the actual argument you’re having, but everyone wants to be unassailably right about it (me too with this poll 🤪) instead of sensible.
Is the new Mac mini power button (on the bottom) a good design?
“Actually there’s no such thing as good design…”
Go away.
“How can you be talking about this, today of all days!”
Need not apply.
“Apple is trash!”
Yeah, I saw they’re doing “AI” too but you’re not welcome in the thread either.
Probably not, but I'm largely indifferent to it?
Do people really turn their computers on and off on the regular?
Like "I'm going to the office now so I'll turn this computer off?" Or like, bed time?
Is that a thing?
@NateBarham is it an accessibility issue?
But also, why are you using the button enough to care?
@bjmccracken The accessibility angle is always a legit consideration, especially coming from anyone who has those needs.
But I don’t personally feel this limits accessibility any more than other regular power buttons. But, again, I’m not someone with those needs.
I’m *not* using it enough to care but I was getting annoyed with that response being met with anger in my feed. 😅
I’d say the “I don’t care” or “It’s fine” fits under “Probably (or not) and I like it” for the poll’s purposes.
@NateBarham This has certainly never been in Apple's design language, but I like buttons and some ports (which the new Mini does have) on the front of the damned device so I can reach over and flip it off & on. That is the most basic interaction, why make that hard‽
"John Hodgman: SIGH. Allow."
@mdhughes 🤷♂️ 🙂 Not sure, but I like the look of it. And maybe for non nerds (and some nerds), it encourages letting the Mac sleep rather than shutting down?
That last bit is a musing not an argument.
@mdhughes Not sure what “in dev” means here, but yeah. I’d suggest that it’s going to boot on keypress (like the laptops) so no button needed usually.
That said, I see why this is irritating to you. And I’m not arguing that it’s right or wrong. I’m a “probably not good design but I like it (as in, I don’t hate it, not I love it)” so I’m more apt to think they’re probably pushing people away from use cases that frequently require manual power on/off. 🤷♂️
@matt My current working idea is that it passively encourages using sleep and avoiding turning it off.
Also, (I’m assuming) it boots to any key like the laptops so shutdown is software and power on is done by accessory?
I don’t know if these are “good enough” but as reasons, they make a case for intent beyond aesthetics.
@NateBarham It could be, although I’m always hesitant to ascribe hidden or unintuitive functionality to “actually they want it to be hard to use.” If we think that’s the case, then that implies there was a problem with people turning off their Mac minis too often, which maybe…
My gut right now says it’s not ideal, but it’s fine enough given you don’t need to use it often. I do think it’s a regression over the old position, but not a huge deal.
Nate Barham
Nathan Lowell (he/him) 📎
Brian McCracken
Digital Mark λ ☕️ 🕹 👽
Jay
Matt Birchler
Andrew Laurence