‘Sticky’ locations
This is something I forgot to add in my previous entry. Let’s look at this figure once more:
Previously, I wrote:
Another change I’ve noticed is that, if you look at the sidebar, you can’t see other Macs with file sharing turned on that are present on the same network. In previous Mac OS versions they would usually appear in the area marked as (4). If you click on Network in the Locations section, then you can see them and connect to them; and once you’re connected to one or more of them and you mount one or more volumes, then you’ll be able to see the Mac’s name in Locations (3).
What happens next is something you may find handy or annoying — it depends on how you use your Mac. After disconnecting from a Mac on your network, that Mac’s name remains listed in the Locations section, and (at least for now) there doesn’t seem to be a way to remove it from the sidebar. In the figure, you see that I’m currently connected to Richard-XV. When I eject it, Richard-XV stays there.
For how I navigate windows on my Macs, this is rather annoying. I’ve already selected Richard-XV by mistake on two separate occasions, when I actually wanted to select the MacBook Pro’s main volume XIII. And every time I selected Richard-XV, the MacBook Pro reopened the connection to the other Mac. It’s a small annoyance, which I suspect can worsen as one connects and then disconnects from multiple Macs/network volumes.
At least, in previous Mac OS versions, computers on the same network with file sharing turned on would appear in a separate Shared section, much easier to locate (or avoid) when needed.
Folder icons
In these logbook notes on the beta of Big Sur, I’ve generally refrained from remarking on specific icon designs because I’m assuming that nothing is definitive at this stage, and things may change over time. In the figure above, thanks to Dropbox, you can see both the old and the newer folder icon design. There was nothing wrong with the old, but I was always left wanting a bit more contrast. Folder icons in Big Sur have that contrast, maybe even too much of it. Still, I kind of like them.
Speaking of contrast…
Here’s a screenshot of the Finder’s File menu:
Visually, the biggest change compared with previous Mac OS versions is that now the command shortcuts are grey instead of black. I get why Apple made this change — to give prominence to the menu command, to the text — but to my eyes this also has the side-effect of tricking me into thinking that the command shortcut isn’t active.
Perhaps it’s because it is the same colour as other inactive menu commands, or the fact that the background colour of the menu pane is now a light grey, further reducing the contrast, but the first impression I get when I invoke this menu is, Lots of these menu items have corresponding shortcuts, but they’re currently disabled. I reckon it’s quite subjective. Still, worth mentioning.
In general, as I’ve already pointed out since the WWDC 2020, Big Sur’s UI could use more contrast, and another area that seems to have regressed in this regard is how menu names are highlighted in the menu bar. This is with the default transparency setting:
The Finder menu name has an excessively subtle highlight, in my opinion. (Note that when you hover over the various menu commands, they’re normally highlighted, just like before Big Sur.)
If we enable Reduce transparency in System Preferences → Accessibility → Display, the highlighting is back, almost starkly so.
Notification Centre and widgets
I find it odd that you now invoke Notification Centre by clicking on the clock, instead of a dedicated menu extra like before. I also think that, on Mac OS, merging Today view and Notifications while having these bigger, redesigned widgets taking up considerable space in Notification Centre isn’t an improvement over the previous design. Here’s a screenshot of the entirety of the Desktop on my retina 13-inch MacBook Pro with Notification Centre showing one notification and four widgets. Yeah, the available visible space before having to scroll is almost over.
And three of the widgets are set to Small size. In the older design, widgets were more compact, and even if you couldn’t have two of them side by side, their use of the limited space of Notification Centre’s pane was more efficient and more information-rich.
What I’m seeing with these bigger widgets is something like, Let’s cram the old Dashboard concept into Notification Centre and it feels a bit silly, to be honest. This kind of widget design is certainly better employed on iOS and iPadOS — it makes more sense and it blends better with those operating systems’ respective user interfaces.