Sweet Jeebus, macOS 27 Golden Gate Removes the Dumb Icons from Menu Items

天哪，macOS 27 Golden Gate 终于移除了菜单栏里那些愚蠢的图标

Perhaps the worst UI crime in MacOS 26 Tahoe was the inexplicable decision to add inscrutable, distracting icons next to every item in the menu bar. macOS 26 Tahoe 在用户界面设计上犯下的最大罪行，莫过于那个令人费解的决定：在菜单栏的每一项旁边都强行加上了既晦涩又令人分心的图标。

You will recall Jim Nielsen writing about it, rightly describing it as exactly the sort of thing that Mac users look down upon in platforms like Google Docs and Windows. 你可能还记得 Jim Nielsen 对此的评论，他一针见血地指出，这正是 Mac 用户在 Google Docs 或 Windows 等平台上所鄙视的那种设计。

You will also recall Nikita “Tonsky” Prokopov writing about it, illustrating that the bad idea wasn’t even implemented well, with different Apple apps using entirely different icons for the same menu items. 你可能也记得 Nikita “Tonsky” Prokopov 的文章，他指出这个糟糕的主意甚至连实现都做得很差——苹果自家的不同应用在处理相同菜单项时，竟然使用了完全不同的图标。

You will also recall my linking to Nielsen (“I can tolerate being angry about UI changes Apple makes to the Mac. But I can’t tolerate being heartbroken.”) and to Prokopov (“The fact that Tahoe’s menu item icons are glaringly inconsistent and often utterly inscrutable is the fudge icing on a shit cake, but the real embarrassment is that the idea ever got past the proposal stage. No real UI or icon designers think this is a good idea. None.”) 你或许还记得我曾引用过 Nielsen 的话（“我可以容忍对苹果在 Mac 上所做的 UI 变动感到愤怒，但我无法容忍因此感到心碎。”）以及 Prokopov 的观点（“Tahoe 菜单图标不仅极其不统一，而且往往让人完全摸不着头脑，这简直是在一坨屎上抹了糖霜。真正令人尴尬的是，这种想法竟然能通过提案阶段。没有任何真正的 UI 或图标设计师会认为这是个好主意，一个都没有。”）

Top third-party developers rightly rejected the design, adopting open source code from Brent Simmons to disable the default “icons in all standard menu items” behavior. 顶尖的第三方开发者们理所当然地拒绝了这种设计，他们采用了 Brent Simmons 提供的开源代码，禁用了“在所有标准菜单项中显示图标”的默认行为。

Wonderful news in MacOS 27 Golden Gate: the icons are gone. It’s like Tahoe’s menu item icons never happened. macOS 27 Golden Gate 带来了一个好消息：图标消失了。就好像 Tahoe 时代的菜单图标从未存在过一样。

Prokopov noted it on Mastodon with before and after screenshots, and mentions that Apple has updated the Human Interface Guidelines accordingly: Use menu item icons sparingly and with purpose. Icons allow people to find menu items more quickly, and help clarify what selecting an item does. Use an icon to highlight the most common actions and key features of your app, file system locations, connected devices, visual concepts like rotating or flipping an image, and user-generated content like folders and documents. Don’t display an icon if you can’t find one that clearly represents the menu item. Prokopov 在 Mastodon 上发布了对比截图，并提到苹果已经相应地更新了《人机交互指南》（HIG）：应谨慎且有目的地使用菜单图标。图标可以帮助用户更快地找到菜单项，并明确选择某项操作后的效果。使用图标来突出显示应用中最常见的操作、核心功能、文件系统位置、已连接设备、旋转或翻转图像等视觉概念，以及文件夹和文档等用户生成的内容。如果你找不到能清晰代表该菜单项的图标，就不要显示图标。

This updated advice in the HIG is perfect. Screenshot: MacOS 26 Tahoe — across every Apple app on the system — is a living example of the updated HIG’s “what not to do” example illustrations (including the second section about groups within a menu). HIG 中这一更新后的建议非常完美。截图显示：macOS 26 Tahoe——在系统内所有的苹果应用中——简直就是更新后 HIG 中“反面教材”的活生生案例（包括关于菜单内分组的第二部分）。

If you’re stuck using Tahoe until Golden Gate arrives, recall this tip to alleviate the problem to some extent. 如果你在 Golden Gate 到来之前还不得不使用 Tahoe，请记住这个小技巧，它能在一定程度上缓解这个问题。

This is my favorite news from all of WWDC this week. I mean that. In a small way I mean it because I so loathe this aspect of MacOS Tahoe. But in a large way I mean it because it’s proof that the rot has been rooted out of Apple’s software design team. 这是本周 WWDC 上我最喜欢的新闻，我是认真的。往小了说，是因为我实在太讨厌 macOS Tahoe 的这个设计了；往大了说，是因为这证明了苹果软件设计团队内部的积弊终于被清除了。

I don’t know if all the untalented hacks are gone, but the untalented magazine-designer hacks with clout and influence all left with Alan Dye. I’ve chatted with a few people from Apple’s design team this week and they’re all loving the work they’re doing and the direction they’re taking Apple’s platforms. Backtracking on these idiotic menu item icons was a necessary first step. 我不知道那些平庸之辈是否已经全部离职，但那些拥有权力和影响力、只会搞杂志排版的平庸之辈确实都随着 Alan Dye 一起离开了。本周我与苹果设计团队的几位成员聊过，他们都很喜欢现在的工作，也认可苹果平台的发展方向。撤回这些愚蠢的菜单图标，是迈向正确方向的必要第一步。