Criticism
Bruce Tognazzini, a usability consultant who worked for Apple in the 1980s and 1990s before OS X was developed, wrote an article in 2001 listing ten problems he saw with the Dock. This article was updated in 2004, removing two of the original criticisms and adding a new one. One of his concerns is that it takes too much space at its default size without auto-hide. He also complained that icons in the Dock only show their label when the mouse is over them, so if several aliases of a single filetype are put into the dock, differentiation between those files would be difficult or impossible without using the mouse, unless the user has changed the icons of the different files or folders. Tognazzini also criticized the Dock's ability to add and remove aliases, saying confusion could result when an icon is dragged out of the dock and needs to be re-added from Finder. He describes this "object annihilation" as bad behavior.
John Siracusa, writing for Ars Technica, had also pointed out some issues with the dock around the releases of OS X Public Beta in 2000. He noted that when the dock is centered, adding and removing icons will change the location of the other icons. In a review of OS X v10.0 the following year, he also noted that the dock handles more tasks than a user interface element should for optimum ease-of-use, handling both minimized icons and program/file/folder shortcuts. Siracusa further criticised the dock after the release of OS X v10.5, noting that some of the dock's ease-of-use was sacrificed for eye-candy, such as a reflective and 3D dock, a blue-light active program indicator, and the presence of less-distinguishable system icons.
An article on OSNews written by its managing editor, Thom Holwerda, stated some concerns with the dock, including the fact that the dock grows in both directions, has the Trash icon mounted on the dock, and that there are no permanent labels. Holwerda also criticized the revised look of the dock found in OS X v10.5, but admitted that it may have simply been an adjustment on their part.
Read more about this topic: Dock (OS X)
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