Another application update, yet another custom user interface. It’s an interface that happily ignores preexisting UI standards and guidelines like an eight-year-old ignoring his mother’s pleas to pick up his room while playing ball in the house. Not only is the layout nonstandard, the theme used is nonstandard. Just to think this application was made by the same company that once held interface consistency in high regard.

The company is Apple. The application is iTunes 5. The mess is enormous in the eyes of UI geeks (Average consumers must think we’re all nuts). Aside from standard Aqua and metal, there’s the platinum look, the pro look, and now iTunes’ look. I’m not including GarageBand’s look since it is clearly meant to mimic a mixing console and therefore won’t make its way into other applications (or so we hope!).

Is Apple losing its mind? Is Steve Jobs about as decisive as me when picking something for lunch? (I’ll take the BLT--no, wait; the Chicken Salad--er, no. Pork chop?) The evidence currently points to Apple dropping any pretense of interface consistency and going towards an “anything goes” mantra. Mail has toolbar buttons from another planet. iTunes has non-standard widgets and buttons. Just about every Apple app looks different. But there seems to be a movement to finally bring some semblance of consistency to things. Sure, Mail’s toolbar buttons are completely unlike anything else. Sure, both Mail and iTunes new interfaces have been controversial (I’ve been critical of both), as has brushed metal. But Mail and iTunes have enough in common to be taken as a sign that consistency may be returning to the Mac OS.

Mail and iTunes use two variants of the same look; a gradient for the toolbar and little or no margins on the edge of the window. They both have a light blue source list. The two window styles--called platinum and smooth metal by UI geeks, respectfully--have some slight cosmetic differences (one is darker than the other), but they behave much more alike than Aqua and Metal. For example, for each , any empty space can be used to move the window. The gradient stretches or compresses depending on the size of the toolbar/titlebar.

I think what we’re seeing is the UI shakedown. Although the Mac OS has been around for a while, OS X itself is still fairly young. We have seen a large number of changes in the look and feel of OS X since its inception. These changes can be attributed to Apple trying to figure out what works and what sucks. There must be a Zen-like balance in user interfaces. If the UI indecisiveness is any indication, Apple’s still figuring it out. It took them a few years to figure it out on the hardware side, going from beige to candy-colored to sleek and clean. Apple went from Platinum to Aqua and now they’re going for the ultimate in slick elegance in the UI department. Whether or not they reach it is another matter. Although iTunes 5 is ugly in the eyes of many (though it’s growing on me to the point I can at least tolerate it), I think the signs are promising.

What will the future hold? It’s anyone’s guess, but I have a feeling it’ll be silky smooth.