macOS Ventura System Settings VS System Preferences Comparison - Thoughts from a longtime Mac user

Apple has fully redesigned System Preferences! macOS Ventura introduces System Settings, a heavily iOS inspired experience. How does this hold up? Let's take a deep dive and see for ourselves.

My macOS Big Sur - New Sounds Vs Classic Sounds Comparison video:

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Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:20 History
02:11 The Battle Begins! General
05:33 Network
07:06 Wi-Fi & Bluetooth
08:24 iCloud goes iMissing
09:30 Notifications
10:08 Screen Time
10:45 Accessibility
12:45 Control Center
14:39 Displays
15:30 Wallpaper / Desktop
16:13 Users & Groups
17:19 Passwords
18:36 Internet Accounts
18:53 Keyboard
20:47 Mouse / Trackpad / Game Controllers
21:58 Privacy & Security
24:43 Ending

[TheHouseOfMoth]

Having checkboxes instead of toggles would have kept the Mac looking and feeling like a Mac, even with all other iOS design stuff in place. That's it! I've had it! Back to 10.4 Tiger!

[AnonymousFreakYT]

Yeah, they really need to add a "three column" view. All Macs are landscape orientation displays by default. Sure, some people put a monitor in portrait, but not many. (I have a portrait as my third display.) Too many of them in the new version have that "gotta dive in, then back out one, then go to another" (screen time, notifications, etc.) Those all should be 3-column, with the "main menu" still on the far left, the "sub menu" in the middle, and the options on the right.

In older versions, yeah, the "main menu" wasn't always visible like it is in Ventura, but I'd rather have the *SUB* menus visible than the main.

[GarthBeagle]

I've never liked the layout of preferences on iOS devices, a confusing list of items, organized in some arbitrary manner.

It's very clear they've just taken the iOS prefs and ported it over to macOS - to be fair, this is still the first dev beta so certainly some things will change/improve, but the plan is clearly to switch macOS over to iOS style layout.

Also 15:06, yes since you're not using a retina capable display on your Mac Studio, that UI will be inherently different than the MacBook Pro, so curious if they kept the display buttons / sizing mockup.

[RacerX-]

As a MacOS user since 1994 I can say for sure I agree with 100% of everything you have said. System Settings is forcing an iOS peg in a macOS hole. I don't think it works for macOS. The usability is worse and is going to cause confusion. hopefully people are sending in feedback if they don't like it. Of course, we saw this coming ever since they started porting more and more functionality from iOS to macOS. I think most people knew that sooner or later macOS is going to be more iOS than mac.

[Gravarty]

I've been using OS X since Leopard and always liked the System Preferences app. It was so easy to use and the options were easy to remember.... but with Ventura, it's just a mess, even if you know the iOS System Preferences app by heart. I can no longer find the most common setting. Also, the overuse of pills, or rather the complete replacement and removal of checkboxes is really weird, it seems like every setting has a "big" impact on the system, even if it's just something simple like non-tinted windows..

[aytviewer]

So agree about Natural Scrolling. One of the first things I always do with mouse environments is turn that junk off. Natural is unintuitive to long-term GUI users.

[DeviantXS-]

Keep pushing the feedback to Apple, keep making it constructive, we still have time before release! I know that some developers at Apple clearly have issues with this, so let's find the middle ground for consistency and ease of use.

I personally like that the settings are on the left, clearly defined by their icons and text. I do not like however the right side panel being more convoluted and cluttered. If we can get the left panel list and the right panel from Monterey, I think it could be great! The less clicks, the better for sure!

[Nymunariya]

my theory is Apple is porting iPad OS to the mac, so the only difference is just screen size. Then there's less for Apple to make special for macOS

Edit: I miss my sheets. Sheets > Modals.

[micahalan]

Thx for sharing. I prefer System Preferences because I don't want to scroll through Settings to find what I need. The System Settings seem more suited to a touch input rather than mouse input.

[soupcan_]

I'm very late here, but as a recent macOS user (sorta -- I'd used Macs in the past), I'm going to have to agree that the new System Settings is a regression over the older System Preferences.

At first glance, I was like "that doesn't look too bad, " but as you clicked through more and more menus, it quickly left a sour taste in my mouth. The old System Preferences had things structured in a more intuitive manner. To access settings around a general topic, you clicked on one menu item, and there were additional tabs (all visible from the same screen) if necessary.

The new System Settings is worse in this respect by simultaneously going to two extremes: simplifying and hiding things from you, then also giving you information overload at the same time. After clicking a menu item, you have... more menu items! Then clicking into the 3rd-level menus hides the 2nd level menus. At the same time, they take settings that used to be under separate tabs and stack them on top of each other in the same screen.

It looks bad, gives me a sour taste watching someone use it (let alone using it myself), and generally seems more cumbersome and unintuitive.

[gDNaTYHzNsVRo]

I love the fact that you go all the way back to System 6. That's when I started using the Mac, and I still have some of those assumptions and expectations kicking around in my mind, I think.

[helios]

This is a brilliant video because this side-by-side format allows for a much more detailed comparison, like fossil hunters examining two related specimens to see evolution at work.
What's notable is the sheer number of times he hits upon real humdingers in the holy grail of UI design. Over successive version of macOS, we've seen this, and it's perfectly illustrated in this video:

(1) UI must use sufficient contrast – greys within greys of virtually the same shade makes it difficult to view and less accessible.
(2) Minimise complexity – Here there are modals upon modals (all of which need clicks to reveal and clicks to close.)
(3) Minimise clicks – The groupings on the left containing related settings may appear logically ordered, until you need want to adjust individual settings. But performing the same action multiple times becomes tedious. We see it repeated: Click top-level, choose option, click toggle. Click 'back' to top-level and repeat. There's an order of magnitude more clicks. This is fatiguing.
(4) UI elements must be consistent – I don't have a preference over checkboxes or toggles, but bloody nora, keep them consistent. In some panes there are toggles. In others, checkboxes.

The producer of the video was extremely gentle, but to be frank, these UI design missteps are actually embarrassing (even for a beta). All this surfaced after circa 10 minutes of testing.
This also shows how little testing the internal teams did (or how shoddy internal QA standards have become) and how much they're expecting beta testers to do to correct it.

Apple, this is yet more evidence – your UI design team needs an overhaul.

[AugurIliKur]

My guess would be priority is to bring the structure into parity with iOS so there aren't 6 variants of the same thing. They can easily change the UI once the structure is ported. Start by making it identical to iOS so you don't miss anything. Then evolve that into a better layout iteratively since you don't know what it needs to look like yet.

[KrishnaDraws]

Thanks for showing us the differences, Steve! It looks like Ventura's System Settings still needs a lot of work. Time to fill in those bug reports...

[trueblue]

Apple should give people the option to choose the look of System Settings like they did with Safari last year.

[DrBovdin]

I still prefer the older “System preferences” style. To me it’s easier to use. I get a headache every time I have to figure out where a setting I used to know where it was has moved to.
As was said, for someone more at home in iOS or on an iPad, the logic is fine. But for (longtime) desktop users, it sure is confusing for a (potentially long) while.

[brendanhoffmann]

I've been waiting on tender hooks for the system requirements for the next MacOS. And... my Mac is not supported... (early 2015 MacBook Pro)... Such a good year though for putting in 3rd party SSDs. I bought it with 128GB but put in a 1TB and a new battery. For $265 USD it was well worth it.

[HoracioMrJJimenez]

No matter how intuitive someone might be, Mac users WILL HAVE TO INVEST TIME -"AGAIN"- to re-learn how to adjust the "system settings." It's disappointing we are not getting our money's worth!
I was having issues thinking that is just a viewing option. I thought I would be able to go back to the usual view in some easy way. I sadly realized that wasn't the case.
I share your feelings and HOPE that this BETA stage quickly ends and the "apple genius" establishes a BETTER version, not worse.
We pay good money and expect to "have the best."
Thank you for sharing this video.

[minty_Joe]

My usual rule of thumb is wait at least 6 months before making the jump to a new version of software. That way, it gives the creator time to fix problems. I just now got 2 of my MacBook Pros up to Monterey (coming from Big Sur) and so far so good.

[YearsOfLeadPoisoning]

Considering the System Preferences is the worst part of iOS, I can't imagine this is a good idea.

Every time I try and find something in iOS I end up on the wrong page multiple times.

It's bad UI, and having a wall of options no longer works with the level of complexity we now expect in a modern smartphone, let alone a desktop.

It should have been completely redesigned years ago.