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iOS drifting away from skeumorphism... but what about OSX and iCloud?

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skylarbrenden

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 14, 2013
45
0
Apple created iOS7 with no skeumorphism at all. It's all gone.

But I see in the OSX Mavericks preview, skeumorphism is still highly present. Even the Notes app still looks like a notepad, the Calendar app still looks the same, and so does Safari. Oh, and Game Center.

iCloud.com still uses skeumorphism in the background (that gray background that they used in iOS 5 & 6 for the notification center, and the background they used when you're first setting up your iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc.)

Do you think they'll keep skeumorphism on OSX? Because I don't think OSX would look right if they started making it look like iOS7.

I haven't seen the latest previews for it, but I'm starting to discover more and more on the forum. Like the folders are now transparent. So correct me if I'm wrong lol.
 
MacDevil7334

MacDevil7334

Contributor
Oct 15, 2011
2,527
5,717
Austin TX
My guess is that iOS 7 is the testbed, if for no other reason than Apple simply didn't have enough time or manpower to revamp both iOS and OS X in the flat style in 8 months. I'd imagine they will wait and see how iOS 7 is received. If people generally like it, I expect the next release of OS X will be much flatter (you can tell they're already thinking about it from the icon for the new OS X maps app). If people generally hate the flat look, Apple can always walk it back in iOS 8. Just my two cents.
 
A Hebrew

A Hebrew

macrumors 6502a
Jan 7, 2012
846
2
Minnesota
skylarbrenden said:
Apple created iOS7 with no skeumorphism at all. It's all gone.

But I see in the OSX Mavericks preview, skeumorphism is still highly present. Even the Notes app still looks like a notepad, the Calendar app still looks the same, and so does Safari. Oh, and Game Center.

iCloud.com still uses skeumorphism in the background (that gray background that they used in iOS 5 & 6 for the notification center, and the background they used when you're first setting up your iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc.)

Do you think they'll keep skeumorphism on OSX? Because I don't think OSX would look right if they started making it look like iOS7.

I haven't seen the latest previews for it, but I'm starting to discover more and more on the forum. Like the folders are now transparent. So correct me if I'm wrong lol.
Click to expand...

Okay...first question: Do you know what skeuomorphic means?


Safari is in no way (as far as I know) related to a real world object that depicts a web browser:

safari_topsites.jpg


Calendar has been updated:
calendar_week.jpg


Notes no longer resembles a notepad as it used to:
notesredesign.jpg



The gray linen background is just a decoration Apple chooses to use, blank white space on a huge screen is a lot different than on tiny iPads and iPhones.
 
R

reservedegotist

macrumors regular
Aug 19, 2009
171
0
A Hebrew said:
Safari is in no way (as far as I know) related to a real world object that depicts a web browser:

safari_topsites.jpg
Click to expand...

Funny how in iOS7 they fancified the all windows screen with the 3D effect, but here on the top sites screen it's made more plain. True they serve different purposes, but it's a curious design decision.
 
throAU

throAU

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2012
8,819
6,986
Perth, Western Australia
Mavericks is starting to ditch the skeumorphism to a large degree.

The leather is gone in contacts and calendar, and the notes app no longer looks like ruled paper.

The fabric background on the login screen and the dashboard is also gone - it's been replaced by a grey hue - dashboard has a bit of a pattern to it..


(i'm running it on my MBP)



edit:
as above skeumorphism and symbology are two different things. the calendar window still looks like a calendar because (guess what) that's what it IS.

however the texture to make it look like a real life physical object is un-necessary, and gone.


One thing I really miss in the new safari is cover-flow history previews. I loved that about safari - i often can remember the look of a page in my history but not the URL or title, etc...
 
Last edited:
ValSalva

ValSalva

macrumors 68040
Jun 26, 2009
3,783
259
Burpelson AFB
reservedegotist said:
Funny how in iOS7 they fancified the all windows screen with the 3D effect, but here on the top sites screen it's made more plain. True they serve different purposes, but it's a curious design decision.
Click to expand...

It would be my guess they did this with mobile Safari because there is so little space on an iPhone display. The 3D effect is almost necessary to see all your open tabs. On a computer there is much more room to keep the design more like it already is.
 
Donka

Donka

macrumors 68030
May 3, 2011
2,842
1,439
Scotland
Personally I am glad they are moving away from it. I've never been a fan of it and the contacts app on iPad for example was a complete waste of real estate because of the pointless screen candy.
I much prefer this more minimalist look even though I appreciate it won't be to everyone's tastes. There are the exceptions though such as Garageband where it makes perfect sense.
 
I

iCole

macrumors regular
Jun 10, 2010
190
21
I hope they flatten out things like the traffic lights, the badges, maybe let the dock take up the whole screen and make it transparant like the ios 7 dock. Remove some shadows. Things like that. I'd love to see a more simple version of OSX. but in general, I don't really dislike the look of it now.
 
S

skylarbrenden

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 14, 2013
45
0
Personally, I like the flat look, but some of it just looks plain stupid. Did you see the notepad in Mavericks? It's just blank. There is no design, at all. That's very un-Apple (if that makes sense, lol).

To me, as of right now, iOS7 looks like it was designed for children. It doesn't look like it would come from Apple. I would have never thought Apple would come out with something like this. There's just so many elements that are missing design now. Come on, a plain notepad? Just a tan-ish background? No thought went into that.

Everyone I ask agrees with me that iOS6 looks more sophisticated.
 
Rogifan

Rogifan

macrumors Penryn
Nov 14, 2011
24,144
31,199
skylarbrenden said:
Personally, I like the flat look, but some of it just looks plain stupid. Did you see the notepad in Mavericks? It's just blank. There is no design, at all. That's very un-Apple (if that makes sense, lol).

To me, as of right now, iOS7 looks like it was designed for children. It doesn't look like it would come from Apple. I would have never thought Apple would come out with something like this. There's just so many elements that are missing design now. Come on, a plain notepad? Just a tan-ish background? No thought went into that.

Everyone I ask agrees with me that iOS6 looks more sophisticated.
Click to expand...

How do you define design? IMO it's very subjective. I don't think iOS 6 looks sophisticated, I think it looks tacky. I'm not using iOS 7 right now so can't really comment other than yeah people that really like iOS 6 probably won't care much for iOS 7. Me, I won't miss iOS 6 one bit. :)
 
J

joejoejoe

macrumors 65816
Sep 13, 2006
1,428
110
skylarbrenden said:
Apple created iOS7 with no skeumorphism at all. It's all gone.

But I see in the OSX Mavericks preview, skeumorphism is still highly present. Even the Notes app still looks like a notepad, the Calendar app still looks the same, and so does Safari. Oh, and Game Center.

iCloud.com still uses skeumorphism in the background (that gray background that they used in iOS 5 & 6 for the notification center, and the background they used when you're first setting up your iPhone, iPad, iPod, etc.)

Do you think they'll keep skeumorphism on OSX? Because I don't think OSX would look right if they started making it look like iOS7.

I haven't seen the latest previews for it, but I'm starting to discover more and more on the forum. Like the folders are now transparent. So correct me if I'm wrong lol.
Click to expand...

they took off a lot of the OS X team to finish iOS 7, which is probably why Mavericks is the least feature packed OS X release in recent memory.

They took off blatant skeumorphism such as that in Calendar (no more leather stitching) and Notes (no more leather, no more yellow notepad with lines).

A major update must be coming that will streamline icloud and osx with ios (wouldn't be surprised if they made the switch to iOS X or something along those lines).

Would love to see mockups if any designers out there have some already. I think the look of iOS could be beautiful and very liberating on the mac. No more huge headers on apps, everything full screen and open, lots of white space with bold colors... I'm excited for it!
 
O

Ottoman1

macrumors regular
Sep 21, 2012
112
0
I think they will be moving towards a flatomorphic look with all of their platforms. I agree that IOS7 is the test vehicle for Apple. I like the new changes. I just hope they all have a purpose beyond just being flat.
 
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