iOS 6 vs iOS 7 icon public poll

My first reaction was, man the icons are ugly. But now that I've lived with it for a while, the only one that really bugs me is the Safari icon. You could scare a buzzard off a meat wagon with that one.

musio said:

http://polarb.com/polls/tags/iosicons

very interesting to see the publics response

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Very interesting! The majority of people hate the Safari, Settings, and Camera icons -- but are OK with everything else. I'd agree.

I like the new safari icon but i prefer the old one simply becasue it matches my mac's.
i hate:
the camera icon. the original is so cool
the Siri icon (also, I wish they added purple highlights to the sound waves on siri! purple to me = siri)
The settings icon.

everything else is fine.

Overall I am happy with the new design, however, given the choice, I would like to see Safari, Settings and Camera (sorted by priority) changed.

Other icons are just fine

F123D said:

If that's the case and apple sticks with the current design. Get ready for some more whine and moan threads.

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Either way, get ready for more whine and moan threads!

Great link, thanks.

Overall I think people like the new icons, and unlike some have said here, they just don't like new for being new, Settings/Camera/Safari and some others iOS6 wins.

I wish there were an option for "I don't like either" for more than a few of those. Some of the new icons I actually do like a lot, while some are still just hideous to me. I am terrified about the possibility of that new settings icon making it's way to the Mac...for whatever reason, I really love nearly every Mac icon right now sans Mail and Photo Booth. I'd prefer that both look more like the previous iOS version. I just really hope they don't mess with the Mac too much, and I hope at some point they find a better balance between the Mac icons that are left and this new style they're going for. I get that less ornamentation can be really nice, I'm on board with that, but too many of the new icons just look downright awful and childish. They're missing the elegance and refinement that have long characterized Apple's products.

Refinement. Refinement. Refinement.

Can't say it enough.

If these designs are final and they're happy with them, I'm truly a little worried about Ive's taste in software design. Hell, just look at the Voice Memo icon! I think it'd be a nice idea if the icon were larger, but on a smaller mobile phone screen, the moire effect during the frequent animations moving in and out of folders and apps proves either how little they've really thought about the look of these icons on real world devices or that they simply have stubborn taste.

JohnnyW2001 said:

Very interesting! The majority of people hate the Safari, Settings, and Camera icons -- but are OK with everything else. I'd agree.

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I think this is fairly accurate, as far as the where the most hatred is directed is concerned. I think many of the icons would be more appealing with a different color scheme applied though as well. There's also odd points, like the Video icon still features the clapper, but there's no hinge. Maybe I'm in the minority there, but it just looks odd to me now. If you're going to have a clapper at all, why not have the hinge, or something that at least represents it?

Armen said:

I found it funny that most people preferred the old settings icon (which I also prefer as well)

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The new settings icon is the only one I dont like much too.

Megakazbek said:

I think it's not correct to compare icons that were designed for two completely different style of looks. For example, the old compass icon is perfectly fine for "old" iOS 6 look, but would look awful in iOS 7, however the new icon looks good in iOS 7, but would be absolutely inappropriate for iOS 6.

The better question would be simply to show only new icons and for each ask do you like it, yes/no? It also is more important question, because icon can be horrible, but still an improvement over previous version.

Also, IMHO icons lack some of attention to details and while generally may be perceived as good, they have some "hidden" flaws that aren't usually present in Apple's designs which usually stand even most nitpicky examination. For example, the Music icon looks fine and the poll result shows that people don't see any problems with it, however for people who are familiar with musical notation, the line with rounded corners that groups two notes is just weird, because in real notation these group lines are never rounded. Why did they round corners on that icon? Even if it doesn't effect user impression of the icon, it also doesn't make any sense, which is not typical of Apple designs where every tiny detail has been thought through.

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I was just saying the same about the new music app to a friend when discussing the hingeless clapper I mentioned above. Very good post though. Context is very important, and with where iOS is going, a lot of the new icons are definitely better for the context, and oftentimes better overall. But many still need a lot of work. Again, the obvious ones are Safari, Settings and Camera, but they'd do well to refine a thing here or there in others as well.

The attention to detail seems just a bit lacking in many cases, and for all the talk about the desire to have consistency, there's some oddball stuff going on, for example, Game Center. I'm fine with the look of it and absolutely prefer it over the old, but it looks odd in the context of the other apps. There's also little things like using a thin red font on the white background on the Calendar icon; with an icon as small as it is on the iPhone, that text ends up being just too hard to read. Where they chose to use multiple colors and where they didn't also lends to a bit of oddity here and there. And I don't think Ive's grid works with the circles in general. App Store and iTunes Store would've been fine as is if you stripped away the starburst gradient. The larger circles just look odd. I'd like to say they've grown on me after more than two weeks, but they still just look odd.

As I've said before, I like a great deal of iOS 7, especially on the iPhone, but it's very clear that there needs to be a lot more refinement in the design department before this new iOS can be truly great. But you've got to start somewhere, and I do think for the most part things are moving in a positive new direction.

Seems like ever ones pretty happy with the new icons except for Safari, Settings, Camera & Game Center.

My graphic designer friend just made this for me to explain how he feels about Apple's heavy use of gradients.

phpmaven said:

My first reaction was, man the icons are ugly. But now that I've lived with it for a while, the only one that really bugs me is the Safari icon. You could scare a buzzard off a meat wagon with that one.

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Man, I really can't understand why people are hating on the Safari icon. I chose the iOS 6 version over it but I certainly don't think it's one of the worse. I think the worst of the bunch is Game Center; it makes no sense why the bubbles are in 3D. But there's hope since we all found out it wasn't the Design team that designed the icons.

In regards to the poll - I was on par with all the votes minus Camera and FaceTime.

I honestly have to say I like iOS 7, its fresh and modern. As much as I like where things are going, the icons require just a little more finish.

And of course, MS did it first...

clukas said:

I honestly have to say I like iOS 7, its fresh and modern. As much as I like where things are going, the icons require just a little more finish.

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I love iOS 7 icons as well and I hope that they will stay the same for the final release just as they are.
For everyone that disagrees, get life (or get Android phone), or get use to it because iOS 7 interface will not change...