Apple Seeds iOS 7 Beta 3 to Developers

[DJAKO]

new animation when scrolling the messages in iMessage. It's like the space between them expend when scrolling and then goes back to normal when stop

That's been there since B1

 

[johndallas999]

Siri's female voice is now more like it was at the preview at WWDC. Sounds much more natural than she did in beta 2

Noticed that too, much better.

 

[aristotle]

Design evolves. What was appropriate 30 years ago probably isn't appropriate today. Skeuomorphism is always present in some instance, but doesn't need to be ramped up to having a felt-poker-table texture in gamecenter or leathery headers in calendar/address book.

The design of OS X has evolved as it has changed over time but iOS 7 versus iOS 6 introduces a number of breaking changes in the UI design. That is not evolution but rather throwing out the baby with the bath water. Flat UIs make it harder to see what you are doing.

When I look at how OS X has changed over the years, I did not see dramatic changes but rather small changes while keeping overall look and feel the same.

I think a lot of people are confusing design with user interface engineering. User interface engineering requires some compromises in order to maintain the engineering principles that are conducive to usability. It does not matter how much you might like flat design from a stylistic perspective if it does not lends itself to usability. The interface is not meant to satisfy your stylistic tastes but rather to serve the needs of the user.

Let me give you an example. The LCARs inteface used in Star Trek movies is beautiful on screen but it does not lend itself to be useable in a real world scenario. It takes up too much space, lacks any skeuomorphic references and has a bunch of nonsensical numbers scrolling by. All of the buttons rely on text labels which does not lend itself to internationalization.

I get that I am probably speaking to a bunch of Americans who only speak/read American but there are other nationalities out there and UIs like LCARS or Metro rely too much on American centric words and ideas. The beauty of OS X in the past and iOS was how they were so seamless to localize. There were few static text labels and there was a smart use of iconography that leveraged skeuomorphism which was common to most cultures.

 

[Scyanide]

Those of you claiming the font is bigger/bolder...

You know in the Settings you can adjust the size of the text. By default it is in the middle but I've noticed the apps never seem to be on par with the example text in this setting screen.

Now with Beta 3 it seems to be the case. I just played with it and it appears some of the apps have their text adjusted according to that slider now. I guess it was enabled just now?

May be the the reason why the text is now bigger for everyone.

General->Text Size

 

[Nin3teen]

new animation when scrolling the messages in iMessage. It's like the space between them expend when scrolling and then goes back to normal when stop

This was in Beta 2 for me, iPhone 4S.

 

[Branskins]

The design of OS X has evolved as it has changed over time but iOS 7 versus iOS 6 introduces a number of breaking changes in the UI design. That is not evolution but rather throwing out the baby with the bath water. Flat UIs make it harder to see what you are doing.

I don't think iOS 7 is very flat...it has dimensions

 

[Scyanide]

Also, the black shadow under the app names has been there since, at least Beta 2, I noticed it a few weeks ago. Though it does appear to be a bit stronger this time around.

 

[severe]

It's a larger space bar. They added a '.' key which can be held down for the .com, .net, etc

Thank god. That smaller space bar was a huge thorn in my side.

 

[sammarshall]

(Deleted)

 

[milo]

I think you young whippersnappers need a history lesson on UI design at Apple.

I think you need to answer the question instead of ignoring it: how does fake ripped paper or fake leather make an app easier to use? Or icons that some people think are ugly (that will probably change before release anyway).

Why do you think new users have such a hard time with Metro?

Users have a hard time with Metro on the PC because it was designed for mobile devices and they made the mistake of trying to shoehorn it onto computers.

 

[jlgolson]

First off, alow me to apologize for my ignorance of stuff like this or if it's been mentioned previously in another thread.

I'm intrigued by the live wallpaper option coming up. However, I'm plagued with very poor battery life already. I'm not a dev and am willing to wait till the fall for iOS7.

I'm wondering if the processor work to animate the live wallpapers will degrade battery life further or if the change will be negligible. Anyone? Bueller?

You can turn the parallax effect off in Accessibility if there is a battery drain there.

 

[Marvin1379]

How well is ios 7 working on iPad 2? I'm thrilled that it will be supported, at least in part. Which features are / are not specificcally supported? Ios 6 is a little laggy, but it's better than nothing!

 

[nomore]

I predict that iOS 7 is going to be the Vista of Apple.

I hate the icons. They look like something out of an unpopular jailbreak theme. No class at all. Jony Ive needs to go back to working on hardware and then need to hire someone who understand software usability.

I really don't care if you guys think that skeuomorphism is not chic or hip anymore. It lends itself toward usability because user interfaces are for the "user", not the hipster wannabe designer. Usability sometimes requires a few compromises for a designers "vision".

Even these icons use skeuomorphism because without it, you would not recognize which is the phone icon.

See this article on what it is any why it can be useful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph#Arguments_for_skeuomorphism_in_digital_design

That design philosophy is context sensitive where the look and feel is suited to the context. The current design language in iOS 7 is not context sensitive. It is harder to use for new users and is really boring visually IMHO.

I agree 100% with your remarks. I really like some of the new developer features (Sprite Kit), but I had to go back to iOS 6. iOS 7 doesn't feel nice. It's not something that I want to use throughout the day. Three months ago, I wouldn't have said this, but the HTC One is looking rather nice, and I'm not a fan of Android by a long shot.

Your Vista reference is right... the tab switching in Safari is awkward, and works very much like "Flip 3D" in Windows Vista. Ugh.

 

[JohnnyW2001]

Seems to be MUCH smoother and enjoyable to use on my 4S now. Definitely getting closer to that flawless Apple experience. Provided it doesn't crash, I'll be very happy with iOS 7. *PHEW*

 

[Deputydog]

The Ebay and MLB apps seem to be working. Siri is working great! Her voice sounds better as well.

 

[DotCom2]

calendar has dots when viewing month view

new symbols in music app

clock displays in lock screen when playing music

thank gawd!

 

[0309385]

Diagnostic Mode? ?

 

[Refurb82]

At bat works!

 

[darthraige]

At bat works!

I have no reason to drop iOS 7 Beta now.

 

[sammarshall]

Voice directions in Maps is a lot faster than the last beta.

 

[D4Fox]

That's been there since B1

Really?! Ok im gonna go sit in the corner now

 

[rmwebs]

Flat UIs make it harder to see what you are doing.

Only when they are poorly designed.

 

[KattDaDon]

I have no reason to drop iOS 7 Beta now.

Well thats good to hear

 

[mytakeontech]

Saying "Goodbye" to Siri closes Siri.

IMO that happens in iOS 6 too.

 

[tmaxxtigger]

Pvz?

Is PVZ working yet?