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Sky Blue

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Original poster
Jan 8, 2005
6,856
11
This is just speculation by me; I'm not pretending to know anything so don't get upset :cool:

There's been a lot of speculation on whether OS X will follow the same look as iOS 7. Both Lion and Mountain Lion have had the UI modified/features added to be more familiar to iOS users, even changing the names of long established applications (Address Book, iCal etc.) to match their iOS counterparts.

With the big change in iOS 7, OS X Mavericks has really changed too much other than the removal of some items like the Calendar bar and the grey linen.

This image has floated about as a joke on what OS X could look like:

tumblr_mobl0s50zv1svn1xeo1_1280.png


Now, obviously, this is just a joke image, taking the Ive-ification of OS X to the extreme and breaks a number of Apple's GUI guidelines.

So what might future iOS 7 inspired OS X look like?

I believe the new Apps, Maps and iBooks, in Mavericks hold a clue:

Maps


Here's the icon for Maps:

icon_maps.jpg


There's a couple of points on this icon. The actual map part of the icon is identical to 7's new Map icon:

Maps-Icons-Comparison.jpg


This isn't just the iOS icon slapped into OS X, it has that flat iOS 7 look down to the compass. It also meets Apple's Icon Design Guidelines for OS X:

- Give your app icon a realistic, unique shape.
- Don’t reuse your iOS app icon, if you have one.
- Choose the right perspective for your icon

Apple says that "An app icon depicts an object that looks like it is sitting on a desk in front of you", Maps like a lot of " OS X user apps" retains that slight angle so it looks like it's sitting on a desk

iconperspapp.gif


The OS X Maps icon is the same as 7's icon, but fits in with the OS X specific guidelines.

iBooks


The other new App in Mavericks is iBooks. iBooks will likely be on the App Store when Mavericks is released, but the Apple site already has the icon:

attachment.php


It's the same as other "store" icons in OS X and tells the user they can open this App and buy things:

Behold-the-iTunes-11-Icon.jpg


Mac-App-Store-icon.png


However, the noticeable difference is that iBooks is flat compared to the others. It doesn't have the glossy, bubble look the other apps have.

It also doesn't have that wood background that iOS 6 iBooks have, I would expect iOS 7 iBooks to adopt the orange background of it's OS X brother.

Conclusion:
Now, a couple of things could happen. Apple could decide not to update the OS X GUI next year (or ever) to match iOS 7. This seems unlikely due to the lengths they've gone to with Lion and Mountain Lion. They could throw out their GUI guidelines and re-do these icons, which seems a little extreme.

However, looking at these new icons, I feel that we will see an re-make of OS X and it won't be anywhere near as extreme as the desktop pic at the top.
I would expect most OS X icons to be remade, but still look familiar: they would just lose the glossyness and become flatter and more simplified.

The new system icons (Share button etc) would likely come over as well. The new OS X would be very familiar to iOS 7 users, but still retain it's overall look and feel we know today.



Do you want to see a change in OS X to reflect the look of the new iOS , or do you want it to stay as is?
 
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I don't see anything about Mac OS X that has been modified to resemble iOS. If anything launchpad was added to bring both systems more in line with each other to make it easy for an iPhone user to use the Mac desktop.

EDIT: Oh yeah the scrollbars, but that's not enough to talk about.
 
I don't see anything about Mac OS X that has been modified to resemble iOS. If anything launchpad was added to bring both systems more in line with each other to make it easy for an iPhone user to use the Mac desktop.

Your second sentence contradicts your first.
 
by "modified", I mean changes to the UI or adding iOS features.

I've made that clearer now.
 
by "modified", I mean changes to the UI or adding features. I've made that clearer now.

Gotcha, I actually hope they both end up at least 99% within each other in terms of looks and functionality.
In terms of your original question about future looks, I'm at lost with an answer unfortunately. I didn't even expect iOS7 to look the way it does. I do think Apple was addressing a vocal crowd of Android users which resulted this way.
If anything I would say Maps might be a good indication of the future. I could see the whole system between iOS and OS X being centered around mapping.
 
This is a nice mock up for an iOS 7 Mail app in OS X that someone posted:

attachment.php
 
I agree with your thoughts. I'd be very surprised if Apple doesn't the OS X GUI to be more in line with iOS within the next year or two. But it's silly for some people to think that Apple will implement a simple copy and paste of iOS. Apple isn't going the Microsoft route. I think that Mail app is a great example of what it could look like.
 
I think half of the drop shadow should be removed but not almost all of it like Mail in the mockup.
 
user Humex made these, I think they're a good idea of what Apple will produce for future OS X. Very familiar, but also iOS 7-esque.

Full-preview.png


What the dock of 10.10 may look like:
 

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personally, i still prefer the Mac OS X glossy look.

but the humex icons look better than what i think apple will end up doing..


concept for 'normal' looking iBooks icon for pre Maverick's OS X's;

296omlw.png


matches with:

6fup1t.jpg


i don't make icons, so its not perfect.. i.e jagged edges, but i will use this instead the ibooks icon that they're shipping iBooks with.

so it will look like this;

5d4bw5.jpg
 
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I actually really like this. It's clean, and at least it would finally mean that their two UI's will be consistent with one another.
 
I personally like the flat look (similar to windows 8) & hope they bring it to OSX.

The 3D gradient look is very late 90s, early 2000.
 
Count me in as one who's actually liking some of these new recent mockups of an iOS7 styled OS X. I like the new finder icon and dock that Edgar Rios designed. Trippy Finder face :D Nice dock too IMO.

ocqa.jpg


Anyway, I find this thread interesting and enjoyable so let's keep this going :)
 
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