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Apple's core motivation for flat design

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xizdun

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 13, 2011
286
519
Been thinking about this for a while. Being a web developer and an Apple fan, I spend a lot of time thinking about software and UI.

There's more to Apple's departure from skeuomorphic to flat design—vector graphics.

2014 will bring new iOS devices with new pixel densities (iPhone 6, for starters). Which means, instead of having to scale or generate icons and graphics in multiple dimensions, you include a single SVG, so it looks good no matter what the PPI.

iOS 7 icons and graphics are obviously simple enough to include as SVGs and will help in reducing the overall size of apps. This would apply to app icons as well as in-app graphics.

iOS 6 to 7 — An obvious move toward scalable vector graphics:
57NRNsM.png


No longer will you have to generate multiple sizes:
RYJcGJ7.png


iPhone 6 concepts in multiple sizes/PPIs:
hmCxfsP.jpg


Does Xcode already accept SVG icons? Not an iOS developer, so wouldn't know.
 
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I would like to see Apple bring back the top title bar. iOS 6 looked so much better with it and you could see the WiFi indicator and time and battery indicator.
 
If not already, Apple is trying to get everyone thinking and designing "flat" and implicitly preparing developers for vector.
 
I agree, though most if not all iOS (7, 6, and earlier) and OSX icons are already vectors. For some reason they are just exported as raster images, presumably because of how the OS handles them.
 
xizdun said:
Been thinking about this for a while. Being a web developer and an Apple fan, I spend a lot of time thinking about software and UI.

There's more to Apple's departure from skeuomorphic to flat design—vector graphics.

2014 will bring new iOS devices with new pixel densities (iPhone 6, for starters). Which means, instead of having to scale or generate icons and graphics in multiple dimensions, you include a single SVG, so it looks good no matter what the PPI.

iOS 7 icons and graphics are obviously simple enough to include as SVGs and will help in reducing the overall size of apps. This would apply to app icons as well as in-app graphics.

iOS 6 to 7 — An obvious move toward scalable vector graphics:
Image

No longer will you have to generate multiple sizes:
Image

iPhone 6 concepts in multiple sizes/PPIs:
Image

Does Xcode already accept SVG icons? Not an iOS developer, so wouldn't know.
Click to expand...

I was expecting another "I hate flat" type threads when I opened this but I'm pleasantly surprised at this brilliant post.
 
The old icons were most likely made on a vector program like Illustrator, which means if they wanted to keep them and have the benefits of a vector file, all they would've had to do is not convert them to a bitmap image.
 
iOS 6's UI could be implemented in vector form.

Apple's core motivation for flat design is beyond simple - flat design is EASY and TRENDY, so designers have no motivation to spend time and effort to create high-end UIs.
 
This is also the reason why most of iOS 7's GUI is now "empty" white - it scales better.
 
Paddle1 said:
They didn't need it to be flat to do that.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I'm glad at least one person understands that.
Apple's core motivation for flat design is unknown. Anything thought of is simply theorizing. The most important fact is indeed posted by Paddle1 though.
 
xizdun said:
Been thinking about this for a while. Being a web developer and an Apple fan, I spend a lot of time thinking about software and UI.

There's more to Apple's departure from skeuomorphic to flat design—vector graphics.
Click to expand...

What makes you think these are vector graphics?
The old icons had shading, sure, but the new ones also have shading so aren't strictly "flat" either, they're just flatter looking and less glossy
I don't understand what you're getting at?
 
xizdun said:
Been thinking about this for a while. Being a web developer and an Apple fan, I spend a lot of time thinking about software and UI.

There's more to Apple's departure from skeuomorphic to flat design—vector graphics.

2014 will bring new iOS devices with new pixel densities (iPhone 6, for starters). Which means, instead of having to scale or generate icons and graphics in multiple dimensions, you include a single SVG, so it looks good no matter what the PPI.

iOS 7 icons and graphics are obviously simple enough to include as SVGs and will help in reducing the overall size of apps. This would apply to app icons as well as in-app graphics.

iOS 6 to 7 — An obvious move toward scalable vector graphics:
Image

No longer will you have to generate multiple sizes:
Image

iPhone 6 concepts in multiple sizes/PPIs:
Image

Does Xcode already accept SVG icons? Not an iOS developer, so wouldn't know.
Click to expand...


If you look back in history...
when NOKIA implemented its first accelerometer & vertical to horizontal UI change they used it on Symbian OS. and Symbian supported SVG graphics .
this was 2007.. i had N95, N95 8GB, N96, N86. they supported SVG.
 
I'm late to the iOS 7 party, and only upgraded to iOS 6 last summer even. :p But I just got an iPhone 5s a couple days ago. I am not so crazy about the "flat" look, but whatever, it's OK.

One thing I just noticed, the flat icons sit on top of wallpaper that shifts in response to motion/acceleration. So that makes them appear to hover in space above the background - you get a parallax effect as you rotate the phone. So in spite of all the "flat" talk, the overall impression is three dimensional - like a hologram. Is this a core feature of iOS 7 on all devices or does it use some new sensor on the iPhone 5s?

Really, I have to wonder how much better iOS would be if they devoted all their time to its core functions and stability instead of eye candy like this though. ;)

[edit]Just figured out how to turn the parallax feature off, which has the bonus of eliminating the zooming icons that I hate. :)
 
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doug in albq said:
The core motivation for flat design is...design--this look is what is fashionable at the moment.
Click to expand...

You know, it's odd. One day, suddenly flat was fashionable. Firefox, chrome, android, iOS, google, yahoo, all were racing towards a flat logo.
 
Boyd01 said:
I'm late to the iOS 7 party, and only upgraded to iOS 6 last summer even. :p But I just got an iPhone 5s a couple days ago. I am not so crazy about the "flat" look, but whatever, it's OK.


Really, I have to wonder how much better iOS would be if they devoted all their time to its core functions and stability instead of eye candy like this though. ;)


[edit]Just figured out how to turn the parallax feature off, which has the bonus of eliminating the zooming icons that I hate. :)
Click to expand...

Eye Candy?? Really??? Somehow over the years I got the distinct impression that candy was meant to look sweet, as well as taste that way. Equating this "flat" garbage to candy is an insult to the sweets industry. It is not eye-catching, it is not pretty, it is not sweet. Eye candy would insinuate that it catches the eye - the way a pretty face might. Flat catches nothing. You have to go looking for it. I'm suppose the original poster of this thread is technically correct in his reasons for Apple to do "Flat". Personally, I am insulted that Apple would apparently totally forget the superlative benefits of high resolution graphics capability, selling a lot of people on the fact this is better for you - like broccoli. What a shame. Maybe next time I go to the Smithsonian Art Gallery, I'll skip the Renaissance, the Masters, the Impressionists, and the rest - and see if I can find the FLAT section!
 
goobot said:
People screamed that they wanted iOS to look different so apple made it look different.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately different primarily just for the sake of being different isn't usually actually better and can often be worse.
 
Menge said:
I doubt it...
Click to expand...
Menge: Agreed, vector graphics don't work that way, but that article relies heavily on skeuomorphic graphics. In case of app icons, they're not scaled that dramatically anyway. When SVG does eventually get enabled, I suspect it's going to be on a version of iOS that is limited to devices with Retina displays (so minimum iPhone 4 and iPad 3).
 
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