Apple's New Invites App Hints at iOS 19's Rumored Redesign

[Lounge vibes 05]

The rumored iOS 19 "glassy" look sounds like yet another variant of that abomination known as flat design. Flat design is tasteless, which is not a surprise considering that it was pioneered by Microsoft. Yes, Tim Cook allowed Apple to copy Microsoft. His new nickname should be Tasteless Tim.

Please, Apple, rehire the most Steve Jobs-like visionary, Scott Forstall, and go back to iOS 6's full-fledged skeuomorphism. Skeuomorphism gives visual cues that make it the most intuitive for people who've never used a computer or smartphone, like many children and elderly. iOS 6 and Mac OS X Mountain Lion were the pinnacle of skeuomorphism, and were based on three decades of painstaking user-friendliness research.

Ah yes, the operating system everyone points towards when they talk about the best thing Apple’s ever made, Mountain Lion.
Also, I have no idea where you got this idea that Mountain Lion was “ based off of decades of research” seeing as Mac OS X had already gone through four different design phases by Mountain Lion, Scott involved with all of them.
Most of the dramatic usages of Skeuomorphism weren’t added until 2011, by which time Tim Cook was already basically running the company and Mac OS X had been in use for over a decade.

 

[AF_APPLETALK]

The rumored iOS 19 "glassy" look sounds like yet another variant of that abomination known as flat design. Flat design is tasteless, which is not a surprise considering that it was pioneered by Microsoft. Yes, Tim Cook allowed Apple to copy Microsoft. His new nickname should be Tasteless Tim.

Please, Apple, rehire the most Steve Jobs-like visionary, Scott Forstall, and go back to iOS 6's full-fledged skeuomorphism. Skeuomorphism gives visual cues that make it the most intuitive for people who've never used a computer or smartphone, like many children and elderly. iOS 6 and Mac OS X Mountain Lion were the pinnacle of skeuomorphism, and were based on three decades of painstaking user-friendliness research.

The older interfaces were designed to be endlessly flexible. The newer interfaces are all about following a design/UX practice called "don't make me think." Ex: simple, one-button actions. Address the computer being an endlessly flexible tool, and the depth will follow.

 

[platinumaqua]

Let's remember that iPhones were a lot of people's first introduction to a multi-touch interface. I think skeuomorphism was a really helpful half-step from physical interfaces. If your previous tech experience way back then involved only devices with physical buttons and switches and even the odd knob or two, seeing that stuff replicated on your fancy new all-glass iPhone let you know very quickly what an interface element was and how you were expected to touch it.

Remember this guy? Looks a bit much now, but you could hand this to pretty much anyone back then and they'd have a solid idea where to put their finger and how to "rotate" the dials.

View attachment 2480050

Nearly 20 years in, the average user (I'd argue) is a lot more adept at picking out UI elements and we don't need as much of a visual crutch. We've been training on multi-touch interfaces for a couple decades now, but a bit of skeuomorphism still helps today:

View attachment 2480063

I don't think it's an all-or-nothing affair. We no longer need all that trompe l'oeil stuff like that old date picker with its shading and opacity tricks, but a few visual cues from the physical world can still be helpful IMO.

I much prefer the older version because of colors and shading. Today's flat version is just white, light gray, and less light gray. So boring.

 

[thefrost]

Just because two apps have similar design language doesn't mean the whole OS will have it. It reminds me of a similar rumour for iOS 18 and that didn't pan out. Not sure how I feel about this change. We shall wait and see what happens.