Are the Icons the Problem? -- or is it the wallpaper?

[Blakeasd]

Hello,

I thought I would share an interesting observation about the icons in iOS 7. Like many of you, my first impressions of the icons were that they were pretty fugly. Earlier today, however, I was watching the iOS7 introduction video on Apple's website. In the video, Ive discusses the grid system in which the icons were derived, during his explanation the icons were separated from iOS and shown in a pure white background, one by one. I thought to myself - "hey! these look pretty good." Then, in the video, the icons are put onto the screen and they went back to looking like preschool artwork. Intrigued, I went on a search to find some screenshots of iOS7 with various wallpapers. In turns out the icons don't always look like crap. I'm not even kidding, the POS Safari icon doesn't look nearly as bad on some wallpapers as it does on some of the default wallpapers. Believe it or not -- the Safari icon actually looked good on a few wallpapers!

Try this for yourself, go to the Screenshots post on the forum here and take a look at the various screenshots with different wallpapers or even do a Google search. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Do the icons need work? Certainly! But I think the some of the default wallpapers clash with the icons in a poor way.

 

[ionjohn]

i think both the icons and the dock are fugly

They should bring back old icons sligtly modified and the moutain lion dock

 

[LoganT]

I've noticed it looks a lot better if you use a solid color background and not a photo.

 

[yanksrock100]

I have to say, the Background affects the UI alot.

http://i.imgur.com/SAiMwvh.jpg

Take a look at this

 

[Sister Owl]

I saw screenshot with orange wallpaper here in screenshots thread – it looked so pretty! There were also some red/yellow/orange third-party app icons, and together it looked very-very nice.
Also, I noticed, when mixed with third-party app icons, the stock ones look very cute and that way I liked them all (even Newsstand).

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They should bring back old icons sligtly modified

But this is exactly what they did. I was hoping for more radical redesign.

 

[ionjohn]

I saw screenshot with orange wallpaper here in screenshots thread – it looked so pretty! There were also some red/yellow/orange third-party app icons, and together it looked very-very nice.
Also, I noticed, when mixed with third-party app icons, the stock ones look very cute and that way I liked them all (even Newsstand).

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But this is exactly what they did. I was hoping for more radical redesign.

You say the settings icon is slightly modified? The camera app? They were completely modified and most designers admit they're fugly (icons)

 

[unobtainium]

I've been playing around with various backgrounds and so far I think the default "blades of grass" wallpaper from iOS 6 looks best:

 

[Sister Owl]

You say the settings icon is slightly modified? The camera app? They were completely modified and most designers admit they're fugly (icons)

Well the Settings app is the same old gear wheels in gray, only they made it into circle, that's all. Camera still has a camera on it, but for some reason for this icon they did the opposite, they dumped the circle shape. Overall, the icons set is just as diverse and inconsistent as before, nothing really changed except for some shapes and colors here and there.

 

[solidarity]

i think both the icons and the dock are fugly

They should bring back old icons sligtly modified and the moutain lion dock

OK Scott Forstall

 

[Ann P]

The saturation should be toned down a bit, the colors are too bright and easter egg.

 

[iBreatheApple]

All I know is that folders need to be revamped. I don't mind the 3x3 and all that but it's visually unappealing to me. They look bad (IMO) with almost every wallpaper.

 

[BasilFawlty]

i think both the icons and the dock are fugly

They should bring back old icons sligtly modified and the moutain lion dock

Ditto! I truely hate the new look. I just (finally) bought an iPhone 5 (iOS 6) and really live the look and feel. This looks like something intended to appeal to kids! They took a great-looking interface and screwed it up IMHO. Hope there is some way to maintain the old look, otherwise I won't be upgrading any time soon.

 

[nikicampos]

Going to this site last night http://www.neuevsold.com and after voting which app icon I liked better, I took the numbers from the results and made some simple statistics.

-Out of more or less than 68,936 people who voted, with a total of 1,516,591 votes, 61% for iOS 7 and 39% for iOS 6.
- Out of 22 app icons, people liked 18 app icons better from iOS 7 and 4 from iOS 6.

In the end it comes to personal taste, I liked 17 app icons better from iOS 7 and only 5 from iOS 6.

 

[Night Spring]

Going to this site last night http://www.neuevsold.com and after voting which app icon I liked better, I took the numbers from the results and made some simple statistics.

I don't think this survey gives an accurate reflection of how people would react to iOS 7. First, it shows the icons in a very blown-up view. This distorts our perceptions. For example, the new newsstand icon looks very nice when it is blown up large enough that you can see the details of the magazines in the icon, but when it is on the phone, the icon is too small to see such details and it just looks busy and ugly. Then, it shows icons one by one. The thing about the iOS 7 icons is that most of them look fine when seen one at a time. It's when you see them all at once together on the iPhone screen that the pastel colors get a bit too much.

 

[vcao]

I switched to a plain all white bg, and I really like it! the white icons just float out there. very befitting to the rest of the UI, and the dock isn't all vista blurry

 

[willryan42]

Isn't this kind of common sense? Of course a background image is going to drastically affect the overall feel of a UI. This goes for iOS, OS X, Windows, websites, etc. Obviously if you have a blurry picture of your cat as your wallpaper it's going to give your device a different feel.

 

[nikicampos]

I don't think this survey gives an accurate reflection of how people would react to iOS 7. First, it shows the icons in a very blown-up view. This distorts our perceptions. For example, the new newsstand icon looks very nice when it is blown up large enough that you can see the details of the magazines in the icon, but when it is on the phone, the icon is too small to see such details and it just looks busy and ugly. Then, it shows icons one by one. The thing about the iOS 7 icons is that most of them look fine when seen one at a time. It's when you see them all at once together on the iPhone screen that the pastel colors get a bit too much.

Please stop quoting me, I don't want to get my account suspended again because of you, seems like every post I make you quote me.

Nothing is ever good enough for you, you always find a "but"

And just so you, and again it will not be accurate and good for you, but the 20-30 friends that I have shown my iPhone running iOS 7 they go crazy and can't wait for sept/oct for the release.

Also, my mom, she has her iPhone and has no idea about technology, and I showed her the screen with all the new icons, and her face was like "that's beautiful" she actually had a big smile, she's the average user that Apple wants, not geeks like us that post on forums and analyze every pixel of iOS7.

 

[bchery21]

Personally, I don't think the icons look bad but I have heard, like OP mentions, different backgrounds make the icons appear "better". Ultimately, maybe the icons DO need work if changing backgrounds makes them more/less tasteful.

 

[Night Spring]

Please stop quoting me, I don't want to get my account suspended again because of you, seems like every post I make you quote me.

Nothing is ever good enough for you, you always find a "but"

And just so you, and again it will not be accurate and good for you, but the 20-30 friends that I have shown my iPhone running iOS 7 they go crazy and can't wait for sept/oct for the release.

Also, my mom, she has her iPhone and has no idea about technology, and I showed her the screen with all the new icons, and her face was like "that's beautiful" she actually had a big smile, she's the average user that Apple wants, not geeks like us that post on forums and analyze every pixel of iOS7.

Surely my quoting you doesn't get you suspended, it's only what YOU post that gets you suspended.

And since we have opposing opinions on a topic that interests us both, of course I'm going to respond to your posts. That's how discussion forums work, nothing personal.

As for all those friends and your mom liking iOS 7, good for them. I never said nobody will like iOS 7, I'm just saying *I* don't like it. And whether or not people who like it outnumber people who don't, we'll just have to wait until general release to find out. All this anecdotal stories about how our families and friends reacted aren't statistically significant.

 

[Apple...]

The Notes app icon is hideous.

 

[C DM]

I switched to a plain all white bg, and I really like it! the white icons just float out there. very befitting to the rest of the UI, and the dock isn't all vista blurry

[url=http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/4466/xgd4.png]Image[/URL]

Isn't all that white kind of harsh on the eyes?