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Current iOS UI starting to look stale?

B

BillyMatt87

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 23, 2013
636
823
iOS is starting to look stale again and needs a moderate design refresh to keep it from stagnating instead of dragging it out for a few more updates and then doing a polarizing radical update like with iOS 7.

Will Apple make the same mistakes it made under Forstall or will they refine the design every now and then to keep it fresh?
 
BillyMatt87 said:
iOS is starting to look stale again and needs a moderate design refresh to keep it from stagnating instead of dragging it out for a few more updates and then doing a polarizing radical update like with iOS 7.

Will Apple make the same mistakes it made under Forstall or will they refine the design every now and then to keep it fresh?
Click to expand...

They may tweak it in iOS 9, but changing it significantly will just annoy people.. its too soon since iOS 7.

I think iOS 10 will have a different design, a familiar but different one.

iPhone OS 1,2,3 had the same look, followed by iOS 4,5,6 having the same look, so based on that perhaps iOS 7,8,9 will have the same look.
 
They should just redesign everything with every point release since people apparently just want shiny new things and don't care about performance, stability, functionality, etc.

/s
 
Please for the love of all things Apple, I hope they leave the UI alone and spend a good year or so polishing everything. Transitioning from 6 to 7/8 felt like one step forward and two steps back. I mean wifi isn't even reliably working across the board in iOS or OSX.
 
They should just do some little refinements and tweaks like what happened from iOS 5 to iOS 6. The tweaks done to headers and status bars when inside apps (Like inside messages, settings etc... iOS 6 had the bluish status bar and bluish to gray gradient for the header instead of the gray and shiny design from before) Also, the settings icon was tweaked, etc. Just a little refresh. Maybe just clean up some sloppy design decisions as well. Nothing major. Too soon for that.

iOS 9 should take some OS X Yosemite design cues. iOS 7 went way too far with the flat design, where OS X Yosemite still has a little bit of depth to some icons, drop shadows here and there... Flat, but not too flat.

If they can do that but make it all work smoothly again, it would be amazing. There are way too many UI quirks and dropped frames now. Especially on iPad. Really sad to see how bad it is. 1 year old devices worked flawlessly on iOS 6 but the newest devices on iOS 8 stutter. Don't even get me started on A7 iPads.
 
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Appearance is not my first priority, instead it's all the bugs that make it unstable which kills the experience of using it. I must admit if I didn't know any better I'd never guess this poor software came from Apple. One can only guess that Apple decided to save money by limiting testing time, they pushed it out before it was ready.

If this OS functioned properly then I would agree it could benefit from a fresh design. Perhaps by the end of summer they'll correct the problems. That's an awful long time to wait but Apple's likely overloaded trying to debug the watch.
 
Apple cannot keep changing how iOS looks. There is a brand recognition they need to retain. iOS 7 already looks strange to unfamiliar eyes. I can see refinement in iOS 9 but a complete overhaul? no way.
 
When iOS 7 was rushed out I thought the design was so flawed i was sure they were going to redo it for iOS 8...but that never happened. I only hope it was due to other priorities coming up like the watch and the (also lame) adaptation to the new iPhone sizes, and not because they think iOS 7 design is good.

From the rumours I hear my hope for a complete redesign is almost lost, but they could at least get rid of those god-awful html-like 'buttons' and those white toolbars that are undistinguishable from the content/background. That is bad design really, no matter how you put it.

It is clear that the design will be flat which is not bad by itself, but it they added some fill (even if translucid) to the buttons, or an outline like in the Facebook app, that would be an welcome improvement. And maybe some darker colour to the toolbars, with the buttons/text in white. That would bring some structure and coherence back to iOS. Apple was always so far ahead of the competition, I never thought my bar would be set so low when it comes to an Apple os design...:(
 
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I just hope they tweak the Safari icon to match the Yosemite's one (a centre gradient instead of an horizontal gradient). Drives me crazy.
 
BillyMatt87 said:
iOS is starting to look stale again and needs a moderate design refresh to keep it from stagnating instead of dragging it out for a few more updates and then doing a polarizing radical update like with iOS 7.

Will Apple make the same mistakes it made under Forstall or will they refine the design every now and then to keep it fresh?
Click to expand...

I think beauty is in the eye of the beholder and iOS 7 look is timeless. While it doesn't hurt to tweak a few things here and there to improve user experience, the main focus should be fixing bugs and stability. I don't care about iMessage having a new look or color if the damn app is unstable and crashes every so often. It's all about priorities and I think Apple is addressing this properly in iOS 9.

You can put syrup on poop but that doesn't make it pancakes!
 
Current iOS UI starting to look stale?

Oh no, please leave the design alone! All that's going to do is create more bugs. Just minor refinements is necessary! Like a button to switch to night mode, and other small things.
 
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Lloydbm41 said:
All I want is to be able to put icons where I want on the screen. But that is apparently too difficult for Apple.
Click to expand...

Luckily that has been the flagship feature of Android for years. You know where to turn.
 
The only real change I can see coming to the UI is the font being changed from Helvetica to the same one as the Apple Watch (San Francisco?).

Other than maybe some tweaked icons, I can't imagine them doing too much else.
 
I agree with the OP. I think the UI is a bit stale, but I don't expect any radical changes from Apple. That's just not their style.

However, the one thing that I personally would love and could potentially see Apple doing, is allowing the app icons to become a little more dynamic.

Similar to what they did with the "clock" app (by giving it moving hands), other app icons, both stock and third party, should be dynamic, and provide more info. The current static app icons are BORING and provide little value.

It would make the home screen come to life without radically changing the UI. For example, you can show the current weather on Weather app, recent photos on Photo app, currently playing album art on Music app, latest news on news app, GIFs of game footage on game apps, etc. etc. You get the idea.

The app icon would constantly be changing; at times the normal app icon, at others some other info or image that would have you fixated on your phone even more than before. Hahaha! [evil laugh]
 
I still prefer the old UI from a couple years ago and iOS 8 is fine and doesn't need a new look just better and stable performance.
 
ibergu said:
I agree with the OP. I think the UI is a bit stale, but I don't expect any radical changes from Apple. That's just not their style.

However, the one thing that I personally would love and could potentially see Apple doing, is allowing the app icons to become a little more dynamic.

Similar to what they did with the "clock" app (by giving it moving hands), other app icons, both stock and third party, should be dynamic, and provide more info. The current static app icons are BORING and provide little value.

It would make the home screen come to life without radically changing the UI. For example, you can show the current weather on Weather app, recent photos on Photo app, currently playing album art on Music app, latest news on news app, GIFs of game footage on game apps, etc. etc. You get the idea.

The app icon would constantly be changing; at times the normal app icon, at others some other info or image that would have you fixated on your phone even more than before. Hahaha! [evil laugh]
Click to expand...

Maybe an option, I'm guessing dynamic icons use up more battery life than static icons.
 
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