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Details on Jony Ive's 'Very, Very Flat' Design for iOS 7

ChrisCW11 said:
It will be very much in keeping with Apple if they release a flat mobile OS, just like Windows and Android and everyone else these days, but then claim they have invented a new level of flatness that is superior to everyone else's flatness.

Apple will then patent flatness and sue everyone else for flat UI.

Honestly if Apple wants to be revolutionary bring back glass buttons and at least look different than all their competition.

Geeze, if this is Apple's idea of innovation, to duplicate other people's design trends now, its game over.
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Dude,

While I hear you and what you are saying, let me remind you that we all have no idea what is coming. All these assumptions that is it going to be "just like Metro" (which sucks) boggles my mind. I bet things will be fine.
 
Patriot24 said:
In my opinion, there are two lessons to be learned from Microsoft's adventures over the years:

1. When they attempted to put a fairly full-featured Windows OS on small screen (Windows Mobile) and touch screen (the original tablets) devices, the experience was less than optimal and suffered as a result.

2. Now they are attempting to put an OS that was designed for mobile (touch) onto desktops (kb/m) in Windows 8. So far, that hasn't gone very well.

For most users, having OS X run on the iPad or iOS run on a MacBook just doesn't make sense.
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Ah I see. Well, to be fair, I think time will make things better with windows. First of all, basically everything launching with windows 8, minus budget machines, are touch screens. They also have the most potential to tie in their tablets, phones, and desktops/laptops into one cohesive ecosystem. Even though windows phone and windows 8 are technically pretty different, the look and feel are quite similar.

I am not sure I would personally doom windows 8 to failure. Their tablets already have almost 8% market share, despite the fact that its a completely new platform and that the things aren't even available everywhere (I think the surface is only available in three countries as of yet). I read a lot of "doom and gloom" stories about windows 8 (not implying yours is one, necessarily), and I think it's too early to tell. Too many people expect brand new operating systems to have to take the market by storm. Otherwise, they call them failures.

Frankly, windows 8 is very different than anything we've seen with Microsoft. There are a few ui quirks that make it less intuitive than precious versions. Supposedly, Microsoft is working on 8.1 (free update) that should address these concerns for people on legacy devices, while embracing and moving forward with the touch screen interface with newer hardware. I am of the opinion that, right now, there really isn't a reason to upgrade to windows 8 for windows 7 users without a touch screen device. Part of the "problem" is that windows 7 is just very good.
 
pubwvj said:
I would much prefer a focus on adding new deep functionality that brought back the vast software and media libraries that used to be useable prior to Apple making so much obsolete by abandoning Classic, PPC, 68K, etc. There is a tremendous amount of great software that has never been recreated for Intel OSX. With such powerful hardware Apple should be emulating or transcompiling so we can continue to use our existing tools. That would get me and many others to upgrade machines that stay stuck in the past. That would get more hardware and OS sales for Apple.

While they're at it iOS and OSX should become interchangeable where the hardware is powerful enough (most cases).
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Massive waste of time and resources and wholly irrelevant to iOS.
 
S3R6i0 said:
I also think the weather app icon should read the actual weather. I think Android widgets take up a lot of space, I prefer the space integrity that the iOS grid provides.
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I do agree that Android widgets can take up a lot of space, but that is kind of the point of them. Widgets show lots of information if you choose to add them to your home screen. On the first home screen of each of my Android devices, phone and tablet, I only have one widget that takes up a small amount of the screen, most of the screen is icon, like iOS. On other screen I have widgets that take up more space. One aspect I like about Android is that you have have many apps/widgets installed, but they don't take up any space on any of your home screen unless you add them to a home screen. I don't use most widgets I have installed on my Android devices, so I don't have them one any of my home screens.

I do find the number of widgets that are "on" by default on many new phone to be over the top.
 
otakuon said:
I will reserve final judgement until I see iOS 7 in action. The thing is we are mostly talking about superficial UI design which is always a reflection of current trends and style preferences. They come and go. If "Flat" is the preference now, in a year or two time it will be passe and everyone will be looking for a change. As users we just adapt.

I am more concerned with a fundamental redesign of iOS. At the core, iOS is still very much the same as it was when it was first released. The rows upon rows of folders/applications without many options to change how information is presented to you outside of a few notifications is really starting to show its age. Android and Windows Mobile have, in some ways, beaten Apple at it's own game on the innovation front.

To be honest, I never really minded many of the skeuomorphisms found in iOS. For me, it's what differentiated iOS from the other mobile operating systems which in my opinion looked "boring" and bland in comparison. Some of us want just a functional looking UI and some of us want function AND form. But a simple re-skinning isn't going to mean much if changes under the hood aren't made as well.
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Man, I couldn't have said it better myself. I am seeing a lot of hate here about something that we haven't even seen yet!! I kind of want a refresh to the look, especially to eliminate the pseudomorphism, but I am also looking forward to enhancements to the actual functionality of iOS.
 
calisurfboy said:
My dad, who is 68, recently purchased an iPhone and I received about a dozen calls within the first five minutes on how to use the phone.

For starters, there is no instruction manual of sorts included with the iPhone and so you have to rely upon "ease of use" to use it. Unfortunately, many of the things my father was looking for was buried deep within the iOS.

I think, besides a cosmetics update, the main structure of iOS needs fine tuning. Too many windows or clicks to get to what you need or you find its spread across several areas and not centralized.

It would be nice to have a central page with widgets for information you constantly are checking or need instead of having to click on repeated apps to find that information. Also, the ability to multi task or have two apps open on the same screen would be very helpful. Its difficult flipping back and forth when trying to find and type in phone numbers, links, etc.
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Both of mine(around same age) found it very easy.
 
When I think of a designer doing something "truly amazing" I think of a plum, floating in a top hat full of wine.
I think my brain needs re-wiring.

But I think that this guy will do a good job of neatening up a messy UI. I'll be so glad if he gets rid of the daggy torn bits of paper in OSX also.
 
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WestonHarvey1 said:
I really hope they don't remove the page turning in iBooks. If they do, they might as well rename it. The word "book" is itself skeumorphic. iTextReader will do.
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Agreed, if the awesome iBooks animations are canned then I'll be super bummed. That's half the fun of it.
 
applesith said:
Changing the look and nothing under the hood will please a lot people around here who only care about aesthetics.
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Nothing wrong with that at all. Most of the things people buy/gravitate toward are based on aesthetics, even food.
 
So many people expect the redesign to happen in iOS 7 but considering the effort it requires, it would be much more logical to expect it to happen when iOS 8 arrives. I feel the forum is gonna explode when no redesign whatsoever will happen.
 
sulpfiction said:
What looks beautiful? Seriously. :confused:
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The UI used in WP8.

Don't get me wrong, I really dislike they way Win8 and WP8 work under the hood. I hate the rigid license terms and anti-competitive BS from Microsoft (which is reflected in Win8 more than in any of its predecessors), and I'll never install Win8 on any computer that I own. But from an aesthetical point of view, I like the metro UI.
 
What's wrong with the current UI? I've been using an iPhone since it came out, and find it to have the best UI among its competitors. I don't understand what you guys sometimes.

It's just a phone. It's already elegant.
 
calisurfboy said:
My dad, who is 68, recently purchased an iPhone and I received about a dozen calls within the first five minutes on how to use the phone.
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What was he trying to do? He could clearly turn it on and make calls straight away.
 
My thoughts

Hello all, I'm a new member here and can't help but read about this new UI discussion you guys are having. I registered to this site just so I can share my thoughts on this.

Not sure if this was mentioned, but I think alot of people here may be missing the real purpose of the new 'flatter UI' but of course this is just my guess:

Interactivity and elegant animations! Ok, imagine if an app icon is a solid color with a simple stroke, and let's say that when a user interacts with this 'flatter icon', the icon's border stroke will scale elegantly as the solid color's opacity decreases? These elegant/simple transitional effects are much easier to render than the current iphone icons that exists now (with the shine, gradients, reflections, etc.) Applying transitional animations like scaling, shape transform, etc to the current icons will look dirty and clunky, and will be a memory hog. So my guess is that Ives is focusing on how the new 'flatter' icons can have simple yet elegant animations. OR, what about vectorized icons? The retina display will defenitely take advantage of a full vector icons, which means Apple will once again have a new requirement for app developers to provide them with vectorized icons?

Just wanted to share my thoughts with you guys, I can't wait to see how the new UI will look like :)
 
I don't think it will happen. I love iOS interface and UI is simple and clean.

We will see, but i would miss skeumorphism if true, i love Game Center looks, iBooks, Notes...

Anyway true or not, remember that these are rumors, it means 90%of times are fake (not incorrect, just fake).
 
JazzyGB1 said:
...If things continue to carry on and Apple continue to make only minor upgrades there will simply be less and less reasons to buy a new one.
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Well, I think we need to get used to it. The smartphone revolution happened when the iPhone was introduced. The technology has matured now. We have entered the phase of incremental improvements. The very same game desktops and laptops have been going through for decades.

Meanwhile, enjoy that your 4S wasn't rendered useless when the 5 was introduced. It will probably still be a very nice phone, when the 5S and even the 6 hits the market.

On a different note, I am sure Apple could easily implement - as you mention - NFC, memorycards and whatnot. They have simply chosen not to. Either for philosophical, technological or business reasons. Not because they can't cram the same stuff as everyone else into their phones.

What you decide not to do, says as much about you, as what you do.
 
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Just look at the current iOS music app, that's what it'll look like. That is what Ive is trying to accomplish, a flatter, cleaner, simplistic look that carries an elegance and modern look to it. Then go to the "Videos" app. The Music app looks cleaner and more Apple like, the older "glossier, bubblier" apps now look dated.

I think it's going to look amazing, there hasn't been one thing I haven't liked about Ive's designs yet, this coming from a designer. I trust he'll guide the team to create a refreshing, modern iOS.
 
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