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

intrepid00 said:
Windows Phone? It's okay, you can acknowledge Apple is taking design ideas from Microsoft.
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They aren't though. Microsoft didn't invent flat design, and they didn't popularize it. Flat design is the design trend of the year. EVERYTHING is becoming flat. Just because Microsoft added a flat design UI does not mean that they invented and popularized flat design.
 
The problem with flat is that when it's done incorrectly, it's difficult to tell where one thing ends and another starts. There has to be some separation between controls and content. Office 2013 comes to mind: I can't tell where the ribbon ends and my document starts. It's a mess to look at. Partially because it's flat, but also because trying to pack every single feature of the application into a graphical toolbar is absurd.

The new Yahoo Weather app is well done. It's flat, but the background images inject some much-needed life in it and strike a nice balance. It's a shame that Yahoo apparently has no idea what the weather is like in Canada; otherwise I'd be using it.
 
Toltepeceno said:
To me going flat would negate some of what sets apple apart, I will have to see it in person first though.

I know it won't look exactly like windows 8, that's ridiculous, but I hate the flatness of windows 8 and apparently so does a lot of people.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/sto...-computers-shipments-tablets-smartphones.html
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I agree. Windows 8 took flat design WAY too far in my opinion. It feels lifeless. I doubt apple will completely flatten the entire UI. I'm sure they'll figure out a way to incorporate it properly!
 
Mactendo said:
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!......
The history repeats itself. One day we'll see the return of the man who will save Apple one more time. Scott Fortstall, we're awaiting you.
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No way man. He'll bring the ship down faster than you can blink.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the guy. It really gets under my skin though how they compare him to Steve Jobs.

There's a reason why Steve himself gave Jonny superpowers @ apple and not Scotty, and I'm sure glad he did that.
 
thisisdallas said:
I agree. Windows 8 took flat design WAY too far in my opinion. It feels lifeless. I doubt apple will completely flatten the entire UI. I'm sure they'll figure out a way to incorporate it properly!
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Agreed. They'll remove a fair bit of gloss, pinstriping, skeumorphic textures but they will leave plenty of very subtle gradients and drop shadows. A certain amount of depth is necessary from a usability standpoint. For modal pop-ups, for example. Things just get confusing if they are not lifted off the background in some way.

I agree that too flat looks unfinished and cluttered. Subtle amounts of depth will add a more polished look while still remaining clean and concise.
 
Neodym said:
If the boring grey-metal-brick-design that the Macbooks show off for years now is any indication, i fear the worst for iOS 7.
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Have you seen the iPod family lineup lately. It is far from boring. Trust me, he's the one who pushed energetic psychedelic colors to the iMac lineup back in the day when others were doing beige boxes.
 
jbenkelman said:
I think you might be on to something here. Apple and Yahoo! are going to do some great things if the weather app is any indication of their relationship. I have ditched all other weather apps in a heartbeat.

Even the application icon is flat

I am excited either way. I am sure that whatever they introduce will be met with criticism, and then in a month we will all have that "oh, I get it" moment that happens each year.
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Plus Ive and Marissa Mayer seem to be BFF now.

18buvkvd4cb64jpg.jpg
28b42sw.jpg
 
Renzatic said:
No gradients, very little use of drop shadows, and a heavy emphasis on primary colors. You're seeing it a lot in web design these days. I think BGR is a good example. It's all about clean, clearn presentation of information, and easy to spot, contrasty icons.
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Judging by the WWDC logo, gradients will live on but in the subtlest form possible. Tiny, tiny color/brightness shifts for a little bit of polish.

Just my guess.
 
johndallas999 said:
So what is the alternative to Skeumorphism? For example the settings icon changes from a gear to the letter S, the Maps icon goes from a pic of a map to the word Map in a box? I don't get how Skeumorphism is a bad thing, it makes things easy to find/understand their function IMO. I think Ive is changing for the sake of change. I'm not looking forward to a flat and low res icon set.:mad:
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The question isn't whether there's an alternative to Skeumorphism or not, the question is whether it should be used without any purpose or not.

The best design process it to polish the heck out of things. To questions how valuable things are in a screen. For, example, iCan on Mountain Lion is a good example of Skeumorphism gone wrong. In design, omitting useless rubbish is just as important.
 
I been using iPhone for the last 4 years and the "flat" design is why i'm moving to Android. If anything it needs more depth. Meaning more advance features. Why not ask the user if they are notive or expert and open up some options? One design i get but not being able to use the hardware to the fullest is stupid. Take bluetooth for instance, i cant even disconnect from a device, i cant send files. I still like my iPhone but i'm using my S3 more and more and now considering to use my S4 which arrives next week as my primary phone.
More and more people around me are changing to S3/S4 thanks to the extra features and SD card. Also the screen size is very important.
Hope apple makes some drastic changes if they dont want to loose the game completely. Big companies always make the mistake to assume that everything is fine right until they loose allot of money and customers and by that time they have to spend even more money to win back the loyal customers. Sometime it dont work as we have witnessed time and time over...
 
Renzatic said:
No gradients, very little use of drop shadows, and a heavy emphasis on primary colors. You're seeing it a lot in web design these days. I think BGR is a good example. It's all about clean, clear presentation of information, and easy to spot, contrasty icons.
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Thanks. So a bit like the look of Flipboard. I could get on board with that.
 
vampyren said:
I been using iPhone for the last 4 years and the "flat" design is why i'm moving to Android. If anything it needs more depth. Meaning more advance features. Why not ask the user if they are notive or expert and open up some options? One design i get but not being able to use the hardware to the fullest is stupid. Take bluetooth for instance, i cant even disconnect from a device, i cant send files. I still like my iPhone but i'm using my S3 more and more and now considering to use my S4 which arrives next week as my primary phone.
More and more people around me are changing to S3/S4 thanks to the extra features and SD card. Also the screen size is very important.
Hope apple makes some drastic changes if they dont want to loose the game completely. Big companies always make the mistake to assume that everything is fine right until they loose allot of money and customers and by that time they have to spend even more money to win back the loyal customers. Sometime it dont work as we have witnessed time and time over...
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Precisely zero of what you said has anything to do with flat design.
 
fivedots said:
Judging by the WWDC logo, gradients will live on but in the subtlest form possible. Tiny, tiny color/brightness shifts for a little bit of polish.

Just my guess.
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Yup. I just came across this flier for WWDC '13, and I'm thinking it's a huge, huge hint to what the new iOS is going to look like.

WWDC.jpg


Think the new Passbook app that came out with iOS6, but applied to everything. We'll be losing some of the shiny highlight and bubble effects that Apple seems to love so much, but it won't be quite as flat as Metro.

Though I'm thinking primary colors are gonna figure big in the new design.
 
fivedots said:
Precisely zero of what you said has anything to do with flat design.
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Ok sorry but I haven't seen any link or picture of it but please do share if you have.
Also what I said is something they badly need to add into iOS 7 if the want some users to stay committed.
 
caesarp said:
So basically it is just today's fad in design. But the pendulum will swing back in a few years to bold 3D with crazy psychedelic colors man, and flat will look retro (which it sort of does now anyway). Which is the only reason design people are all about flat. Its just different from what we have seen recently (not necessariliy better).
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It's not about flat, it's about ugly and I think most people would agree the apps below are ugly. Maybe if Apple stops focusing so much on ornamental crap they can focus more on functionality.

4501435537_bfd8ff939a.jpg


photo_4_270x406.PNG


Screen-Shot-2011-10-12-at-14.22.35-1.jpg


contacts1.png


Stocks%20screen%20shot.jpg
 
Renzatic said:
Yup. I just came across this flier for WWDC '13, and I'm thinking it's a huge, huge hint to what the new iOS is going to look like.

Image

Think the new Passbook app that came out with iOS6, but applied to everything. We'll be losing some of the shiny highlight and bubble effects that Apple seems to love so much, but it won't be quite as flat as Metro.

Though I'm thinking primary colors are gonna figure big in the new design.
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Bang on with my thoughts.

freddiecable said:
i'm seriously skeptical about loosing the affordance in software design.

it looks really bad and honestly:

http://photos.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Outlook-2013-Mail-.jpg

i would hate to work in an environment like that.
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Yes, that's basically what I was referring to with my comments about flat done incorrectly. I find office 2013 unusable. Lack of visual separation turns it all to mush. They could've at least achieved some separation through color.

vampyren said:
Ok sorry but I haven't seen any link or picture of it but please do share if you have.
Also what I said is something they badly need to add into iOS 7 if the want some users to stay committed.
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There's an entire thread behind you.
 
GuitarDTO said:
I pretty much had the same feeling, then I did the jailbreak = now I am enjoying my iphone5 more than ever, and it is super customizable :D
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You are correct, jailbeaking is one option. If you don't mind my asking, what jailbreak/how did you do it? I'm a complete ignorant when it comes to jailbreaking, but I do believe it could offer the level of customization that would satisfy me. I worry that it won't be worth the hassle though when it comes to updates in the future, backups, etc....[/QUOTE]

Check out http://evasi0n.com/
It was a super easy installation :) Once iOS 7 is out I might reconsider, but until then I'm definitely staying with jb. Cheers!
 
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