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

"There is apparently no new learning curve in the same way there was no learning curve when the iPods went color. "

Well that's a damn shame.
 
Interesting… I trust Ive with everything, but I hope iOS doesn't end up looking like Windows 8. I do like the idea of Windows 8 and it does look fairly clean, but the rectangle scroll bars, the square buttons and the horrible lack of distinction between various things (buttons, links, text, etc…) is just really bad.

Windows 8 also lacks the "warmth" that Apple UI and hardware has always provided. Apple's design is always a bit "warm" and positive, just like those Braun devices they took inspiration from. It's hard to explain, but it just looks friendly and feels nice and satisfying in every way. Windows has always been cold with a corporate feel, and has often slightly gone for the "cool" and "badass" style (just a little bit) which appeals more to teenage boys.

I don't know what it is exactly that gives this feel, perhaps it's simply the following of Dieter Rams' principles of design, and probably also a well tested set of rules for UI elements (size, proportion, etc…). All this can probably still be achieved with a "flat" design, whatever that means.
 
jrswizzle said:
To be quite honest, I wish Apple would just let Yahoo's be the stock apps much like they did with Google Maps for so long. Difference being, they aren't competing with Yahoo here and Yahoo needs the mobile presence.

The Yahoo weather app is awesome :D
Click to expand...

Oh. I agree completely. so much so that it's my opinion Yahoo made the app for Apple so they could gauge the reception of the flat design.

And it's working.
 
shanmugam said:
what do they mean by Flat? i may be using iOS for 6 years, not sure what they mean flat ...
Click to expand...

Shading, curves, and beveled edges are the norm. They give everything a "puffy", pseudo-3D look.

If you want to see *flat*, look at Windows Phone / Windows UI. The "Tiles" interface. That is flat.
 
To me this doesn't sound very promising on terms of a total interface redesign. I hope Apple will do something fresh with the way the current iconic icon row set is displayed across pages including the home screen.
 
Hmm..left and right swipes - not a huge fan of that. Mainly because they will override things like the sliding menus that are popular now (Facebook, Path, Mailbox, etc.) and also swiping to delete items on a table view.

The main thing I want more than a "new look" is just a bit more developer control in the lockscreen/notification center. If I start a timer I should have the option of having it display in the lockscreen so that I don't have to unlock the phone and find the clock app every time I want to see how much time is left.

An app like RunKeeper could display information without you needing to unlock after turning the screen back on.

Or a weather app could use a push notification service to send a user an alert (Which now can be a widget) that displays how much time until the rain will start in their area.

Basically just make contextual information available when the user expects it.
 
Flat

I remember a while back Coke decided to bring out the "NEW Coke". It was flat and did not last more then 6 months. I hope this is not that flat! ;)
 
Can anyone please do a mockup of the coloured squares from the WWDC laid out on an iPhone home screen (touching) with simple icons on the squares to represent the native Apple apps? (I am no photoshop wiz :( )
 
I just really hope we can add folder icons. The Folders are just way to ugly on screen. i'm not sure how this was ever acceptable
 
I think that quite a few people on here don't actually understand what flat design is exactly. Not to mention it's not copying anything from Windows 8 or Google. It's a well known type of design that's not restricted to the major players such as Microsoft and Google.

http://pinterest.com/warmarc/flat-ui-design/

Is a good example of some gorgeous flat design in apps.

I think iOS going flat design is really going to bring some life into it and will probably be a simple way of really updating the UI into a new era of iOS. I'm excited!

EDIT:

And the podcast app isn't flat UI in the slightest :)
 
I'll be very happy to see that strange graphite linen folder background and that nasty blue pajama-striped settings background go away.

Also, I always felt like the iOS interface had a much more sophisticated color palette compared to other mobile OSs. It's toned down, realistic and not as fluorescent. It might be fun to see them use a bit more color while perfecting this new flat interface. Flat line work and silhouettes are harder to perfect in a convincing way than some crazy rendered icon that's supposed to look 3D.

I'm excited. Just excited to finally see some change.
 
I like it the way it is.

They better not change it.

I'll be really pissed off...and I can get pretty pissed off, if you know what I mean!

Someone tell Apple I don't like it. You can use my name.

They'll be really sorry...I mean it!!

That's it...:mad:
 
Wow

I'm not too happy about this....

I like the gloss and shine, but can do without the skeurmorphism (sp?)

I hope its not too flat. I know the popular thing now is to go flat. Android 4.1/4.2 is pretty flat. Windows 8 is kind of flat, especially their new office 2013. But I dont like it too much and unistalled 2013 and put 2010 back on.
 
Squilly said:
Scared. This may be very good or look atrocious.
Click to expand...

Ive has your back covered. He seems to be very interested.

jony-ive-tim-cook.jpg
 
One question I have is does this approach toward the UI free up resources? For example, the old Podcast app had the ability to show the "tape deck" which invariably cost something in terms of processor and/or memory, if only in the size of the app itself. By removing some of these elements, will they be able to make the OS and their own apps more efficient, smaller, faster, etc? They have the technology......

Like it or hate it, the Windows Metro UI was at least an attempt to do something different in the mobile space. Android may have taken different routes with the rest of the OS, but nothing major in the UI department. I think Apple got complacent.( Since Android is copying our UI, well then it must be good.) Microsoft at least showed that someone actually did "think different."
 
Blame Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall for letting iOS become so dated to the point where anything Apple does now to make it look better will be considered a copy of Microsoft or Google.
 
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