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

lordofthereef said:
Everybody is different, I think. My mom, 65, was intimidated to high hell by the 4S I gave her for a christmas gift. Granted, she wanted one, but mostly because she wanted to be able to easily upload pics to Facebook and text. Eventually she got it, but it took quite the bit of learning. The interesting thing is, she does everything on her phone now. She knows how to use her phone better than she knows how to use here PC. But it took some getting there.
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Exactly! Everyone is different and anecdotal stories are not necessarily illustrative of a pervasive problem. Now, don't get me going on how often my mom gets confused about passwords! How many times has she reset her password for iCloud?? :eek::D
 
Not liking the signs

Now I know it's still early days, but I have to say I'm not liking the sound of this UI at all.
I've hated the 'decolourising' of Mac OSX and now it looks like they're going to do the same to IOS.
Worse than this though is Apple seem to have become a trend follower rather than a trend setter - reacting to the innovation of Windows, Android and even Blackberry.
I'm all for plagiarising the best bits off Android, & Windows, but back in the day Apple would have taken those ideas and made them even better.
That's rarely the case recently and if the total sum of their 'improvement' is simply copying others, then it doesn't bode well for the future.
For the first time in two decades I genuinely feel like Apple is in decline.
Steve Jobs absence is really being felt now and it shows in Apple's Products.
The iPhone 5 (though a great phone), is really just an iPhone 4 with a slightly bigger screen. Yes it's lighter, but...well...it's just not enough of an upgrade.
The iPad Mini, is just a smaller and cheaper iPad.
Where is the innovation?
There's really been very little truly 'new' product at all - not even a new Mac Pro!!!
The 'new' iMac simply removed the optical disc and added thunderbolt - as did the Mac Mini. The Macbook Pro got a 'new' retina screen and lost the optical drive too. It just feels like stagnation to me.
I hope I'm wrong, as I love using their products but it's getting harder and harder to ignore the others and Apple's response has been underwhelming.
There was a time when Nokia were king of the mobile phone market and seemingly unassailable - the same went for Sony Ericsson, but both have fallen from grace. I hope the next few years isn't going to see the same thing happen to Apple, but unless they start truly innovating again that's exactly what'll happen.
Making everything grey and flat IS NOT innovation - C'mon Apple!!!
 
bozzykid said:
It's a shame the media hypes up killing off skeumorphism and going to a 'flat design'. Honestly, this is not Apple's biggest problem.

Yes, the UI is stale. But changing the icons and app gradients isn't going to fix the real issues with iOS. No app interoperability (like sharing), stupid design choices like spinning wheels that are not efficient to use, the terrible notification center, no ability to set app defaults, etc. That is what is putting iOS behind.
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While I definitely agree with you, it's kind of sad that this type of design change would likely keep and attract customers over obvious fundamental deficiencies. The average person leaves iOS for Android, for example, for a fresh look, sets their ui once, and then forgets about it.

Sedrick said:
Took me forever to find this image again, but this is really sexy:

Image
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I like it. Although I hope the colors are a little brighter/vibrant, kind of like on the WWDC logo.
 
Patriot24 said:
Most users on this board? Yes.

Most users in the wild? No.

In fact, it seems fairly obvious that the general population are in love with iPads and buying them in record numbers instead of traditional PCs because they are not traditional PCs with traditional OSes.
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And you speak for all users in the wild? You just can't make that assumption. Many people have never even used OS X.

People like iPads because they are the hot thing, friends and family give good word of mouth.
 
ra4oasis said:
but my wife is STILL talking about how she wants the old Google Maps back, just because it was familiar.

If Ive can give us a new look, but keep it elegant and simple to use, all while adding new features, iOS 7 will be a home run.
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Your wife is right. Google maps still trumps Apple Maps.

However I do think in another year or so, Apple may finally get its maps app working properly.
 
Cloudane said:
You know Apple are in trouble when they start copying Microsoft instead of the other way around.
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*compares iOS success to Windows Phone success*

Yep, Apple is the one in trouble here! /s

And I don't think you can conclude they are simply copying Microsoft simply based on a vague description of what iOS 7 might look like. At least wait for leaked video :)
 
This can't come soon enough and hopefully OS X is up for a little reworking too.

I don't have any particular beef with 3D-ish effects and skeuomorphism (in some cases, such visual cues help a user understand a given UI) but it seems in the last couple years, Apple has gone way overboard with it. In some cases, it led to less intuitive interfaces--something skeuomorphism was supposed to avoid, in theory, by presenting the users with familiar looking controls.

I was also less-than-thrilled that a standard app I rely on at work (iCal) fell victim to form-over-function tinkering that rendered it unforgivably ugly as well as being far less useful and far more frustrating to use. Ive doesn't have to eradicate these elements entirely but I sure hope he applies some much-needed restraint in its use.
 
baryon said:
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.
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HAHAHAHAHAH! Not that I agree with what you are saying... Your tag is hilarious!

"Sent from my iPod Shuffle"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAH!

Bravo!
 
They better allow us to delete the standard apps. There's nothing that annoys me more with the current iOS.
 
What is Ive's responsibility vs. Federighi in terms of iOS functionality (not look and feel of UI)? For instance inter-app communications, toggles, multitasking, etc. those would fall under Federighi, not Ive?
 
Flat is not always....FLAT...

OS always consists of 2 parts. the look of the user interface and the User interface itself.
Look of the OS is nothing to do with the organization of the OS.
Think how many "touches" you may need to do to switch on and off the Wi-fi or Bluetooth etc...

Interface design, which I think Mr. Ive is heading is focusing mainly on the structure of the OS rather than the look of it...

The update might focus on bringing things closer to reach rather than loading the icons under the rolling pin...(which might make the icons from app store look absurd along with the flat ios icons...update them, looks very absurd)

This flat os will focus on squishing the structure of the OS to make things reach far easier and faster..
 
...in addition to newly designed tool bars, tab bars, and other fundamental interface features across the system.
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This excites me. I could give a rats patooty if iOS gets prettied up, but improved ease of use and productivity makes my heart melt. Here's hoping file management is improved too and iOS 7 truly reflects how iDevice use for content creation has increased dramatically since the original iPhone when true Apps were not even on the radar.
 
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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Just look at apps being released and how modern design has changed from 6 years ago. I'm not talking about Windows Phone UI or Android UI.
If all these rumors are true, Apple is updating their design as tastes and flavor has moved.
 
but what about the difference of these designs:

new podcast app:
podcasts-app.jpg


and

new passbook app:
passbook_ios61b2.jpg



both minimalistic but in two different ways...which one will become the new design of iOS 7.. :)
 
I hope this is not a return to the bad old days at apple. Already seeing a proliferation of models and form factors.

Skeumorphism is actually a great intuitive way to communicate to users how software is to be used.

*Sigh* Who is actually left at Apple that knows the technology of software and chips?
 
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