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Former iOS Chief Scott Forstall Surfaces After Quiet Year of Traveling and Philanthropy

YanniDepp said:
That's the worst reasoning I've heard in a long time. Even on an Apple website.

That's genius! Absolute genius. Yeah, let's throw away familiar designs that people know how to use, and make people learn anything again.

Older versions of iOS, while a bit heavy on the detailed graphics, were designed by people who knew human-computer interaction. It was obvious what could be clicked and what couldn't. You could tell the status of anything just by looking at it (except the AirPlay icon in iOS 5's Music app).

It could have been refined. Tweaked. Improved.

Throwing it all away and starting again was a mistake.
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What is there to learn? Click on some text once and discover it is a button. Learned. Click on an icon once and discover it is a menu. Learned.

Everything is I the same place it used to be.

If you can't learn how to use iOS7 in a few hours like the other hundred million+ iPhone users, then the problem probably isn't ios7.
 
He added me on his Facebook before he got ousted, and I was amazed he would add me...then he deleted his Facebook page after. Sad.
 
Solomani said:
Come back Scott! We apologize for demonizing you and calling your Skeumorphism a "thing of the devil". We retract it! All of it!

Please come back. Save us! :p
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Ahh, disagree, I hated the stale iOS6 and fully welcome the change iOS 7 has brought.

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ZOZO said:
The only people I've seen who like iOS 7 only use terms such as "modern" and "better" without any reasons. I have a pile of specific usability problems that get on my nerves all the time. Not just the interface, but the design of some of the new features. Ah well, some people will love anything new for modernity sake.
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No problems here... Just you maybe.
 
Chiming in to say that I love the new ios7 look as well, and if half of what I have heard of Scott is true, I think it is better overall that he doesn't return to apple.

Is there a reason why creative people have to be jerks? It sounds like he was being an impediment to progress at apple. I guess he was being tolerated because of his contributions, but the moment he screwed up ios6 (which I felt was the most underwhelming update by far), I think he has outlived his usefulness.

Honestly, I believe Apple is better off without him.
 
I have a feeling, that in some years (maybe 10-15) Scott will make a comeback to Apple and save the - then - dying company.

Maybe I am wrong, but I see him as the only real Steve Jobs successor.

Hope I will live long enough, to see that.
 
pat park said:
His contributions to Apple were huge. Rumor has it, he became combative, disruptive within the executive staff during and after Jobs' passing (which is normal behavior when a bus is trying to run you over). To keep the harmony on that team, Cook let him go.
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Fixed! :D
 
Miss Some Skeumorphism

Scott Forstall may have taken skeumorphism way too far, for example, the green velvet and the leather stitching, but now I'm wishing some of his ideas came back. I liked, under him, how buttons looked, I don't know, LIKE BUTTONS!!! Users can't tell when text based buttons are tap-able. I bet we are all guilty of trying to tap on text or an icon you thought was a button, but turned out not to be.
iOS7 has some great new features, but intuitiveness is not one of them.
 
Now you want people to spend hours learning something it took literally minutes in iOS 1 to 6?

iOS7 is so good that now you want people to waste hours in learning how to use it?

So long the "you just know how to use it the moment you see it" Apple we knew all this years.

wikiverse said:
What is there to learn? Click on some text once and discover it is a button. Learned. Click on an icon once and discover it is a menu. Learned.

Everything is I the same place it used to be.

If you can't learn how to use iOS7 in a few hours like the other hundred million+ iPhone users, then the problem probably isn't ios7.
Click to expand...
 
wikiverse said:
What is there to learn? Click on some text once and discover it is a button. Learned. Click on an icon once and discover it is a menu. Learned.

Everything is I the same place it used to be.

If you can't learn how to use iOS7 in a few hours like the other hundred million+ iPhone users, then the problem probably isn't ios7.
Click to expand...

that is not apple. apple is intuitive not confusing and trial and error

i was far from a fan of everything forstall did but he certainly became a scapegoat. there are some not so positive stories about how is to work around but none here knows that for sure but when you add the ibooks thing, same old designs, the pathetic auto dl of ios7 and while ios7 is a breath of fresh air its illogical nonsense it certainly seems he was thrown under the bus.
 
ZOZO said:
The only people I've seen who like iOS 7 only use terms such as "modern" and "better" without any reasons. I have a pile of specific usability problems that get on my nerves all the time. Not just the interface, but the design of some of the new features. Ah well, some people will love anything new for modernity sake.
Click to expand...

While I agree, I can't help but recall all the people whining about skeuomorphism over the past few years. I guess they got what they wished for.... Personally, I liked skeuomorphism, at least in moderation. Better that than blank white screens. Even Mavericks Activity Monitor is more white now and just harder to look at quickly. I actually liked the "dark look" that Final Cut Pro X and Quicktime X where hinting at and then all the sudden everything else went WHITE. Ack. Maybe it's time for a THEME manager for OSX and iOS. Let people use what they like not what Steve Jobs uses...oh wait.... :eek:
 
baryon said:
So he designed Aqua and worked with Apple pretty much since the beginning of the successful Apple (post NeXt), yet he was only fired for medium mistakes in a single iOS app? Sounds a bit harsh to me!

I do prefer iOS 7's design though, but it seems he contributed a lot to Apple to be fired like that. Surely there's more to the story?
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The story is that Forstall and Ive probably butted heads at some point during the initial development of ios 7. Forstall probably stood his ground and got fired. It probably went something like:

Forstall: Jony your design looks like it was made by a 5 year old.
Jony: Your maps ********** suck.
Cook: Assimilate or be terminated.
 
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oliversl said:
Now you want people to spend hours learning something it took literally minutes in iOS 1 to 6?

iOS7 is so good that now you want people to waste hours in learning how to use it?

So long the "you just know how to use it the moment you see it" Apple we knew all this years.
Click to expand...

I have never, ever had a problem learning how to use ios7. In fact everything works exactly the same as it did in ios6. It just looks nicer and more consistent throughout all the native apps.

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numlock said:
that is not apple. apple is intuitive not confusing and trial and error

i was far from a fan of everything forstall did but he certainly became a scapegoat. there are some not so positive stories about how is to work around but none here knows that for sure but when you add the ibooks thing, same old designs, the pathetic auto dl of ios7 and while ios7 is a breath of fresh air its illogical nonsense it certainly seems he was thrown under the bus.
Click to expand...

Well ios7 introduced new functionality which requires a menu system of organisation.

You're acting like every button has changed. They added a small menu button to the bottom of some apps and it is the same button across all of them. You click it once and you know what it does forever. That is exactly apple. Intuitive. Small discovery curve. Minimalist.

I don't need the word done to have a button picture around it. I can just click the word 'done' when I'm done.

Seriously, if people using a mac forum can't figure out how to use an iPhone then we shouldn't be worried about apple being doomed, the world is doomed.
 
I finally kwon what iOS7 is like! Cool!

cool-leaf-flat-touchscreen-keyboard-by-minebea.jpg
 
dumastudetto said:
Ive is on the right track with iOS 7. It's lightyears ahead of every other mobile OS in terms of UI, ease-of-use and of course raw performance.
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Then, as a developer, why do my animations which were smooth as butter in iOS 5 and 6 suddenly start stuttering and dropping frames in iOS 7 using the same libraries on the same hardware.

The fact is, right now iOS 7 is a dog in terms of some areas of performance. They've gone backwards.
 
Notification Centre has says I have 'four things happen in tomorrow'.

iOS6 use to actually tell me what they were!

Just one of many examples of how design (everything has to be txt) over simple functionality with ios7. Don't get me started on the calendar and dots.
 
sofila said:
you forgot "Buzz" before lightyears.
Your posts usually remind me Red Army marketing on DDR walls. Quite one-sided opinions
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Opinions are always 'one sided' since they are the *opinions* of the person expressing them.

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inkswamp said:
I don't get why everyone gripes about it. Yeah, there are a few things that need tweaking, but overall, it's so much better than iOS 6 that I can't believe people still gripe.
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Gripers gripe.
 
I actually really like iOS7. Sure the detailed 3D icons and design graphics were nice but design trends change over the years. Right now it's all about flat and minimalist but give it a few years and things will change again.

As far as the "text as a button" thing goes, if you can't figure out that a blue colored word "Send" will send your text message, or that a red colored word "Shuffle" will shuffle your songs then I'm amazed that you're still alive because you're probably too dumb to even operate a doorknob. I've not once had a problem navigating iOS7.

I just don't think that a button is necessary. Even in iOS7 there's a "button" on the music app (see image) in the bottom left corner for "Repeat Artist" and I don't think it adds any additional functionality compared to the two non-button texts next to it.

iOS7%20Music%20App.png
 
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