Ideas for iOS 8 and beyond

[BillyMatt87]

This is not another iOS 7/Jony Ive software design hate thread.

I don't hate all of iOS 7 because it added a lot of great functionalities to my iPhone (Control Center, new multitasking, iTunes Radio, auto-app updates, etc.). The design direction is definitely a little questioning but I feel that with good input and ideas, the iOS experience can be returned to its former glory but maybe better. So here are my ideas:

The Music apps needs a complete overhaul. It is the one stock app that Apple completely ruined the functionality and design with. I think the Now Playing screen should resemble the one in the new Remote app but with larger album art. The Artist tab should function the exact same way that it does in iOS 1-6. Artist pictures should be optional and selecting a particular album will be shown in a style that translucent to match the colors of the album (a la iTunes 11). The Up Next feature from iTunes 11 should be most definitely implemented. I think CoverFlow should return but with parallax (similar to the tabs in the new version of Safari).

Some of the new icons look fine (but could use an ever-so slight tweak a la green icons in 7.1): App Store, iTunes Store, Phone, Messages, FaceTime, Videos, PassBook, Clock, Newsstand and Compass.

Icons that need serious refining or complete redesigning: Safari, Music, Photos, Camera, Settings, Mail, Maps, Game Center, Calendar, Notes, Reminders, Contacts, Calculator and Voice Memos.

Icons that would be better as live/dynamic but otherwise fine: Stocks and Weather.

Notification Center looks fine aesthetically now but should have the same exact layout as iOS 6.

The dock needs an overhaul. I like how to 3D dock looks in Mavericks but if there's a better way to re-do the dock, it should be a way that it's less obstructive of the wallpaper. The flat dock seems like a step back (iOS 1-3).

Users should have the choice to display signal strength as dots, bars or field test mode (without rebooting the phone). For other parts of the status bar, if a song is currently playing, the play symbol should be shown as it was before. The charging icon should have the lightning bolt inside (saves space) and it should have the plug to let users know their phone is completely charged. The status bar should be somewhat translucent on the home screen for better visibility.

In the lock screen, the camera slider should be slightly larger. The Slide to Unlock should be more prominent and more obvious. The blown up status bar text doesn't flow well with the rest of the OS. When a song is playing in the lock screen, the album art should be translucently reflected. I think the scrubber should be removed and a single click to always access music controls in the lock screen.

For the translucent navigation bars in apps, they should be either silver/grey for light-themed apps or space grey for dark themed apps. I think the system colors for buttons (blue in Safari/Mail or pink in the Music app) should be dark grey for light apps or whiter for dark apps. It looks less tacky that way.

I think buttons should be more clearly defined and have borders instead of simple text. I think obvious touch targets would make the OS less complicated and more obvious to the user.

I feel like these ideas and suggestions would fit in with the direction Apple is taking iOS in. If anybody has any thoughts on how iOS could be improved, feel free to discuss them here and of course on Apple's feedback page: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

 

[luckydcxx]

great post, i would love to see something a little different then just a 4 x 5 grid system of icons (doesn't have to be power hungry widgets).

 

[ionjohn]

I'm soooo eager to see iOS 8 and I'm so looking forward to seeing apple replace that ugly dock and icons like camera, photos, calendar...

 

[LordQ]

You're going to be seriously disappointed...

 

[Naor]

I want to be able to choose default apps, share to whatever app possible and be able to use Siri for any app. Oh, and keyboards!
Only apple can do this right, on android it's lame. So please, apple.

 

[SolarShane]

You're going to be seriously disappointed...

Maybe, maybe not. Remember, Jobs had setup Apple with several years of projects. I think the iPhone 5S was the last iPhone that Jobs had worked out, so I think that 2014 will be the year where Apple is sailing alone, without any guidance from the Jobs-Projects.

The iPad Air was probably the first Jobs-less iPad, and thus the rebranding. The iPhone 6 will be the first Jobs-less iPhone. iOS 8 will be the first Jobs-less iOS. (Pretty sure Jobs laid the ground work for iOS 7.)

 

[BillyMatt87]

Maybe, maybe not. Remember, Jobs had setup Apple with several years of projects. I think the iPhone 5S was the last iPhone that Jobs had worked out, so I think that 2014 will be the year where Apple is sailing alone, without any guidance from the Jobs-Projects.

The iPad Air was probably the first Jobs-less iPad, and thus the rebranding. The iPhone 6 will be the first Jobs-less iPhone. iOS 8 will be the first Jobs-less iOS. (Pretty sure Jobs laid the ground work for iOS 7.)

The iOS 7 that we got was built from the ground up once Jony Ive took over. Steve Jobs would never have fire Scott Forstall under his leadership and I don't think that he anticipated Cook firing him either. Ive and Federighi literally started from scratch with iOS 7 and it was developed in roughly six months so that's why it still looks incomplete and unpolished. iOS 8 and 9 should definitely polish and refine the UI and the overall design.

Also, I can't imagine Jony Ive keeping one particular design around for too long either. So possibly every other year (like the iOS devices), we'll see more substantial software refreshes but nothing as radical as the transition from iOS 6 to 7. It will most definitely evolve, but the transition won't be as drastic like before.

 

[notrack]

I hope to see more support for productivity in both design (visual, navigation...) and features (file system, OS X integration...). And a way to prevent that certain apps get suspended or killed by the system.

 

[yep-sure]

So basically, you want iOS8 to be nothing but slight visual changes?

BTW - I agree with everything you said about the Music app. The whole thing needs a complete redesign. I want "Up next" functionality. I want a better way to browse through albums by artist. I want a usable landscape view.

I hope we get some great new functionality in iOS8.

 

[CutterSlade]

I couldn't care less about how icons look or any kind of visual change. I don't understand why most people care only for visual changes and nothing else. As if they aren't using the OS but just watching it...

This OS desperately needs a file manager so that different apps can save to/ read from a common space. Data sharing between apps is a pain in the ass in the current state. Even the most basic things like sending an arbitrary file as an attachment has to be done from another app. Sending multiple files as attachments is impossible because there is no such thing called "browsing for files".

But since everyone is obsessed with design changes, I don't think that this will added to iOS ever or any other useful feature for that matter. The only thing iOS 15.0 will have different than the current version of the OS will probably be the look of its icons and their arrangement in the home screen. And maybe they will make everything a single color to make it look more "modern"

 

[Vanilla35]

The iOS 7 that we got was built from the ground up once Jony Ive took over. Steve Jobs would never have fire Scott Forstall under his leadership and I don't think that he anticipated Cook firing him either. Ive and Federighi literally started from scratch with iOS 7 and it was developed in roughly six months so that's why it still looks incomplete and unpolished. iOS 8 and 9 should definitely polish and refine the UI and the overall design.

Also, I can't imagine Jony Ive keeping one particular design around for too long either. So possibly every other year (like the iOS devices), we'll see more substantial software refreshes but nothing as radical as the transition from iOS 6 to 7. It will most definitely evolve, but the transition won't be as drastic like before.

Unfortunately you are 100% correct about this. It's probably going to be 6-10 years until we see a good iOS design again.

Not to say that I mean to completely bash iOS 7's aesthetics (there are many people who like it). But I mean that we will not get an iOS that is laid out as nicely as iOS 6 was, for a very long time.

 

[Sky Blue]

I'm soooo eager to see iOS 8 and I'm so looking forward to seeing apple replace icons like camera, photos, calendar...

what makes you think they would replace them?

 

[lulumink]

I'm soooo eager to see iOS 8 and I'm so looking forward to seeing apple replace that ugly dock and icons like camera, photos, calendar...

relax, it won't change much based on the Apple's iOS history.

 

[BillyMatt87]

what makes you think they would replace them?

Ironically, the new Camera icon is more skeumorphic than the previous plus it looks like cheap clip art.

The Photos icon is a terrible metaphor for the app. I get that it's meant to be a flat version of the old sunflower image but neither of them properly represented photos (the old one just looked better). Also, its icon doesn't fit with well with the other photo-centric apps (iPhoto and PhotoBooth).

Calendar isn't as ugly as some of the other icons but it's a little too white. Maybe some more red would balance it out.

Ive and his team didn't even design most of the iOS 7 icons (that was the marketing department) so hopefully the icon revisions/redesigns we see in the future come from the actual designers.

Also based on previous iOS history, the entire OS wouldn't have been completely overhauled. I hope Ive and Federighi don't go down the path of Forstall by letting the design go stale for 6 versions.

 

[ionjohn]

what makes you think they would replace them?

They must've gotten a lot of feedback regarding the ugliest of the icons and whatnot, it'd be dumb not to change 'em since most people don't like them.

----------

relax, it won't change much based on the Apple's iOS history.

There's no such thing as apple's history, anything can happen

 

[Katmiku]

They must've gotten a lot of feedback regarding the ugliest of the icons and whatnot, it'd be dumb not to change 'em since most people don't like them.

on which facts do you base this ?

Not to bash you or anything but there are million of iPhone owners and seeing a handful of ''omg so ugly'' topics on macrumors or other forums, even if they have 250 pages or something, is still a faaaaaaaar end away from ''most people''

Not to say iOS 7 is perfect , but all the black/gray/grayblue in iOS6 and previous versions wasn't of this time anymore, made me think back to windows 98.

 

[ionjohn]

on which facts do you base this ?

Not to bash you or anything but there are million of iPhone owners and seeing a handful of ''omg so ugly'' topics on macrumors or other forums, even if they have 250 pages or something, is still a faaaaaaaar end away from ''most people''

Not to say iOS 7 is perfect , but all the black/gray/grayblue in iOS6 and previous versions wasn't of this time anymore, made me think back to windows 98.

It has nothing to do with forums, iOS 7 lost its professional look, only fanboys like yourself can't admit that. Windows 98? are you kidding me? You're out of your mind.

 

[Katmiku]

It has nothing to do with forums, iOS 7 lost its professional look, only fanboys like yourself can't admit that. Windows 98? are you kidding me? You're out of your mind.

I'm not a fanboy , I have an Android device and a WP device next to my iPhone and a pc next to my MacBook.
I was only stating it's not so bad as all the doomsayers are saying.

And yes iOS6 anno 2013 made me feel like using Windows 98 , if you disagree then you are free to explain as to how the next picture looks like it belongs on a 600 GBP phone in 2013 :

if you hate it that much buy an Android device, or learn to like it - by labelling people who don't agree with you as ''fanboy'' is not bringing iOS 6 back.
Games change , food and drinks change , phone operating systems change - it's life.

 

[ionjohn]

I'm not a fanboy , I have an Android device and a WP device next to my iPhone and a pc next to my MacBook.
I was only stating it's not so bad as all the doomsayers are saying.

And yes iOS6 anno 2013 made me feel like using Windows 98 , if you disagree then you are free to explain as to how the next picture looks like it belongs on a 600 GBP phone in 2013 :

Image

if you hate it that much buy an Android device, or learn to like it - by labelling people who don't agree with you as ''fanboy'' is not bringing iOS 6 back.
Games change , food and drinks change , phone operating systems change - it's life.

I don't hate iOS 7, iOS 7 is awesome, it was needed, I just wish they'd polished it more, that's why i'm eager to see iOS 8, they didn't have enough time to consider many design options for iOS 7, now they do. Just take a look at apple's apps which were updated after iOS 7 release, they look way better than most native app icons.

And I still think iOS 6 looks awesome, that's what made me love the iphone in the first place.

 

[BillyMatt87]

on which facts do you base this ?

Not to bash you or anything but there are million of iPhone owners and seeing a handful of ''omg so ugly'' topics on macrumors or other forums, even if they have 250 pages or something, is still a faaaaaaaar end away from ''most people''

Not to say iOS 7 is perfect , but all the black/gray/grayblue in iOS6 and previous versions wasn't of this time anymore, made me think back to windows 98.

A lot of professional UI designers have panned iOS 7's design. It not just the icons, but the unrecognizable buttons, excessive whiteness in apps, etc.

Millions of users on Twitter were venting about their dislike of iOS 7's UI. I think that most people are not necessarily against change but they went a bit too far and Apple has undoubtably received much feedback regarding iOS 7.

Jony Ive and Craig Federighi don't strike me as arrogant in the way that Forstall and even Jobs did. Since it was their first major iOS release, they might be a lot more receptive to user feedback than before. And yes, Apple does listen to its users. Remember the 3rd generation iPod shuffle? Apple did not receive the most positive feedback and so the 4th generation was pretty much a return to form similar to the 2nd generation. Remember the iPad side switch being changed from orientation lock to mute? Apple listened and gave users an option there. You know all those complaints about the icons being overly saturated and childlike? In 7.1, Apple listened and has started to tone down and mature the look of some of the icons (Phone, Messages and FaceTime). If enough people give feedback and ideas to Apple, they will address them.

Also, comparing the icons on the current home screen to the icons for Apple's downloadable apps, you can see some differences as those app icons (iWork apps, iLife apps, iBooks, Podcasts, Find My iPhone, Movie Trailers, etc.) have a much more consistent and harmonious look and feel to them. Yes, they all use the same grid template but they look like they are following it much better as they are definitely more aesthetically pleasing than the home screen icons. That's probably because the newer icons were designed by the app designers rather than the marketers. I expect in iOS 8, 9 and so on that we will see much more refined and constant looking app icons from Apple.

 

[Black Magic]

A lot of professional UI designers have panned iOS 7's design. It not just the icons, but the unrecognizable buttons, excessive whiteness in apps, etc.

Millions of users on Twitter were venting about their dislike of iOS 7's UI. I think that most people are not necessarily against change but they went a bit too far and Apple has undoubtably received much feedback regarding iOS 7.

Jony Ive and Craig Federighi don't strike me as arrogant in the way that Forstall and even Jobs did. Since it was their first major iOS release, they might be a lot more receptive to user feedback than before. And yes, Apple does listen to its users. Remember the 3rd generation iPod shuffle? Apple did not receive the most positive feedback and so the 4th generation was pretty much a return to form similar to the 2nd generation. Remember the iPad side switch being changed from orientation lock to mute? Apple listened and gave users an option there. You know all those complaints about the icons being overly saturated and childlike? In 7.1, Apple listened and has started to tone down and mature the look of some of the icons (Phone, Messages and FaceTime). If enough people give feedback and ideas to Apple, they will address them.

Also, comparing the icons on the current home screen to the icons for Apple's downloadable apps, you can see some differences as those app icons (iWork apps, iLife apps, iBooks, Podcasts, Find My iPhone, Movie Trailers, etc.) have a much more consistent and harmonious look and feel to them. Yes, they all use the same grid template but they look like they are following it much better as they are definitely more aesthetically pleasing than the home screen icons. That's probably because the newer icons were designed by the app designers rather than the marketers. I expect in iOS 8, 9 and so on that we will see much more refined and constant looking app icons from Apple.

I'm not sure why some are getting so hung up on iOS 7 looks. Apple basically took the best designed app "Yahoo Weather" and copied the interface to become the new iOS interface. Nice new color pallet and transparency here and there but it's still iOS 6 with a paint job. I like it and would not want to go back. I don't care what a bunch of self proclaimed design experts think as they probably don't care what I think. Not only that, but in my real world experience, everyone likes it and was really happy when it was initially released. Apple will not let a few naysayers dictate and alter their successful approach.

iOS 8 though will not be about UI tweaks and such. I believe it will be about features and functionality. I'm actually really excited about iOS 8 and I think we may see tons of improvement in functionality and capability.

 

[BillyMatt87]

I'm not sure why some are getting so hung up on iOS 7 looks. Apple basically took the best designed app "Yahoo Weather" and copied the interface to become the new iOS interface. Nice new color pallet and transparency here and there but it's still iOS 6 with a paint job. I like it and would not want to go back. I don't care what a bunch of self proclaimed design experts think as they probably don't care what I think. Not only that, but in my real world experience, everyone likes it and was really happy when it was initially released. Apple will not let a few naysayers dictate and alter their successful approach.

iOS 8 though will not be about UI tweaks and such. I believe it will be about features and functionality. I'm actually really excited about iOS 8 and I think we may see tons of improvement in functionality and capability.

The overall template of the new iOS is good but to say that the icons and several UI elements are don't need to be refined and rethought is ridiculous. iOS 7 was rushed so there's no way that we won't see several visual improvements in 8 or 9. iOS 7 was and still is incomplete visually and UI-wise. What's to say that Apple can't focus on both refining the UI and improving functionality.

Also, I think the last thing Apple needs right now is to have people complaining that iOS's design is once again going stale. Just because you did one big redesign doesn't mean you should rest on your laurels for 5 or 6 updates. Ive doesn't seem like Forstall in that respect.

Finally, the whole point of the thread is to make suggestions for future iOS updates and not necessarily speculating. Venting won't really do much but sending feedback to Apple will.

 

[Infinus.gold]

The iOS 7 that we got was built from the ground up once Jony Ive took over. Steve Jobs would never have fire Scott Forstall under his leadership and I don't think that he anticipated Cook firing him either. Ive and Federighi literally started from scratch with iOS 7 and it was developed in roughly six months so that's why it still looks incomplete and unpolished. iOS 8 and 9 should definitely polish and refine the UI and the overall design.

Also, I can't imagine Jony Ive keeping one particular design around for too long either. So possibly every other year (like the iOS devices), we'll see more substantial software refreshes but nothing as radical as the transition from iOS 6 to 7. It will most definitely evolve, but the transition won't be as drastic like before.

I don't really think iOS 7 is completely new...
Software of such scale can't be build in 6 months.
iOS 7 must be a part of incremental design. iOS 7 is build for incremental iPhone 5S. Hardware architecture of iPhone 5S is not completely different from older ones. New additions include 64 bit MCU, additional SoC, new kernel to support 64 bit & new UI.
.....
iPhone design language is similar to iPhone 4.

They said its new; but it may not be exactly true.

 

[Infinus.gold]

I think iOS 7 is has very good fresh and white-clean interface.
iOS 7 tries to rethink of new age UI not polished metal UI of old metal age. It's fresh good morning white freedom.
Some part of software is not defect free but that's fine.
I hope new revisions will be more stable and robust.

 

[Black Magic]

The overall template of the new iOS is good but to say that the icons and several UI elements are don't need to be refined and rethought is ridiculous. iOS 7 was rushed so there's no way that we won't see several visual improvements in 8 or 9. iOS 7 was and still is incomplete visually and UI-wise. What's to say that Apple can't focus on both refining the UI and improving functionality.

Also, I think the last thing Apple needs right now is to have people complaining that iOS's design is once again going stale. Just because you did one big redesign doesn't mean you should rest on your laurels for 5 or 6 updates. Ive doesn't seem like Forstall in that respect.

Finally, the whole point of the thread is to make suggestions for future iOS updates and not necessarily speculating. Venting won't really do much but sending feedback to Apple will.

You stated that some icons and UI elements need to be refined and it's ridiculous to think otherwise which I think is ridiculous in itself. You are basically saying, "I feel this way and it's the correct way. If you don't agree with me then you are ridiculous." That type of thinking started WWII.

I don't sit there and stare at the icons or go through all the interfaces for each app. Everything Apple has done up to this point with the interface I'm ok with outside of full screen contact photos being removed in 7.1. Everything I've seen has been intuitive and works. I've never opened an Apple app and had no idea what to do or got confused. I suspect I'm not the only one.

Anyways, it just sounds like some folks like to nitpick over things that aren't really that big of a deal which turns into a waste of time for everyone involved. Just my 2 cents.