Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iOS 11: Big. Bold. Beautiful (?)

LordQ

LordQ

Suspended
Original poster
Sep 22, 2012
3,582
5,653
I was wondering, what if more stock apps in iOS 11 get the News and Apple Music treatment? Bigger and bolder fonts, more focus on content and that card UI, so I created these:

Calendar:
Cal.png


Mail:
Mail.png


Phone:
Phone.png



Notes:
Notes.png


what do you think?
 
  • Like
Reactions: nathorpe, Shirasaki, ILikeAllOS and 2 others
I think you did a good job showing what the style would look like in other apps, but I'm not a fan of the style itself. Your mockups make it even more clear. It's good for subway signs and Ikea manuals but I don't like it on my phone. It wastes a lot of screen real estate and feels like it's shouting at me all the time.

On top of that, it hides functionality in confusing ways, not consistent with the rest of the OS paradigm. Even just sorting songs by artist instead of by album is harderto do than bedore.

Within the whole OS, it stands out like a sore thumb, or like an old skeuomorphic app in iOS 7. I wonder if Jimmy and Dre insisted their own designers should determine the look & feel of their app. It doesn't feel like a Jony Ive job.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cayden, Beeplance, PowerBook-G5 and 3 others
You did an excellent job showing what it would look like, but personally, I would not be a fan of that design. I like the way there are going now with more like transparent cards and more swiping between cards than tapping. It's hard to explain, but the iOS 10 design I think is gorgeous how they did the frosted transparent cards.

Screen Shot 2017-01-27 at 3.41.03 PM.png Screen Shot 2017-01-27 at 3.42.29 PM.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: jdayellow and ILikeAllOS
mark-vdw said:
It doesn't feel like a Jony Ive job.
Click to expand...

I think Jony Ive is not the creative brain behind these designs. iOS 7 was all about ‘Swiss style’ minimalism, with basic colours, simple shapes and thin strokes (in lines and fonts). This is almost the antithesis of this: bulky, clumsy and the layering of translucency upon translucency is reminiscent of the ‘clutter and ornamentation’ that Ive specifically wanted to get away from.

I think the influence is mostly coming from watchOS, whose UI designer was Alan Dye (the current VP of ‘human interface design’). On watchOS, the UI components are so large that they cover most of the screen (which makes sense on an Apple Watch). This is what you can see in the music app as well, fonts and touch surfaces are upscaled to use the space (where it probably makes much less sense).

The new design of the music app probably works well when you need to access stuff quickly, but other than that it is wasted space and unpleasant to use due to large/bold things ‘yelling for attention’. This is why iOS has a ‘zoom’ mode and customisable text sizes. That’s the way to go, not this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Feyl, Goatllama and 3568358
  • Like
Reactions: nathorpe, ILikeAllOS and Goatllama
Haha I love your replies, it was fun trying to imagine a few more apps with that style.
Personally I think Apple Music (or at least the Now Playing screen) looked better in iOS 9 and I haven't been able to mess around with News in iOS 10.
 
I do like the look but UI design isn't just about looks. The real skill is in balancing the beautiful with the useful and intuitive.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3568358
AHHHHHHHHH!!!! KILL IT!!!!!
[doublepost=1485559433][/doublepost]Okay after the shock wore off... haha

I actually like the style of the music app, and it seems to work on the other apps you made, too.

The attachments showing as a photo (a la Google mail products, etc.), is nice....

You know what? The more I look at them, the more I dig them.
 
My eyes hurts with iOS 10 music app design. I hate how iOS is looking more like crappy Windows Phone with the ugliest UI (compared only to Fiat Multipla)

Yea, that's a second after battery life reason I stay on 9.3.5
 
  • Like
Reactions: Feyl and 3568358
I hope to god not. I hate the TV App for example and it is too simple and ugly.

It is kinda ironic, now that even mobile devices have the power to render ui elements and everything perfectly the design pattern moves on to be barely existing.

Also it reminds me of Zune. Ew. Remember THAT?
 
  • Like
Reactions: addamas
Inspired by Apple Music... Honestly not terrible but the Music app can be a little tedious to use sometimes.
 
Mlrollin91 said:
It burns!!

As others have said. Great mockup. Just not my style.
Click to expand...

You are aware Apple don't design things according to your style, right? :p
[doublepost=1485599284][/doublepost]I'm hoping iOS 11 is more than just a basic features dump. But at the same time I also don't want them to make it 100 x more intensive so my iPhone 7 Plus slows down!
 
I think the music app is so big because a lot of people use their music app in the car and reading small fonts isn't very easy while your phone is far away.
 
I really like how you made this, especially the calendar app. It looks very professional, something Apple could have done.

Apple seems to like the big bold fonts and empty space these days so why not create coherence throughout the OS and apply that new style to all the apps.
 
Last edited:
I love the thicker font on calendar and notes (they look way more readable), not so much for mail (seems like there would be less space for mail previews) and contacts (can't explain why, just rubs me the wrong way).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back