So if we’re discussing iOS 11 UI specifically — I never got messages like the below from family members until all the unnecessary plastic surgery of iOS started rolling in from Jony and Craig’s team starting in 2013. Those who disagree with me can kid all they want that maybe some people are just not as hip/tricky or technically sophistcated as others, but theyre wrong. Aspects of ios 11 are as crappy as they were with ios 7 and on. Rarely got so many “help me” calls before 2013.
With so many others complaining about the ios11 Podcasts app, this is not new news, but can anybody justify why so much wasted space with two screens are required to see all the podcast controls? Soon as you guess to press the lower right corner to see podcast controls, you’re presented with a window with absolutely zero clue that there are additional controls below. Is this really good UI and if so what am I missing? How could this possibly pass even a beta release stage without any scrutiny? Why does anyone guess it’s even a good idea to need to do something extra to pop out controls instead of see them at all times, like in all the blank white space on the left side? Or am I just a super genius who can see things better than anybody at Apple nowadays?
A shame that this is the route that Apple is taking going forward.
I think the Music and Podcast Apps are two apps which were changed for the absolute worst since Music's redesign in iOS 10. I say this because the significant downsides are two-fold: 1) unnecessarily bold headers and scaled up text means users are seeing less content at any single instance, and 2) increasingly convoluted sub-menus, action buttons tucked away in random places, and an overhaul so massive many users are left wasting time re-learning how to use the app on their own. How can anyone make a case that this is good design?
Furthermore, another point I want to make is how iOS, as a whole, has generally become less intuitive in many areas as more features get dumped into the OS every year without careful consideration of how to actually make them easy to use to the average layman.
For instance, case in point is 3D Touch. I can bet my entire fortune that a great majority of iOS users don't even know about 3D touch features across the operating system. Why? Because Apple didn't bother to implement it in an obvious way.
No one can look at the static icons on the homescreen of iOS for the first time and know that you can pressure-touch icons to gain access to more controls. No one can look at the iOS keyboard for the first time and know that you can pressure-touch that area to use it as a mouse. And no one can look at lockscreen message notifications for the first time and know that you can pressure-touch the bubbles to directly compose a reply.
One of iOS's UI core foundations is
simplicity. It hinges on the notion that people didn't need to be taught about how to use the features of the iOS, because everything was obvious. That also directly mean that if users have to learn/be taught how to do certain things in iOS, Apple's design philosophy had failed itself.
Which is what is happening now.