I am pessimistic and assume that all these changes will result in harder to read text.
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iOS 19: What to Expect From Apple's Dramatic Design Overhaul?
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Ugh it's a no for me and those circle icons.
Just give me a circular watch. I love my Apple Watch Ultra 2, but I miss the round face of EVERY analog watch I had before I started down the Apple Watch route.
Unfortunately Apple didn’t do the mockup so all options are still on the table and it’s doubtful it’ll look like the mockup
The squarcircle icons of iOS are pretty iconic. I can't see Apple changing them.
But I could see the icons being harmonised more across each platform.
On macOS the icons look nearly like iOS and iPadOS icons - but not quite.
Ditto the rumour about the UX controls being harmonised too. I don't think it would be a bad thing if an iOS or iPadOS user picked up a Mac and things behaved exactly as they'd expect them to do so i.e. Systems Settings (or just 'Settings, maybe?) was exactly like iPadOS or iOS.
Ditto major UI paradigms. macOS Launchpad has barely been touched since launch and is crying out for a better solution.
Expose and Stage manager (remember that?) both exist and that needs to be resolved.
But good luck trying to explain to iOS users why you uninstall apps by dragging them to the trash. Or explaining to long time macOS users that that is being got rid of...
As for greater translucency - sure, why not.
Android allows you to theme the UI based on your wallpaper - there just seems to be a UX trend to making the chrome disappear even more than it has already (compared to the aqua days, where it was all about the chrome), so this seems to be consistent with that.
Bring it, I say.
But I could see the icons being harmonised more across each platform.
On macOS the icons look nearly like iOS and iPadOS icons - but not quite.
Ditto the rumour about the UX controls being harmonised too. I don't think it would be a bad thing if an iOS or iPadOS user picked up a Mac and things behaved exactly as they'd expect them to do so i.e. Systems Settings (or just 'Settings, maybe?) was exactly like iPadOS or iOS.
Ditto major UI paradigms. macOS Launchpad has barely been touched since launch and is crying out for a better solution.
Expose and Stage manager (remember that?) both exist and that needs to be resolved.
But good luck trying to explain to iOS users why you uninstall apps by dragging them to the trash. Or explaining to long time macOS users that that is being got rid of...
As for greater translucency - sure, why not.
Android allows you to theme the UI based on your wallpaper - there just seems to be a UX trend to making the chrome disappear even more than it has already (compared to the aqua days, where it was all about the chrome), so this seems to be consistent with that.
Bring it, I say.
I expect a near universally negative response from normie Apple users, just like every other major UI change Apple has tried in the last few years.
A couple betas of Apple deluding itself that people will just accept the major changes before slowly rolling them back with toggles in the settings to revert to the previous layout.
No one cares about the UI, Apple. People just want you to deliver on promised features you announced several versions ago but have yet to deliver on.
A couple betas of Apple deluding itself that people will just accept the major changes before slowly rolling them back with toggles in the settings to revert to the previous layout.
No one cares about the UI, Apple. People just want you to deliver on promised features you announced several versions ago but have yet to deliver on.
I feel like the only person who loved the initial look of iOS 7 and its searingly saturated colour scheme.
And no, I am not Jony Ive.
The squircles are too iconic to iOS to go IMO, I think the icons need a refresh, but I don't think changing to circles is the way to go.
Your howto for 'how to turn an iconic design into something unremarkable?' I mean why has it always been a rounded square? Because the device itself has the same shape. Will the iPhone become an ellipse or a circle now? I really wonder what could be the reason for this.
Unifying is a great idea and I wonder if there is really good reason to use round icons on Apple Watch as the device is also a rounded square. Maybe you save a few pixels height but only have three icons in every second row. If the alternating 3-4-3-4 rows really help for spatial memory? Why is pagening good on iPhone but bad on Watch - especially because the crown could really support a fast page change (on cost of precision if have to admit).
So I'm all in for unifying but the better idea has to survive! Same for system settings...
Unifying is a great idea and I wonder if there is really good reason to use round icons on Apple Watch as the device is also a rounded square. Maybe you save a few pixels height but only have three icons in every second row. If the alternating 3-4-3-4 rows really help for spatial memory? Why is pagening good on iPhone but bad on Watch - especially because the crown could really support a fast page change (on cost of precision if have to admit).
So I'm all in for unifying but the better idea has to survive! Same for system settings...
I dont care what the icons look like as long as siri and predictive text works. My phone doesn't lag opening standard apps and when I swipe for the camera the camera opens and is ready to shoot a picture. As of right now with my iPhone 16 pro with 512 memory it does not do any of the following 100% of the time maybe 20% of the time..
I too am pessimistic (perhaps cynical is a better word) about this, but I gotta say based on that one screenshot of the Invites app, at least "Going" "Not Going" and "Maybe" are clear enough as to which option is selected, which has been a basic and widespread issue of theirs lately. At least there is enough contrast to make it readable.
If they can follow through with the usability and not just the appearance maybe it will be ok.
And more whitespace! Don’t forget about the whitespace!
Why round icons? Because they want to be like Android? Why fix what is not broken? If they want to fix something, they should fix meaningful stuff -- provide a way to disable temporal dithering, solutions for PWM, fixing Siri, etc. I guess those are too difficult. Much easier to change one line of code that changes all icons to round?
Total agreement with this ^
iOS needs a unified system-wide back gesture. The current methods of swiping from the left edge to go back a page, swiping on the homebar to go to previous app, and pressing the tiny back button at the top left of the screen, is too convoluted.
Hopefully iOS19 fixes this.
I’m really getting tired of the superlatives. Every time they come out with something its the biggest change ever, or the most important update ever or the most advanced update ever, or fill in the blank. Just come out with the update or new hardware and let us decide.
I’ll tell you a secret.. there will be no redesign.. and if so it will be something like Big Sur. Very very minor but worse changes everywhere and Apple will say big words about it. But there will be more bugs and dropped frames. I have no hope for the company anymore and expect nothing.
Launchpad could be replaced with a version of the App Library from iOS/iPadOS. Which needs custom folders, the ability to disable some, and/or a simple list view. I dislike a lot of how it works now. On macOS, Apps aren't front and center, your desktop is. The mobile mediums are the opposite, having an app-based home screen and no real desktop. The library serves as a place to open apps you don't have on your home screen. A current solution for both is spotlight, since you can launch apps from here. What are some of your ideas for an update or replacement to launchpad?
What do you think needs resolved for Mission Control (Exposé) and Stage Manager? They're for different use cases.
Apple doesn't generally care about legacy users, and usually won't justify changes to them. For better or worse, looking at you Win11 with four separate settings interfaces.
Tout silicon performance all day and the software still feels sluggish in many areas, even on 120Hz. This factored into my decision to leave Pro iPhones, is the extra cost worth it for smooth scrolling alone? Not for me. There are jailbreak tweaks to speed animations up, used them way back.
And a Neural Engine with circular reasoning!