More Details on Jony Ive's Flat iOS 7 Design: Heavier on Black and White

[thisisdallas]

Flat? black and white? quick toggle for settings? Wallpapers that pan as you swipe between home screens? Some apps taking on more of a widget feel? So it's basically going to be an uglier, flat black and white watered down version of Android? Keep innovating Apple!

Did you make an account just to make this comment?

 

[Jack Delgado]

Looks like you're the one that needs to get a sense of humor and lighten up...

I also may be just defending myself.

 

[thekev]

damn i was excited for a flat design but not now

I wouldn't worry about this. They're citing anonymous sources who apparently reference ancient jokes.
I'm not personally a fan of excessive contrast in a visual ui, even though I tend to prefer dark backgrounds on a lot of things.

 

[5aga]

Yes there are components of Windows 8 UI/apps that are really nice. The Bing weather app is a good example. The one thing from this story that has me excited is it sounds like it was a top to bottom review and change so hopefully there will be consistency across all of iOS.

Im thinking Passbook may be a decent preview of changes to come

 

[rtomyj]

This won't go over well.

Sounds like Apple is following in the footsteps of the Microsoft Office 2013 designers.

Panorama swiping home screen wallpapers?! OMG! Why don't we just call this the new MS-Droid phone. If this stuff is true, Apple is going to get soooo ripped to shreds for just copying the competition.

So should Android be called Apple because they stole Game Center, Cloud games, etc from IO?

 

[Rogifan]

Who cares? Are Apple suppose to chase the crowd at Macrumors now?

They are supposed to lead not follow, it's never been a democratic process as far back as I remember, no focus groups, no design by committee, just up on stage and boom.

No. My point was for the last year or so people have been complaining about iOS looking dated and then when we get rumors about the UI changing people complain and say 'who cares about UI, what about functionality'. So basically whatever Apple is doing, someone will complain that they should be doing something else instead.

 

[Drunken Master]

Why? Cause I'm right or cause I don't agree with you?

Flat Design = I don't care about making things look good.

Good design will last for ages and look appropriate in 10 years. Think back to design that is timeless and good and you'll see what I mean. Fads and poor design die while good clean design stays around.

But we haven't seen it yet, so who's to say that this will be "just flat" and not good, clean design? Besides, "flatness," in all its incarnations, has its place in the annals of great design, from Mondrian and Le Corbusier, Bauhuas to Dieter Rams and Paul Rand.

Some examples:

 

[KdParker]

come on Apple....lets start testing the betas

 

[rtomyj]

Years ago a university design team was working on a project and I was disappointed in the lack of color in the interface. The response was "color has meaning". Don't color things just to look pretty, it needs to represent meaning.

A lot of people missed the point. The base color scheme is black and white. Every app then has a focal color other than that.

 

[Winni]

So the code name is either Penguin or Zebra?

Sounds impressive...iOS Penguin.

Please, leave Linux out of this. ;-)

iOS 7 will be what they call "old wine in new skins".

 

[62tele]

It's so funny to see how many people are already bashing something that they've never seen. I wonder if they have they are rushing their judgments in real life too.

I agree. Jonny Ive obviously has exception design skills. I think folks have to give him the benefit of the doubt.
After Forstall's rigid control of iOS, Ive needed to open the windows and let in some fresh air for a new approach.
Flatter sounds better and more efficient. The icons spread over multiple screens is not efficient and it is cumbersome.
If you read the 9to5 article references and look at the calendar example, it is plain to see that it's not just black and white.

Ive is a designer and a damn good one. The iPhone, iMac, etc are all gorgeous.

 

[Prototypical]

Ugh, this is gross. Steve Jobs is rolling over in his grave right now.

NOW it's a party, Steve's name has been invoked!

I don't get all of the griping either. You guys latch on to hearsay and obscure (sometimes conflicting) rumors and leaks and immediately fire up the lynch mob. Relax - let Apple reveal iOS7 and THEN commence gnashing of teeth if needed.

That said - Apple didn't become the gold standard of clean, industrial design under Ive's watch by not having a clue about what people like. I think most will be pleasantly surprised... although I don't look forward to the frothing, rabid Android parade going on and on about "Apple sucks, they totally ripped off Android, wharglbhwrlhbhl!"

 

[subsonix]

No. My point was for the last year or so people have been complaining about iOS looking dated and then when we get rumors about the UI changing people complain and say 'who cares about UI, what about functionality'. So basically whatever Apple is doing, someone will complain that they should be doing something else instead.

I'm pretty sure those are not the same people most of the time. But I agree on your last point, that has been true forever.

 

[jfx94]

I suspect that after using iOS 7 for a while, previous iOS versions will seem antiquated and perhaps childish by comparison. Typical for Apple, they make the new version JUST different enough that it appears to be a FAR superior product.

 

[cmichaelb]

Notification center Toggles!

That's all I ask, well, and redo game center that thing is atrocious.

NCSettings for jailbroken phones did the toggles beautifully and simply.They need to emulate that.

Just look at how much the podcast app has changed- I think that is a great representation of the direction Apple is going.

I bet the UI overhaul will be more gradual they people are theorizing.

 

[lucas107]

all these rumors make it seem like Apple has a how can we be more like android memo floating around

 

[Mike MA]

Bring it on!

 

[auhagen]

So the code name is either Penguin or Zebra?

Sounds impressive...iOS Penguin.

I'm waiting for iOS Peacock then, when they're going back to play with colors like on the old imac's..

 

[crossifixio]

the look of the OS needs a major change. It has remained the same since launch. Looking forward to WWDC!

 

[azentropy]

I'm all for a consistent, intuitive and simple design, but there is a fine line between that and just plain boring.

To me Mac OS X looks pretty boring now. I didn't like when they took out "colors" in iTunes - although they put them back in with 11. And really hate the decolorizing they did with Finder (still not fixed).

I just hope they don't do the same with iOS.

 

[Todd B.]

Ugh. So basically boring and plain? :\

Why does everyone think that look is good? Calendar, Reminders, and iBooks all look really good on the iPad as it is - why change what isn't broken?

If I want a boring phone and a bad design, I'll go to Android.

 

[The Phazer]

Why? I thought the whole point of iMessage is exactly that it is built in to your SMS app, so there is no need to toggle between multiple apps. Separate them, and what incentive would I have to use it over whatsapp or hangout?

Outside of the US, iMessage is just a worse SMS.

The only advantage it would have is for international messaging, since that's the only thing that saves money. Pulling it out of the SMS app allows it to be used for that.

 

[bmwhd]

So not interested. Will be keeping my JB iP5 for a looonng time it seems.

 

[mrgraff]

I also may be just defending myself.

If it helps any, I'll defend you too. Your use of word play by deliberately omitting the apostrophe was so obvious that the response from gnasher729 was almost embarrassing.

 

[spinedoc77]

Hmm...funny there was (and maybe still is) a poll in the iOS forum on what people wanted to see in iOS 7 and UI change had the highest number of votes. Over the last year or more we've been hearing complaints ad nausem about how iOS looks dated, how Apple has fallen behind Android and Microsoft (gulp!). Yet now when we get rumors of UI changes people complain that Apple's focusing on the wrong things. Seems people are forgetting that Ive responsible for UI not core OS. There very well could be functionality improvements being worked on that are under Federighi's direction, not Ive's.

Yeah it does not surprise me that people want graphic changes more than they want actual functionality changes, but that's not me. Apple can leave iOS exactly the way it is currently and it would not bother me, I'd rather see them have more functionality, or how about just letting us change themes/launchers and let us make our own choices how the UI should look.

I don't think iOS looks dated, but functionally it performs dated, there is a huge difference in understanding that nuance. But you put forth an excellent point that I was not aware of, that Ive is not in charge of functionality so hopefully whoever is will be working hard to improve iOS.