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

Personally I could care less about whether the UI is flat or not. Right now the whole start screen is nothing but 20 static icons that just sit there and do nothing. You can make them flatter but they're still lifeless.

More mportant than the flat vs non-flat debate is the app-centric vs information-centric debate. Smartphones are more than just app collections so the UI should reflect this. Android naturally addresses this by letting you customize your UI with dynamic elements. MS created LiveTiles to address this.

I'm hoping Apple comes up with their own information-centric language that's more than a tiny number appearing on an icon and lumping everything else in a long list of notifications. iOS 7 needs to be more than just reskinning iOS 6.
 
itguy06 said:
No they don't. Most logos today are horrible and look like some bad design run amok. Trying too hard to be "hip and cool".
http://www.designyourway.net/blog/i...makeovers-and-lessons-we-can-learn-from-them/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2010/10/12/13-worst-logo-makeovers.html#slide1

Ask quite a few companies why changed it and then changed it back because of consumer complaints. Change for change's sake is stupid, as is change to "keep up".

Classic design needs no change throughout time. It's why wingtips, mens suits, black, white, stainless, etc look good yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
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This is partially true. But when design and aesthetics come into play to portray your bottom line product (i.e. Apple's iPhone and GM/Ford's vehicles) adapting and change matters. I'm not condoning bad design, but for each of those you point out, there are also good examples. Business is too competitive these days, and companies need to constantly attract new (and typically youthful) customers, not just keep their current customers happy.

I only point out GM and Ford's unwillingness to change b/c I've worked and consulted w/ said companies, and I witnessed how difficult it was to drive across the point change.
 
Honestly, my initial reaction to this is it sounds horrible. I hope Ive doesn't take it too far (I'm afraid he might). I'm nervously looking forward to seeing some real examples at WWDC.
 
I wasn't a fan when they changed the iTunes and App store to a black and white theme, hope they do a better job with the OS.
 
Liquorpuki said:
Personally I could care less about whether the UI is flat or not. Right now the whole start screen is nothing but 20 static icons that just sit there and do nothing. You can make them flatter but they're still lifeless.

More mportant than the flat vs non-flat debate is the app-centric vs information-centric debate. Smartphones are more than just app collections so the UI should reflect this. Android naturally addresses this by letting you customize your UI with dynamic elements. MS created LiveTiles to address this.

I'm hoping Apple comes up with their own information-centric language that's more than a tiny number appearing on an icon and lumping everything else in a long list of notifications. iOS 7 needs to be more than just reskinning iOS 6.
Click to expand...

OT$

At this stage, if flat vs skuemorphic is the main debate the design team is having - a debate on cosmetics that was essentially decided years ago under Jobs - there are some serious problems in development over at Cupertino. Talk about regression.

And I know we haven't seen Ive's design yet, but this may end up being a classic case of "careful what you wish for."
 
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Liquorpuki said:
Personally I could care less about whether the UI is flat or not. Right now the whole start screen is nothing but 20 static icons that just sit there and do nothing. You can make them flatter but they're still lifeless.

More mportant than the flat vs non-flat debate is the app-centric vs information-centric debate. Smartphones are more than just app collections so the UI should reflect this. Android naturally addresses this by letting you customize your UI with dynamic elements. MS created LiveTiles to address this.

I'm hoping Apple comes up with their own information-centric language that's more than a tiny number appearing on an icon and lumping everything else in a long list of notifications. iOS 7 needs to be more than just reskinning iOS 6.
Click to expand...

Good point.
 
kds1 said:
Honestly, my initial reaction to this is it sounds horrible. I hope Ive doesn't take it too far (I'm afraid he might). I'm nervously looking forward to seeing some real examples at WWDC.
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Do people really believe if it was that horrible someone at Apple wouldn't have stopped it or fought Ive over it? With all these rumors so far we have yet to hear anything about those who've seen it not liking it or anyone voicing concerns. All we have is one comment from Rene Ritchie saying Ive's work is apparently "making many people really happy".
 
Liquorpuki said:
Personally I could care less about whether the UI is flat or not. Right now the whole start screen is nothing but 20 static icons that just sit there and do nothing. You can make them flatter but they're still lifeless.

More mportant than the flat vs non-flat debate is the app-centric vs information-centric debate. Smartphones are more than just app collections so the UI should reflect this. Android naturally addresses this by letting you customize your UI with dynamic elements. MS created LiveTiles to address this.

I'm hoping Apple comes up with their own information-centric language that's more than a tiny number appearing on an icon and lumping everything else in a long list of notifications. iOS 7 needs to be more than just reskinning iOS 6.
Click to expand...

To be honest, that's one of the most positive and constructive approaches for the new iOS I've ever read. You're right on spot here. This is indeed a turn that the mobile operating systems have taken recently. It's all about quick access to basic frequently-used information rather than stacked apps.

I don't expect Apple to offer much customization like android (they generally don't support this idea) but I could see them taking the MS approach. Noticing their recent changes on their site (their store page) you can see it consists of asymmetric tiles (regions), reminding slightly the windows mobile os. I guess their general design perception is moving to that direction and it will partially be reflected to the new iOS.

If not anything else, that's something worthy looking forward to.
 
The black and white sounds cool, but I'm not sure about the whole "application specific color buttons". I guess we'll find out. I have a feeling I'll end up liking it though, I mean Ive's eye for design is just incredible.
 
sza said:
He is even not a hardware guy, he is a design guy. Apple should focus more on technology innovation rather than design innovation IMO.
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Well, he's an industrial designer. That's kinda both.
 
Rogifan said:
Innovation is the most overused word in the dictionary these days.
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"Innovation" is just something that fanboys toss around when they want to think they know what they're talking about.

It's like screaming 'look at me, I'm relevant!'.
 
H. Flower said:
OT$

At this stage, if flat vs skuemorphic is the main debate the design team is having - a debate on cosmetics that was essentially decided years ago under Jobs - there are some serious problems in development over at Cupertino. Talk about regression.

And I know we haven't seen Ive's design yet, but this may end up being a classic case of "careful what you wish for."
Click to expand...

So if Steve decided it years ago then that's it? It's settled and never to be revisited again? Wasn't it also Steve's decision to make iOS app centric and isn't most of the current iOS functionality (or lack ther of) stuff that he signed off on? Is that regression too? I mean a lot of the features people are requesting would have been possible while Steve was still running the show, right?

----------
Todd B. said:
"Innovation" is just something that fanboys toss around when they want to think they know what they're talking about.

It's like screaming 'look at me, I'm relevant!'.
Click to expand...
My company is is on this innovation bandwagon too. It seems every other word that comes out of executives mouths is "innovation".
 
Skinning would be nice. Anti-skeuomorphism is imperative.

[T]he iPhone's Notes app has replaced the yellow notepad design for a flat white look. Apps such as Mail, Calendar, and Maps have also gained a more uniformed look with flat white textures.
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Yay. I doubt that very many iPhone users need that fake "yellow paper with torn edges" look to help them understand how to use Notes any more. The majority of post-PC device users have advanced beyond that level of hand-holding. And for true first-time smartphone users, faux-yellow-paper really won't help much anyway.

Having said that, even the current faux-yellow-paper Notes isn't truly "skeuomorphic" to me, and I despise skeuomorphism. I think a full-blown skeuomorph needs to simulate a real-world control or object. Like a rotating knob to control volume, or a folder icon bulging with sheets of paper to indicate that it's not empty. That kind of skeuomorphism is a holdover from the 1980s. Back when the GUI was a brand new thing and users had to be soothed with familiar looking icons and controls as they explored the strange new world of drag-and-drop and WYSIWYG desktop publishing.

So hey, I'm all for a new "flat" look. Especially if it's just a matter of freshening up the appearance of apps by skinning in the form of changing background images and textures and colors. Depending on how Apple does things, it may require more than just that, so it could require some coding.

I just hope Ive prevents skeuomorphism from being built into iOS. Because, to me, iOS should do as little as possible to get between you and your apps. It shouldn't compete with your apps in terms of flashy design. The apps create a majority of your iOS experience. The cleaner and simpler and clearer iOS itself is, the more impressive well-designed apps will look. And that's the whole point.
 
If you think it's been annoying reading people complain about about how boring IOS is and how it hasn't changed in years, just wait until the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth over IOS7. People will complain that it's never changed and then freak out because it's changed or not changed the way they wanted. Some people are just never happy.
 
yeah, make iOS 7 look like Mac OS 1

I mean, Apple had a black and white OS for years long after color monitors were in wide use, so it makes sense for them to go back in time and drag out their old flat OS look and feel.

I don't know, the more I read about iOS 7, the more I think ol' Jony should take his millions and just retire.
 
Jugney said:
You missed what many will consider the most important part of the article - that Apple is testing a quick toggle area for Wifi, bluetooth, etc!
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This, along with a notification light and the removal of the physical silent switch, would make me consider leaving Android and returning to iPhone. Here's hoping Apple have finally started to see how their phone could be so much more user-friendly.
 
Samsung's response

So let me guess.
2 months after the WWDC iOS 7 reveal, Samsung will re-skin TouchWiz for their Galaxy devices.
It will have wood texture, marble texture, stitched leather, dark gray linen, and an animated desktop.
Because Samsung thinks anti-flat textures are a way to differentiate Galaxy from iPhone and iPad etc.

You'll notice I didn't use the A-word ("Android") even once in the above paragraph.
My guess is that Samsung won't use the A-word even once in their re-skinned TouchWiz press kit.
 
Exciting :eek:

Personally I am all for changes, if the design is anything like the app store, itunes store, music app and reminders I am all for it :)
 
New iPhone 5S now with thrice the battery life compared to iPhone 5!

(... only had to switch the screen to ePaper, so iOS 7 is black and white only - sorry guys!)
 
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