The new design is not easier and more intuitive. In fact simplicity = confusion now.

i just gave my iPhone 5 to my mom who is basically the benchmark for technical ignorance and she was able to use it just fine, and she has used old iOS devices before.


I'm pretty sure iOS is fine.

 

Agree 100%


I will pass final judgement once I see GM.

 

Change is hard when you were used to the way things were, but you'll gte used to this as well.

Look, The iPhone was the way it was because no one was used to it. Now we all know how to operate a touch interface so things can evolve.

Wow now instead of double tap and go left you swipe up to get your player.
Which is now easier with one hand. You would have hated moving from the old iPod controls to the Multitasking bar (iOS3 > iOS4).

Now instead of multitasking being buttons to delete you swipe up.
Again, easier with one hand because the actions are further up on the screen. Its also quicker because they elimiated a step.

I've had these things on jailbroken phones and had no problem getting used to them.

Some people are just more stuck in their ways.

 

I don't understand what the complaint is all about frankly.

 

Because people love whining about things; makes them feel like experts on the matter.

 

Human beings are creatures of habit. They don't like being out of their comfort zone...

 

The changes serve as a move away from skuemorphism to a more Android look and feel. There is no utility in ios7's changes other than the control panel. Other than that, lifeless cosmetic changes.

Sorry, it's weak. The majority has spoken.

 

Citation needed.

 

I agree. The floating text and wireframe buttons give much less hierarchy and lose definition. It's cognitively harder to make sense of three words in a nav bar than a title and two flanking buttons.

 

The majority of what?

 

That difference in the new action is on my iOS6 phone.

It's a beta.

 

I agree with this point in the inconsistency. Let's hope it's all fixed before final release.

 

I do not believe you, especially based on all your staunchly-pro-everything iOS7/Mavericks that you have been posting over the last few days.

The OP is one of the best post I have read about the mess that is iOS7.

 

Because I like it?

If you choose to not believe me based on the fact that I like iOS 7 and Mavericks that's your choice. I'm not going to tell you to believe me.

Just know not every single person in the world is anti-iOS 7 and that a lot of people actually are fans of iOS 7.

 

Based on your staunch anti-iOS7 post history I believe you are a shill who astroturfs for Samsung.

See how silly that sounds.

 

You apparently have not read all my posts on MR. I have read many of your recent posting, post WWDC, and you do sound like you are about 13-14 years old...am I close?

On topic: iOS 7 is currently a mess. It will get better, I hope it gets much better.

 

As close as I was about you.

 

I don't agree with the OP across the board, but I have to say I notice this with Safari now. With pages with an all-white background, it's now confusing where the page starts and the interface starts, and when it comes back in, it takes my eyes a few seconds to "find it" every time again.

I would totally vote for something like a flat, dark gray bar or something rather than white in this case.

I actually love iOS 7 for the most part, but he's right in some of what he says here.


Also, saying things like "I gave it to my mom and she figured it out, so it's fine." is missing the point.

I could give my mom a hardcover book and tell her to hammer a nail into a wall and she would figure it out, but that doesn't mean its the best way to do it. UI and UX is all about small details, how your eyes flow across a page, things that distract you for even a millisecond that can be improved, etc.

I think all of this will get better, but some of it is definitely not an improvement right now.

 

OP I agree with most all of what you said. This feels more like change for the sake of change. I did just figure out how to forward a text message so the quest for knowledge continues.

I think people underestimate how valuable things like disabled controls and colors go towards guiding users to accomplish a task. Or at least something, anything. Now it's a game of hide and seek where I'm staring at a screen where I know I can do something but I don't know how and there is no visible control. So try the same things over and over... Swipe, tap, double-tap, etc., and hopefully stumble onto something.

I'll use deleting or forwarding a text message in iOS 7 an example of design gone wrong or in this case "regressing usability".

 

Also, as much as I love that the Safari interface gets out of the way now, it took me quite a while to figure out how to get it back, or to go back and forward.

It's great that you can swipe from the edge for Back and Forward now, too, but most cases get in the way of that, and there's no way to just intuitively know you can do that, which is the problem with most gestures.

 

what's interesting is that in a way they have introduced a huge skeuomorph across the whole phone.

Pre computers our dominant source of knowledge was books and magazines, which we interacted with via flipping back and forth between pages. Which is not unlike what all this swipe from the left, from the right is.

And yet because there are no page curls etc we don't see it like that.

 

Ha!!!