This 'Ive OS 7' thing...

[Zombiechow]

I think that the OP is getting an unfair amount of criticism for a very well presented opinion. The fact of the matter is, he's probably correct.

The level of work required to conceptualize and implement an overhaul this large is mind boggling, which would suggest one of a few things.

1) Ive has been a part the development process since its inception and is responsible for every implementation, regardless of his promotion

2) The design team received design cues from Ive prior to his promotion, and were told to cut loose and design something.

3) Ive came late in the development and didn't have much much time to influence anything.

In any case, major refinements WILL happen.

But indeed, if Ive didn't start work on the project until the end of last year, I doubt we're seeing the full weight of what he's capable of. He's a god-tier designer, and i'm excited to see where the new direction goes.

Oh, please do tell... tell me how has the fucntionality changed, other than the normal improvements?

App icons the same, just changed colours, grid UI the same, pages of apps the same.

Where are the widgets? where is the new UI moving away from the grid system? where is the new OS everyone was talking about?

The OS is the same.

I absolutely agree. This is not a Windows 8 style update with fundamental changes to the basic user experience. This is a fresh coat of paint with normal incremental update type stuff and a few nifty additions (control center). There's also some nice new stuff going on under the hood.

Your apps are launched the same way. The function the same way. Your settings are in the same place and are toggled exactly the same way. Multi-tasking has changed a bit, but if anything, it's EASIER to close a program that you don't want running now.

This is NOT a Windows 8 style interface change.

 

[guineapig]

Other than a colour change, it's the kind of small fucntionality updates we get with all new OS's? Or are you telling me that there was more functionality released in this update than in iOS6?

You started this thread talking about how Jony Ive's input would have had a really small impact on the UI.
Nobody expected iOS to shift entirely to a windows8-like control style.
What was predicted, rumoured and leaked was a massive change in the UI, the look and feel of the OS, from glossy and skeumorphic to flat, with plain color and gradients. And I bet that you haven't tried it out on your phone yet. If you had, you would recognize that not only the looks (that you can see from the screenshots) but also the overall feel of the UI have changed deeply.
You said that it's still the same iOS. You're right, it is. But nobody was expecting it to change in its foundations, in its core mechanics. Otherwise it would have been called something else than iOS.

 

[syd430]

Take a look at Mac OS 10.0.4 compared to Mac OS 10.8.4

Image

vs.

Image

Weird, I know it says 10.8 but that's not the ML dock.

 

[0000757]

Weird, I know it says 10.8 but that's not the ML dock.

I just noticed that too...huh...

 

[ajvizzgamer101]

I’m really hoping that no one is really expecting iOS7 to be influenced very much if at all by Jony Ive.

Anyone who understands the development lifecycle will know that Ive’s influence over this iOS version will be very limited, he’s only been in charge of design since Christmas.

I can see many on here being disappointed if there is a major, major overhaul, where everything looks completely different.

I’d expect some minor changes to the basic UI that Ive has implemented, but to say he’s had enough time to do anything major is extremely ignorant, and heaping way too much expectation on what he can deliver in such a small space of time. I would imagine that he’s had a backlog or developments already in progress in dev sprints and had little room for change

I’d expect a more ‘Ive style OS’ to be in iOS8 or even iOS9

No Ive bashing after the conference please!

The look and feel is 100% influenced by Jony Ives. Features like Control Center were probably implemented long ago under iOS 6 UI.

 

[syd430]

Oh, please do tell... tell me how has the fucntionality changed, other than the normal improvements?

App icons the same, just changed colours, grid UI the same, pages of apps the same.

Where are the widgets? where is the new UI moving away from the grid system? where is the new OS everyone was talking about?

The OS is the same.

Dude, the whole thing has been completely redone. Spare us the crap about widgets.

Give it up.

 

[ItsWelshy]

Dude, the whole thing has been completely redone. Spare us the crap about widgets.

Give it up.

A coat of paint and the normal incremental functional updates doesn't equal 'Completely redone'

The biggest change, and what people are most talking about are the app icons.

 

[guineapig]

The biggest change, and what people are most talking about are the app icons.

People who have only seen screenshots.
Can you answer my post please?

 

[ItsWelshy]

I think that the OP is getting an unfair amount of criticism for a very well presented opinion. The fact of the matter is, he's probably correct.

The level of work required to conceptualize and implement an overhaul this large is mind boggling, which would suggest one of a few things.

1) Ive has been a part the development process since its inception and is responsible for every implementation, regardless of his promotion

2) The design team received design cues from Ive prior to his promotion, and were told to cut loose and design something.

3) Ive came late in the development and didn't have much much time to influence anything.

In any case, major refinements WILL happen.

But indeed, if Ive didn't start work on the project until the end of last year, I doubt we're seeing the full weight of what he's capable of. He's a god-tier designer, and i'm excited to see where the new direction goes.


I absolutely agree. This is not a Windows 8 style update with fundamental changes to the basic user experience. This is a fresh coat of paint with normal incremental update type stuff and a few nifty additions (control center). There's also some nice new stuff going on under the hood.

Your apps are launched the same way. The function the same way. Your settings are in the same place and are toggled exactly the same way. Multi-tasking has changed a bit, but if anything, it's EASIER to close a program that you don't want running now.

This is NOT a Windows 8 style interface change.

Thank you! you've put that better than I ever could!

I wanted people not to bash Ive when this came out as it's highly likely that Ive had little to do with this release.

Could you imagine ripping up the dev backlog they would have had to implement a lot of the normal functional changes? And for Ive to come in at the back of last year and make major changes would have been near on impossible. And probably set the whole release schedule back months.

I think we’re going to see the best of Ive in iOS8 and iOS9

I still find it slightly amusing that people think that someone can come in a Christmas and make wholesale changes to a UI and be good to go in June, but in saying that, people seem to think that iOS7 is a ‘Completely redone’ OS

Thanks for your post, very sensible and thought out.

----------

You started this thread talking about how Jony Ive's input would have had a really small impact on the UI.
Nobody expected iOS to shift entirely to a windows8-like control style.
What was predicted, rumoured and leaked was a massive change in the UI, the look and feel of the OS, from glossy and skeumorphic to flat, with plain color and gradients. And I bet that you haven't tried it out on your phone yet. If you had, you would recognize that not only the looks (that you can see from the screenshots) but also the overall feel of the UI have changed deeply.
You said that it's still the same iOS. You're right, it is. But nobody was expecting it to change in its foundations, in its core mechanics. Otherwise it would have been called something else than iOS.

People here were talking up the fact Ive was going to completely redo the OS and change the fundimental grid system and core mechanics

The OS and UI are the same as iOS6, with the normal yearly enhancements and a lick of paint.

Don't get me wrong, I love the lick of paint and the improvements, but this isn't the wholesale change most were wanting/predicting

 

[Crzyrio]

Other than a colour change, it's the kind of small fucntionality updates we get with all new OS's? Or are you telling me that there was more functionality released in this update than in iOS6?

New notification center, control center, multitasking layout where you are able to view the full app, new folders. camera filters, photo collections, notification centre on lock screen.

All that along with the UI changes, makes it a fairly huge update

 

[syd430]

A coat of paint and the normal incremental functional updates doesn't equal 'Completely redone'

The biggest change, and what people are most talking about are the app icons.

Right so a parallax homescreen, translucency throughout half the OS, algorithms that change the color of text and overall look dependent on the color of the wallpaper, hundreds of new features and settings, new gestures system wide, all animations redone, all UI elements redone, that's considered "normal incremental functional updates"?

The jump from iOS 6 -> iOS 7 is monumental. The only way that it's the same is that it's still built on the same OS X foundation.

 

[matttye]

I think that the OP is getting an unfair amount of criticism for a very well presented opinion. The fact of the matter is, he's probably correct.

Tim Cook said Ive had a lot of influence in this OS. Tim would know more than anybody on this forum...

 

[ItsWelshy]

New notification center, control center, multitasking layout where you are able to view the full app, new folders. camera filters, photo collections, notification centre on lock screen.

All that along with the UI changes, makes it a fairly huge update

The normal yearly enhancements... No better than iOS5's list of updates:

Wireless Sync
iMessages
Notification Centre
Twitter and Facebook integration
Email app upgrades
Airplay and wireless mirroring
Enhanced camera control
Photostreams
Facetime over 3G
iCloud (all new)
Location based reminder system
New apps for Video and Music
Split Keyboard
Custom tones
All new Newsstand
Redesigned Safari with tabbed browsing
HD support for 3G
Weather app update
And Multitasking.

 

[guineapig]

People here were talking up the fact Ive was going to completely redo the OS and change the fundimental grid system and core mechanics.

Not people, you were. And you were right, he didn't change those things. But again, nobody was expecting him to.
Other than this and what I already said, I'd say I agree with syd430.

 

[syd430]

People here were talking up the fact Ive was going to completely redo the OS and change the fundimental grid system and core mechanics

"Change the core mechanics". What does that even mean? The kernel? the architecture? the fact that it's based on UNIX? what? Please enlighten me. Don't worry I come from a technical background.

If you meant UI animations and the way elements interact, then yes it has virtually been redone from the ground up. If you meant the other things, well, that wouldn't even be possible without completely new hardware.

I'm not sure you understand what you're saying.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

The Ive hate!

 

[err404]

Overall I agree with ItsWelshy. While iOS did get a lot of nice improvements, many of the real meat and potatoes changes where likely under development before Ives took over. Given the time that Ives had, I suspect that most of his contribution was with the re-skin.
I don't mean this as a knock to Ives. He did a great job performing a deep re-skin that makes the OS feel fresh.
But ask yourself this, if iOS7 came out with all of the same features, but the icons and skin of iOS6, would you have been happy or disappointed? I feel that many would have been disappointed and the forums would be filled with posts about how all Apple did was steal SBSettings.
For the record I prefer the deeper, less obvious OS changes over UI re-skins. I thought iOS 6 was a nice improvement over iOS 5 under the hood.
That said, I am very excited for iOS 7. To be honest, I'm more excited for the API and multitasking changes than the UI. I would bet these where under development well before Ives took the reigns.
I would like to add that Ives seems to show very strong leadership potential. Keeping the team on track and focused after a management shake up was probably harder then any technical or aesthetic change.

 

[matttye]

"Change the core mechanics". What does that even mean? The kernel? the architecture? the fact that it's based on UNIX? what? Please enlighten me. Don't worry I come from a technical background.

If you meant UI animations and the way elements interact, then yes it has virtually been redone from the ground up. If you meant the other things, well, that wouldn't even be possible without completely new hardware.

I'm not sure you understand what you're saying.

He means losing the icon grid and having widgets, or live tiles or some such feature I believe.

I can't see that happening as Apple has always tried to provide a nice feature set for apps to take advantage of, but they want you to spend most of your time IN APPS.

 

[mklaman]

so this "itswelshy" character comes in and gives a terrible prediction, is proven wrong, and then still tries to fight like this isn't a overhaul? oh boy.

 

[comatose81]

Someone needs to lock this nonsense.

Are you Jony Ive's son or something? Who cares how people judge the new design and whether they attribute it to Jony or not?

If people absolutely loved iOS 7 should they be careful not to give him any credit since it wasn't really him making the changes?

 

[madmaxmedia]

To OP: Who said any different than your original post? Who said that there would be a total fundamental re-design of the core user interface, that there would be no more app icons in a grid?

By 're-design', people were basically talking about exactly what was shown- a major cosmetic overhaul, along with a lot of new functionality. NO ONE was expecting a completely new paradigm for smartphone user experience.

You can say this is what you meant, that's fine we get it. But that's what pretty much everyone else meant too! I guess you might have read some people posting about a total re-invention of the smartphone, but that's not most people were expecting. What people WERE expecting is the biggest change to the appearance of the OS since iOS 1, which is exactly what we got.

The reason for all the hooplah and criticism in this thread is that it feels like you set up a straw-man argument (even if that's not what you meant.)