3 ms·

I can't speak for other people, but I can perhaps share some insight from my feelings. Just to get it out of the way, it is a bit annoying to see a company that

I can't speak for other people, but I can perhaps share some insight from my feelings. Just to get it out of the way, it is a bit annoying to see a company that is normally absolutely obsessed with others copying them now doing the same. But as eyebrow raising as that is, its not really my main concern. My personal issue with this design is that it signals the coming of a boring lull in mobile design. Its the death of distinction. Android, Windows, and iPhone now largely look the same (to me). In fact I think the Windows stuff actually looks better. Its upsetting because there are surely more than just two possible designs ("flat" or "skeuomorphic"). Did iOS need a design overhaul? I don't know (I'm personally of the belief that it was missing key features and services more than a new skin). But if for the sake of argument it did, then this just frankly feels lazy on Apple's part. It was the most obvious direction to go in, and its been done. Aqua and iOS 1 were different, fresh, and represented an original vision for UIs. Even if you didn't like them it provided something to contrast to. This just provides something to compare to :/

rdouble 13y ago
After a morning playing with it, it doesn't really look or feel anything like Windows phone to me. I don't have enough experience with Android to offer much in useful commentary, but it doesn't seem like the Nexus 7 I once used. Has anyone put up a side by side compare and contrast against the other mobile OSes yet? I suppose that would be against the dev agreement.
Finster 13y ago
I feel like your argument basically distills down to: "All flat designs look alike." Surely, that's not the case. And as I've been messing around with IOS7, I'm noticing a lot more than just a graphical redesign. This is also a usability redesign. Little things like including a contact button at the top of the Messages app itself rather than at the top of the message view. IOS7 is full of these little tweaks that have been standard fare in the jailbreak communities. To boil it down to "a boring lull in mobile design" is to really ignore the quality of the IOS7 redesign.
- tolmasky 13y ago
  I think you may have made my point better than I did: I'm just not that impressed with Apple finally cribbing off the jailbreak community, and I sincerely hope that the future of iOS is not endless tweaking held up as some paramount of interaction design. Am I happy with these changes? Sure, the same way I'm happy that Mac OS X has finally fixed the multiple-display bug that has plagued it for 3 years. But these (long overdue) changes a bold OS do not make. And perhaps the argument is that Apple is not trying to make a bold new OS. However, that is definitely what it is presenting iOS 7 as, so I feel that I have a right to disagree. I think the community in general has felt that iOS 7 was Apple's chance to respond to the criticisms (fair or not) that iOS was stagnating, and I feel that that is what Apple feels it has accomplished. I feel they have done so in the shallowest way possible. To me they presented a corporate image of playing catchup: catching up to Windows and Android visual design cues, catching up to jailbreak experiments that have been happening for years, catching up to interactions we saw in Web OS ages ago. I'm not saying they shouldn't have done this, I'm saying that in my eyes these are bug fixes and there exists an Apple that pushed further. There are a million things I wish Safari did every single day that I use it, and quite frankly "3d tab organization" is not one of them. This is my point, I think people are not seeing the actual usability improvements that could have taken place. You think design is more than just visual stuff, its usability. I agree, I just think its more than making things take 3 taps less. Remember the original iPhone and iOS, it was a completely different way of interacting with your phone that allowed you to do NEW things you couldn't before. Google is now exploring real new territory with their excellent services like Google Now. If Apple wants to keep fighting services and infrastructure with "design", that's fine, but its going to require more than endlessly spinning its wheels trying to figure out the "best" weather interface possible and micro-optimizing insignificant interactions with the OS.
  - gfodor 13y ago
    Have you actually used the beta or are you another person basing opinions about an operating system based upon screenshots?
    - anonyfuss 13y ago
sjwright 13y ago
I don't think it's a lull, I prefer to think of it as a spring cleaning. iOS 6 is great, but it has reached a visual saturation point, making it difficult to add more ideas. Sometimes you need to step back in order to advance further. The Pentium 4 is a case in point. I'm sure there will be ongoing refinement to the visual language, and will feel finished by the time iOS 7 ships. Then iOS 8 and 9 will be able to progressively layer new ideas into the new literal and metaphorical white space.

rdouble 13y ago

After a morning playing with it, it doesn't really look or feel anything like Windows phone to me. I don't have enough experience with Android to offer much in useful commentary, but it doesn't seem like the Nexus 7 I once used. Has anyone put up a side by side compare and contrast against the other mobile OSes yet? I suppose that would be against the dev agreement.

Finster 13y ago

I feel like your argument basically distills down to: "All flat designs look alike." Surely, that's not the case. And as I've been messing around with IOS7, I'm noticing a lot more than just a graphical redesign. This is also a usability redesign. Little things like including a contact button at the top of the Messages app itself rather than at the top of the message view. IOS7 is full of these little tweaks that have been standard fare in the jailbreak communities. To boil it down to "a boring lull in mobile design" is to really ignore the quality of the IOS7 redesign.

tolmasky 13y ago
I think you may have made my point better than I did: I'm just not that impressed with Apple finally cribbing off the jailbreak community, and I sincerely hope that the future of iOS is not endless tweaking held up as some paramount of interaction design. Am I happy with these changes? Sure, the same way I'm happy that Mac OS X has finally fixed the multiple-display bug that has plagued it for 3 years. But these (long overdue) changes a bold OS do not make. And perhaps the argument is that Apple is not trying to make a bold new OS. However, that is definitely what it is presenting iOS 7 as, so I feel that I have a right to disagree. I think the community in general has felt that iOS 7 was Apple's chance to respond to the criticisms (fair or not) that iOS was stagnating, and I feel that that is what Apple feels it has accomplished. I feel they have done so in the shallowest way possible. To me they presented a corporate image of playing catchup: catching up to Windows and Android visual design cues, catching up to jailbreak experiments that have been happening for years, catching up to interactions we saw in Web OS ages ago. I'm not saying they shouldn't have done this, I'm saying that in my eyes these are bug fixes and there exists an Apple that pushed further. There are a million things I wish Safari did every single day that I use it, and quite frankly "3d tab organization" is not one of them. This is my point, I think people are not seeing the actual usability improvements that could have taken place. You think design is more than just visual stuff, its usability. I agree, I just think its more than making things take 3 taps less. Remember the original iPhone and iOS, it was a completely different way of interacting with your phone that allowed you to do NEW things you couldn't before. Google is now exploring real new territory with their excellent services like Google Now. If Apple wants to keep fighting services and infrastructure with "design", that's fine, but its going to require more than endlessly spinning its wheels trying to figure out the "best" weather interface possible and micro-optimizing insignificant interactions with the OS.
- gfodor 13y ago
  Have you actually used the beta or are you another person basing opinions about an operating system based upon screenshots?
  - anonyfuss 13y ago

sjwright 13y ago

I don't think it's a lull, I prefer to think of it as a spring cleaning. iOS 6 is great, but it has reached a visual saturation point, making it difficult to add more ideas. Sometimes you need to step back in order to advance further. The Pentium 4 is a case in point. I'm sure there will be ongoing refinement to the visual language, and will feel finished by the time iOS 7 ships. Then iOS 8 and 9 will be able to progressively layer new ideas into the new literal and metaphorical white space.