Source: gizmodo.com
Well folks, Apple’s iOS 7 is here, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
So far reviews have been mixed, to say the least.
Dear Jesus: Please take me back to a time where my iphone didn't feel like a lame animated game for every application.
— eric wareheim (@ericwareheim) September 22, 2013
If you’re one of those people who’s unhappy with change (and it’s not because you’re missing your old glasses), I have good news and bad news. Let’s start with the bad:
There is little escape from this sense of [simpler designs], at least on mobile devices. While Apple practically invented the way that a modern smartphone looks and feels, the iPhone, like Apple products in general, is no longer the only choice for a well-designed phone six years later. In fact, Google’s Android abandoned meaningless ornamentation and texture some time before Apple, as did Microsoft’s Windows Phone, which featured the first piece of software from a major tech company with an aesthetic based on wide-open spaces, paper-thin layers stacked upon each other, and prominent typography. The one big aesthetic difference is that Apple unsparingly uses bright colors and white backgrounds rather than black.
The new iOS 7 design is here to stay; the marketplace virtually guarantees it. Regardless of the fact that people will inevitably get used the new look, and then complain about it the next time things change, iOS 7 actually opens up some intriguing possibilities for designers.
Prior to its new operating system Apple heavily relied on skeumorphism, centering the look and feel of their apps on “ornamental design cues to structures that were necessary in the original.” In layman’s terms, Apple’s Calender app looked like a real calendar, Apple’s Notes app looked like a notepad, etc. These designs helped technophobes adjust to the digital world, and also drove design afficianados crazy.
These design features, critics argue, no longer help novices make a transition. You don’t need unsightly paper remnants to understand that you are using a calendar. A curling-page animation just slows the reader down for the sake of showing off. Meanwhile slavish dependence on real-world visual metaphors could be holding back more creative, space-efficient or self-explanatory designs.
Sometimes Apple uses skeuomorphs that would not even make sense to modern-day customers. How many members of Generation Y have ever even used a Rolodex? In Apple’s new Podcast app for the iPhone, the dominant visual element is a reel-to-reel tape—a technology that fell out of use 30 years ago.
But with the firing of design chief Scott Forstall last year, and now the dramatically revamped operating system, Apple is clearly moving away from skeumorphism. Even if they’re simply playing catch-up with Windows and Android, the new iOS 7 design has already led to a more integrated look for your iPhone.
Facebook: iOS 6 vs. iOS 7 (Source: businessinsider.com)
By giving more flexibility to designers, Apple is looking toward the future. Who knows how the iPhone will evolve as it moves away from a skeumorphic look? So even if you don’t like your iPhone now, you might someday.
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