With the unveiling of ios7, Apple has embraced the flat UI design. Google and Microsoft’s Windows 8 were already ahead, but it is never a real design evolution if Apple doesn’t recognise it. Well, now it is.
Shadows and glares
When I started working, web 2.0 UI was the trend, shadows, shiny glares and bubbles were very popular. This was the technique used to help users recognise a clickable element. People weren’t accustomed to interact with digital interfaces so everything needed to be very intuitive. In come huge drop shadows and shiny buttons designed to resemble real-life buttons, this is known as digital skeuomorphic design, where digital elements are designed to resemble real-word objects.
Apple was a big fan of digital skeuomorphic design: bookshelves with wood texture, calendars with leather stitching, paper textured notes and so on. Skeuomorphism was a technique already established in software UI, such as folders to store documents, screwdrivers and hammers as tools, an envelope as email, you all know what I’m talking about.
What does this button do?
Now that using an interactive device is part of everyone’s life, these visual cues are no longer necessary. If you are faced with a square box with the word search you know what it does and how to use it. Familiarity with digital interfaces has allowed designers to create simpler and more useful interfaces and users will recognise a clickable button even if it doesn’t look like a real-life button. So, instead of using faux leather textures and gradient filled shiny icons, ios7 is clean and simple.
However, Apple’s approach to the new ios7 interface is not only flat but it evolves the concept of depth with the use of translucency and layers. Of course they had to go further.
