You Don’t Need to Succumb to iOS7

Maintaining A Unique Visual Identity  

Wednesday, September 18th will mark the public launch of iOS7. For many of us, this release will present a tidal wave of app updates adhering to the style guidelines of the new operating system. The anticipation is palpable. The execution appears to be maddening.

As many people know iOS7 is Apple’s greatest upheaval in software design since the launch of the original iPhone. In one day, millions of apps will seem stale. Yet on that same day, millions more will show us what their designers have been working on all summer, and introduce an entirely new visual identity to both their apps and brand identity.

iOS7 is undoubtedly a massive step forward, but given the backlash from the design community, it’s glaringly evident that the new operating system is not without fault. Overall the experience is vastly improved. Subtle animations, translucency, unique sounds and parallax effects simply make it fun to have an iPhone again. However, there are many specific facets of the new UI, seen most prominently in Apple’s native applications, that are merely “ok” and do not reflect the ingenuity of the new OS.

If this collection of newly designed iOS apps is any indication, we will soon see a bevy of mobile developers “taking advantage” of the new design standards. Even popular applications are redefining their design, thereby foregoing their pre-existing brand identity. I fear that too many mobile developers will adhere too strictly to Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, and in turn, sacrifice their own unique visual identity in favour of assimilation into iOS7. To them, I leave four points to consider:

1. Your App Icon Does Not Need to be White — there are other shades and colours that look good in iOS7, and when we soon become overwhelmed with white icons, they might even stand out.
2. You Can Place a Border Around Text Buttons — “Done” and “Cancel” can be surrounded by a border. Now, I’m not suggesting that border have hideous bevels, but flat simple borders to indicate buttons are possible, and believe it or not, they just might enhance a user’s experience of your app.
3. You Can Use a Font Asides from Helvetica Neue — remember Proxima Nova? There are thinner versions. As a matter of fact, there are thin versions of every font, and many of them are without serif.
4. You Don’t Need to Use Loud Fluorescent Gradients — notwithstanding this ode to Jony Ive , fluorescent gradients were not ubiquitous several months ago, and they need not be moving forward.

There is a reason behind these drastic changes: mobile developers are desperate for distribution. With iOS7, many believe the App Store represents “fertile ground” for opportunity, and there is a resounding belief that if the design language of these apps is pixel perfectly aligned with Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines then that app will have a competitive advantage amidst the sea of mobile applications vying for downloads.

If the past is any indication, it can be downright dangerous to rely on the hope of a feature from Apple for distribution of one’s app. Any mobile developer that has been featured can tell you, the number of downloads from being featured will never meet what one might expect. It’s in all mobile developers best interest to not play the App Store “game” and cultivate their own distribution mechanisms whether it be through growth hacks or distribution partnerships. While App Store rankings on iOS7 may appear to be a low hanging fruit to spikes in downloads, the perceived opportunity with the shift to iOS7 will likely be a mere mirage, as traditional App Store mechanisms will invariably hold true.

A little bit of depth can go a long way

My hope with iOS7 was that it would provide a blank slate of creativity for designers, and we would see unique takes on Apple’s new framework. Instead what we are seeing, and will likely continue to see ad nauseam, are apps that adhere too strictly to Apple’s prescribed methodology and many apps will appear more mundane and alike than ever before. One mustn’t follow this framework in absolute just because it new. The goal should never be to look as similar as possible to a default iOS app. Mobile developers have been veering away from Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines for years, using it simply as a benchmark for sizing and a blueprint for expectations then forging their own identity within this framework.

Designers love to criticize, almost to a crippling degree. Yet, after the wave of criticism surrounding iOS7, designers seem to be merely accepting this new design language as the status quo. Instead, the most prescient designers should take what Apple has given them, and forge a visual identity unique to their own brands — or at least, that’s what I was hoping to see …