Hi Andrew,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I found it very thought-provoking.

I agree with you in rejecting the notion that design is dead just because modern minimalism is having its moment in the technology space. However, while I welcome the change as a movement, I wanted to talk a little about Apple’s implementation of the flat aesthetic.

But first, a little history and context.

Do you remember the original iPhone? I certainly do. I still have mine, and even though I don’t use it, I fondly recall how it converted me from a Sony Clie TH55 + candybar phone user to a smartphone adherent.

I used to believe a phone was an appliance — something that could never truly be personalized and would always be at the whims of the carrier. Thus, I treasured my personal electronic organizer because it was the medium in which I expressed my thoughts, communicated with others (outside of texting or phone calls), and enjoyed myself (let’s hear it for early Palm games). When a friend offered to sell me his iPhone because he was upgrading to the next big thing, I skeptically took him up on his offer- mostly out of curiosity.

I gladly spent the next year or so thoroughly enjoying immersing myself in the new world Apple had created. When Steve Job opened up the platform for app developers, I was amazed at the creativity (fart apps notwithstanding) that sprang from the fertile minds of these app developers. I reveled in how expressive some of their designs were, and marveled at how quickly and naturally I took to them.

In time, two apps became my most-used and most-loved: Tweetbot 2 (a third-party Twitter app) and Momento (a life journaling app; think Instagram + Evernote). Their interfaces were logical, and a pleasure to behold and use. I especially loved the little gestures TweetBot included within its app, enhancing functionality in novel ways.

Then iOS7 hit.

My initial thoughts were that it was garish, and vaguely reminiscent of the Lisa Frank school of hyper-colored design.

The graphic Eli posted (http://static1.squarespace.com/static/54bb4cfce4b045585ada36f7/t/55237a1ae4b0950523e31f8e/1428388380160/?format=750w) is spot-on. Compared to its forebears, the icons which adhere to the brand of “flat” Apple ushered in are sterile, generic, and devoid of personality. Without going into whether or not it is easier to create icons or design for “flat” (and therefore whether or not visual designers will still have jobs- hint: they will), I want to call attention to the relative ease of recognition and intuitiveness of the pre-flat icons (and their attendant functional representatives within each app) versus their flat replacements.

When iOS 7 first came up, designers themselves had misgivings. Notably here, an interview with designer David Yun here. Over time, it has become clear iOS 7 did include a lot of improvements over iOS 6 and its predecessors (see here for Quora Director of Design David Cole’s insightful thoughts.

In sum, design is about should first and foremost be about functionality. Does an icon or control with a flat design provide the user with a clear understanding of their functions? I would argue that the Settings icon in iOS 7 does not.

The user experience of a design provides another inflection point. How quickly can a user identify what to do on a white canvas with glyph-like icons vs. full color, richer icons? For example, I find that my eye tends to read the labels of iOS 7 icons where it naturally recognizes and embraces their iOS 6 versions.

To be clear, I do not yearn for the days of felt-green or shiny chrome buttons. I think having a bit of depth — or at the least the illusion of depth — straddles the line between baroque ornamentation and unnecessary reductionism.

That’s why I’m a bit more enthusiastic about Google’s Material Design, which owes more than a little to iOS 7 and Jony Ive. From what I’ve gleaned, Material Design seeks to provide the user with a modicum of familiarity (e.g. strategic use of shadow, granting elements a physicality, drawing focus and emphasis on the right things at the right time) while still hewing to tasteful, modern minimalism. Still, I’m hopeful that others (and hopefully Apple as well) will seek out improvements to designing intuitive, attractive, and yes functional elements — flat or otherwise.