The Safari Icon
Apple’s new Safari icon for iOS 7speaks volumes about the new design.
I never liked the original icon either, but the new Safari icon speaks volumes about Apple’s new design. It looks like it was designed at the last minute, never went through a design review, and was never actually looked at before the release.
“Design is not how things look but rather how things work.”
— Steve Jobs
Although the overall much needed changes to the iOS 7 design are fantastic when it comes to how things work, it makes me sad that Apple is yet to even consider many of the features and enhacements their customers are dying to get.
Multitasking
It is great Apple is finally listening and they are enabling “smart multitasking” in the iOS 7. That has been said, is clicking twice on the physical home button every time you want to switch between apps the best Apple can come up with?
Live Data
Live data in the icons (other than the live updated time in the clock and the live date in the calendar app) is a much needed feature. The idea of glancing over your phone and getting the needed data is an enhancement that Apple is missing. Windows Phone provides that with the live tiles and Android provides that with widgets. Apple does not need to add widgets or provide live tiles, they can come up with their own solution to this, but so far, they are giving us nothing!
Lock Screen
After years, all Apple can come up with is switching the unlocking to vertical? There are lots of useful information that you can surface up on the lock screen (weather, selected stocks) while keeping the design simple and elegant. This makes the lock screen a useful place to simply look for couple of seconds every couple of hours and get the info you need.
Notifications
Notifications haven’t changed much as far as I know. Every time you get a message, you still have to click on that notification, go to the message app, reply to the message, double click the physical home button then go back to what you were doing seconds before you get another message. Why can’t you reply from within the notification (by clicking on a reply button to the right of the notification for example) and reply from within the context you are looking at.
And more
Those are just simple examples of simple enhancements that Apple would have been able to get done within the iOS 7 timeframe. Those are not even feature requests, they are simple enhancements to the user experience. They keep the interface simple, they achieve Apple’s goals of providing the best user experience on the market, and they give developers a chance to build better apps.
I own an iPhone 5 and will continue to do so for the next couple of years (I will not be voiding my contract) but if Apple does not move forward fast enough as it was doing few years ago, they will start becoming the ones trying to catch up and that’s a position Apple never want to be in.
The new look and feel of iOS 7 (especially the colors) is not what I expected from Apple. Not at all!
Look & Feel
As for the look and feel, I am just going to leave you with few examples of designs I found on dribbble. In my opinion, those are significantly better than what Apple introduced in WWDC.
http://dribbble.com/shots/1109343-iOS-7-Redesign
Although it is simple and similar, it is by far a better design than what Apple introduced.
http://dribbble.com/shots/1111784-iOS-7-icons-redesign
Another design on Dribbble. What I love about the design below is the real time data in the weather app for example.
http://dribbble.com/shots/1112094-iOS-7
Those designs are ideas. Some of them have their own problems but they represent the work of artists who spent a day or two re-designing Apple’s iOS and were able to come up with designs, colors, and gradients that make more sense than what Apple introduced!
Apple has set very high expectations for itself when it comes to the look and feel of iOS and, in my opinion, it failed to hit those expectations with iOS 7.
