Beyond the fugly icons - 3 beautiful things to love about iOS 7
While everyone under the sun is bitching about how ugly the new iOS 7 is, I want to focus on a few benefits, which I find quite helpful in the new redesign.
Actually, if you have time, also take look at this long Wired piece, which explains why and how Apple is moving away from Skeuomorphism and towards a flat, but unified vision.
Here’s what I like about the new design.
(1) Search - my most, most desired feature. I cannot tell you enough how happy I am that search is now available via a simple tap + pull-down gesture. I have a lot of apps on my iPhone and I can never remember where they all are; search is something I spend a lot of time in. In the past, you’d always have to swipe back to search, and now it’s substantially faster to get to. This feature is great for me :)
(2) Settings - this might be counter intuitive, but Settings page that does not have a million icons and gradients, that are all different from each other, is a much better settings page! I can actually clearly see what’s where. This may not be beautiful, but doesn’t have to be! I bet the new look will be a whole lot easier to handle for the novice user.
(3) This thing (see below). I don’t know what iOS team calls this, but basically a very concise version of a launch pad, which makes launching frequent features an ease. It even has a flashlight. My new favorite!
(4) I know, I know, I said 3 things, but @pixxel just reminded me that photos are huge on iPhone and the way they are organized (and probably uploaded to the cloud) is really great in the new design. Did you know ios7 has filters readily available to you, and the best part probably is - a “square” filter that lets you take instagram compatible shots in a snap.
Does this mean I love the new design? No, not really. It feels like a job done by a junior designer who hasn’t spent enough time to refine the details. Perhaps it will grow on me, like design has a tendency to do, perhaps it won’t. In either way, Apple only controls a very very small fraction of apps and for everything else, there will be freelance designers willing to create a much more stunning experience.
In the Wired article they mention how Jony is looking to unify Apple software across devices. Having just downloaded Maverick (OSX 10.9), I can already see the similarities.
I doubt many designers will adopt the new look right away, but since non-designers won’t have a problem using the native interface, in my view, the design industry will eventually get used to the new standards. At the same time, Apple still has months to go until the public release, and they may just tighten catch up on design.
The new iOS update might not be sexy, but it is very functional and I am looking forward to the future to come. You?
p.s. The new UI elements look so plain, that it makes me wonder whether this is all an elaborate test by Jony Ive.
What would be a better way to test features you do (and do not) use, than to give you a vanilla interface where actual interaction is more important than visual design? We shall find out in the fall.
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