Comment by btipling
12 years ago
The choice of colors and gradients look terrible. They made iOS look worse. They swung too far away from skeuomorphic design. Even the art on the icons, without considering the colors, look like an amateur drew them. Look at the SDK icon:
http://i.imgur.com/JXw7KQA.png
That is ugly. So is the iTunes icon, so is the Safari icon. Not a fan.
Skeuomorphic vs. flat is a red herring. Either one can be tastefully or tastelessly done. Today's iOS 7 unveil was unfortunately the latter.
The sad truth is: once Steve Jobs passed on, the quality of designs coming out of Apple started to decline. The ousting of Scott Forstall and the rumored eschewing of anything resembling skeuomorphic design was heralded as the coming of a great new era, however now that we can see the first results it's apparent that Apple is no longer capable of producing great design at all, no matter where it lands on the skeu vs. flat spectrum. The new designs are still as ugly as the Forstall-era stuff; it's just a different kind of ugly.
It makes me really sad, because the original iPhone was an incredible triumph that led the way of the industry for the next several years. I fear we will not see something of such high quality for a very long time after this. Nothing will change until there is once again someone in place at the top of Apple's hierarchy who can enforce the notion of good taste, regardless of the current fashion or style.
They tried to get away from skeuomorphism, but still some remains. Just look at PassBook or the ugly 3D browsing through tabs.
The whole design simply is not well thought out. This has clearly been rushed, which is not something I expect from Apple. If iOS 7 was leaked, people wouldn't believe it's the real thing. Sadly, it is.
I'm staying with Windows Phone.
I didn't know what Microsoft meant in their description of Windows Phone as "Authentically Digital" until I just saw the ugly bombshell Apple just left.
The new iOS looks half-baked, they can't do anything too bold, else they lose their metaphors, yet they can't do anything radical like Microsoft did without redefining their platform and re-educating their users.
Run away. Fast.
>Run away. Fast.
Towards an Applestore? I've been using an iPhone since 3GS, and this is the best release ever. Both in features and looks.
4 replies →
I'm not sure if flipping through 3D browser tabs mimics a real-life affordance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZZLvVTWuJM
It's a card index. (I happen to think it's a decent metaphor, but whatever, it's Internet Hate Week today.)
The limited flat/skeu vocabulary doesn't have a word for it, but it's what I'd call a depth cue.
(If you'll indulge me linking to my own article, I've tried to lay out a better framework here: http://interuserface.net/2013/05/flat-is-not-the-opposite-of...)
>They tried to get away from skeuomorphism, but still some remains. Just look at PassBook or the ugly 3D browsing through tabs.
What's ugly about those tabs?
And what's ...skeuomorphic about them? They remind you of real life huge rectangles with webpages on them that you browse through 3D space at home?
I didn't know what Microsoft meant in their description of Windows Phone as "Authentically Digital" until I just saw the ugly bombshell Apple just left.
The new iOS looks half-baked, they can't do anything too bold, else they lose their metaphors, yet they can't do anything radical like Microsoft did without redefining their platform and re-educating their users.
Run away. Fast.
>They tried to get away from skeuomorphism, but still some remains. Just look at PassBook or the ugly 3D browsing through tabs.
What's ugly about those tabs?
And what's ...skeuomorphic about them? They remind you of real life huge rectangles with webpages on them that you browse through 3D space at home?
>The whole design simply is not well thought out. This has clearly been rushed, which is not something I expect from Apple.
BS, if they didn't make any drastic changes the same people would say "oh, they didn't go far enough" etc.
The new UI looks extremely polished and well thought out. And it wasn't just a design overhaul, they changed tons of behaviour and added lots of features too.
>I'm staying with Windows Phone.
Well, if you already have a Windows Phone, I don't think you're the kind of person that would appreciate iOS, anyway.
> Well, if you already have a Windows Phone, I don't think you're the kind of person that would appreciate iOS, anyway.
That's an arrogant and elitist thing to say. Your iWhatever doesn't make you a better human being, it just makes you think you have the right to tell that to others.
Don't be an iAsshole.
Totally agree, when you see the screenshots all you see is white. I understand moving away from skeuomorphism but it doesn't feel distinctive anymore.
As opposed to the Generic Blue Square icons Apple used for everything previously?
iOS < 7 had totally non-distinctive icons for Safari, Mail, App Store, Weather and Stocks. I don't think a lack of distinction compared to previous editions is a valid complaint here.
The more I see screenshots, the less I like it. I agree the icons look amateur. The padding inside the edges of the icons is too small. I also don't like the color palette, they are far too in-your-face and gaudy.
>Look at the SDK icon. That is ugly.
It's ugly because nobody gives a fuck about the SDK icon. It's not even an icon anyway -- there's no "SDK" app.
It's just a picture they put on the slides to represent the new SDK.
Don't you think if you want to make sweeping statements you'd better start with the icons people will actually see everyday? How about the home screen?
The pictures of iOS7 on the white iPhone look like those iPhone fakes from Asia.
The Settings icon is terrible as well, compared to the current one. http://cl.ly/PYkr
yea, I might faint if I look at it long enough.
The Mail and Newsstand are my least favorite
This SDK icon is only to be used for the presentation.
They certainly have gone for a very bright look.
The icons are awful. They are midway between photorealistic and pictograms, ends up looking childish, tacky, unpolished.
John Ive has a minimalist approach on hardware that works really well, because the hardware is not at the center, it's the software. But on UIs, you can't be too minimal, since you only have one sense to work with (vision), so you have to work with strokes, textures, depth and color (the full gamut, you're not limited to primary colors).
It has better usability in many areas, but it was a bad idea making a 180 degree turn on the UI design with Ive at the wheel. Jobs would never let this out so unpolished.
Maybe they left some rubber duckies in there to remove later followed by huge applauses ;)
I like the overall new style, however a bit of redefining here and there would be good, like some of the icons. Great update.
Strange, am I the only one who likes it?