

iOS 7's Design is Confused - andrewmunsell
http://www.andrewmunsell.com/blog/ios7-design/

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jwwest
> or remove useless buttons like the calculator and timer buttons

Pure opinion here. Personally I use the calculator a lot on my phone, and love
having a quick way to access it. The timer icon is actually the clock app, I
got confused by the icon too.

After playing around with the Beta for a while, I can say that the design
doesn't make sense until you actually use it. Give it some time.

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pagliara
Just started playing with the beta and I have to agree, it is something you
must experience to judge accurately. Using iOS 7 _feels_ good. There will
definitely be refinements to come, but I think it's a huge step in the right
direction. The stock apps, especially the App Store app, feel much nicer to
use.

Although I have to agree with the OP about the app icons. I just don't think
they look that nice.

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Tloewald
The gradients are only problematic if interpreted as lighting. If merely
decorative, no problem. Note that almost all of the gradients involve hue
shifts.

The spacing of the balloons is actually clever. Balloons from one party are
closer spaced than balloons from different parties. I prefer space around the
text to space around the balloons.

I agree that the calculator et. al. Could be customizable. That aside, it's
more or less the same controls as before but using more screen real estate
rather than requiring flicking between screens. I think it's a serious
improvement.

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shalmanese
We already have a terms for "gradients that are not meant to be interpreted as
lighting", we call them "optical illusions" and they're immensely confusing to
the visual system.

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Camillo
Don't be silly, there are all sorts of gradients in nature that have nothing
to do with lighting.

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boronine
Like what? I honestly can't think of a single example.

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frogpelt
You can't think of a single object that isn't a uniform color?

How about flowers? Rocks? Fruit? Animals?

Try harder.

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hahainternet
Other than animal skins, the examples given seem to be dominated by lighting.

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andrewmunsell
Don't get me wrong-- I like change, and the direction Apple is headed in with
some of the UI changes (the calendar) look fine, but there are still a few
problems with iOS 7 that make it look a little bit amateurish in some areas.

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joeblau
That was my first thought. It looks like a first attempt by someone trying to
learn Flat UI. For some reason, it just looks a bit to kludgy for me.

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andrewmunsell
To be fair, this is the first time Apple's tried flat UI :P

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zeckalpha
What about the original Mac?

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ryguytilidie
I would guess there are about 0 people on that team working on this team.

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tathagata
The icon backgrounds now look largely redundant. Apple could have done better
by getting rid of the backgrounds altogether like Android.

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czhiddy
The completely arbitrary icon sizes look absolutely terrible on Android, IMO :
[http://cdn.androidpolice.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/09/nexu...](http://cdn.androidpolice.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/09/nexusae0_icons_thumb.jpg)

~~~
batiudrami
While Google's lack of consistency in icon sizing is frustrating (though it is
getting better, slowly), real world usage does look much better than that, as
the icons are centred rather than placed on a baseline.
[http://i.imgur.com/CYUVTw8.png](http://i.imgur.com/CYUVTw8.png)

That being said, I do think that rounded squares are an important part of
iOS's design and that style icon is associated with iOS, so I don't think it
should be changed.

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interpol_p
I think the design absolutely requires its motion to be considered in
connection with the visuals.

A lot of the stuff is not much to look at until you start moving it — the
Messages list, for example, is particularly impressive with independent
physics applied to each message within a table cell (causing them to stack and
bounce as they inherit the scroll velocity).

That said, I'd be happy if they tweaked a few of the icon designs (Game Center
is bizarre). But there's an incredible pleasantness to the motion that seems
to suit the lighter choice of visual design — most elements seem very
appropriate.

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hdra
One thing I can't understand, why would they make the blurred background on
the Control Center lighter and put white text and controls on it?? Is this
supposed to be customizable?

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Puer
Yeah, that's like design 101. One thing I really like about the default
Android UI is that it's mainly black/gray with blue, which makes it easy on
the eyes and nice to look at in various environments (at night, for example).

I was actually really looking forward to iOS 7. I'm currently on an old
feature phone and I haven't quite decided between iOS or Android. I've messed
around with an old Galaxy S 4G and an iPad 2, and after seeing iOS 7 I think
I'm definitely leaning towards getting an Android based phone.

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grandalf
These are all minor complaints in comparison to the huge sigh of relief I am
experiencing thanks to the removal of the faux-leather, faux-paper, etc. The
skeuomorphic apps are the only apps I can't use (it's painful) and I've
downloaded a dozen note taking apps just to try to find one that is designed
well.

Skeuomorphism was cool back in 1987 when it was novel that VGA existed.

If it takes Apple until IOS 7.1 to fix some of the subtle gradient issues, so
be it.

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mvkel
This author is confused. Anyone who's tested any BETA 1 of iOS knows how
unfinished it can be. This isn't your Google "beta." It's a legitimate beta.

~~~
potatolicious
I've been running the beta 1's since iOS4, and while they can be glitchy,
buggy, and crashy, the UI is never really incomplete.

If Apple substantially changes the designs (iconography included) between now
and shipping, it would make for a first.

I feel similarly to the author. Overall I like the design and think it's a
much-needed step forward for the OS, but the iconography is distracting. The
removal of any kind of affordance in the slide-to-action bars is also a step
back.

There are lots of places in the OS where I'd expect, under normal
circumstances, some pretty substantial redesign, but Apple has never been
known to overhaul their designs significantly between beta and release.

~~~
gtCameron
The UI was fairly complete in previous betas, but it was also largely the same
as the last major version.

I don't think any of us know how the beta as it sits today is going to compare
to the final release, but saying that it won't change because previous betas
didn't change doesn't seem like a fair comparison.

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luiscvega
They didn't really call it "Flat" design. So we can't really blame them when
elements don't follow the "rules" of Flat design.

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elpool2
He makes some good points, except for the complaining about the app icons. If
all the built-in apps had consistent icons then you'd have half the icons on
your homescreen looking the same and the other half that are made by 3rd
parties all looking unique and different. It's better when ALL the icons look
completely different.

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adamschoales
I think in terms of UX, iOS 7 will be a win. But in terms of graphical design
I think it's much less successful.

Ive may be a master of industrial design and user interaction, but it's
looking like that mastery doesn’t translate to graphic/user interface design.

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2muchcoffeeman
I think the problem is that so much of this looks like other companies design
language.

It's not bad, but I miss the iOS-ness. I thought this would have been a
refinement and extension of their current style. A lot of their stuff is good.
I don't think they needed such a massive overhaul.

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seanp2k2
I largely agree with this post, and I feel like the UX changes he addresses
will make it a bit more confusing for first-time iOS users, while experienced
iOS users probably won't even notice a difference.

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sigzero
This is first pass for developers. Lots can be tweaked before Fall.

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oatmealsnap
Not likely. They have a nice little graphic on their website showing how much
effort they put into the icons. Probably not going to change...

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camus
meh , it's ok imho , they flatten their UI , but it's not flat/flat. I think
it's a good compromise. Anyway i'm more interested in the dev features
themself , and i found them a bit disappointing , no great deal of changes.

~~~
andrewmunsell
I was actually pretty excited to try out Airdrop (and the joke about bumping
phones was pretty funny), but then I realized it was iPhone 5+ (though, I do
have an iPad Mini).

