Apple had a good balance between skeuomorphism and minimalism a few years ago, but as Jony Ive & Co. strip out decoration for flatness, iOS 11 almost looks unfinished. Case in point: the PIN screen and the calculator app.
I live in an old Victorian house, and there's something very "human" and comforting about the tiny details that designers embark on a crusade to erase every other decade. Sometimes I wonder if flat UI and "brutalist design" [0] came about simply because folks got lazy and need to show something quickly Monday morning.
I was a reluctant convert to the cult of flatness - the OS changed beneath me (if OSX still allowed theming I would have instantly regressed). Then they took it so far that you no longer have enough visual cues.
I'd love to see something nearer iOS 7, or Mountain Lion. We don't need to return to pads with margins and torn paper though.
I’m half kidding saying this, but I still stand behind the fact Yahoo! officially died when it changed its logo. It was the final nail in the coffin and where they conclusively proved they had lost their soul.
The current iOS calculator app is atrocious looking. However I usually use use spotlight for my calculations but that’s been hidden several swipes away if you’re in an app.
Where’s the minimalism in the amount of touch input needed? Replying to emails in Mail is a chore of taps.
What infuriates me most about minimalism is when attempt an action, and the UI accepts your input but does nothing. No error message, no hint as to what you did wrong, because that wouldn't be minimalist.
It used to be just one minor swipe down. You could pull down the notifications blind just a small bit and you’d have access to it instantly. It was really useful, now I have to swipe across two screens. [0]
Mail is similar, there are more taps than there used to be in favour of minimalism. So yes it is a chore when it used to be effortless and now it’s two swipes across useless empty screen filling space in different directions that iOS sometimes misinterpretes.
It makes sense in places where the UI is still based on a physical item, such as the calculator and calendar, and many icons. Apple took it too far by removing almost all gradients and shadows. It just looks boring. The icons of iOS default apps are particularly dull and ugly. Material Design is a nice balance, with the clean lines of a flat UI, but with just enough detail to give it depth.
The article also mentions the other area where skeumorphic design is missed, and that's in the playful details. Flawed as the app was in many ways, and as much as many people hated it, I loved the reel-to-reel tape animation in the iOS Podcasts app ( https://www.geeksofdoom.com/GoD/img/2012/12/2012-12-17-iOS_P... )
Material Design is as much part of the flat and ugly problem as anyone else. I was on Android until 12 months ago when I switched back to iOS. They both have their low points, and less low points, but both are flat, ugly, anti-design, experiences. (You may infer I'm not a fan of absolute flatness, on either platform)
If I see an image from iOS 6 to 7 period I'm struck by how much better most 6 icons are than what's come since. Depth is actually really useful. I don't miss gimmicks like the wood effects, or star burst backgrounds on some icons etc. Android was much less coherent back in Android 4, so the whole sense of consistency came along with the flattening through Jelly Bean and Kitkat until you arrive at the children's Pogs interface of Nougat. Jelly Bean or Kitkat were the high point. We can thank Material Design for the coherency and some good, and needed, guidelines for colour.
I'm missing your case in point. Based on the images you provided I can't tell which one is iOS 11. It's like 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.
The calculator is a little bit different between the trip, but I wouldn't say either one is unfinished, kit is either one better than the other.
For me, having the subtle details like having a thin gradient border for the PIN input gives those "buttons" a more refined look compared to just flat discs.
Apple had a good balance between skeuomorphism and minimalism a few years ago, but as Jony Ive & Co. strip out decoration for flatness, iOS 11 almost looks unfinished. Case in point: the PIN screen and the calculator app.
Lock screen: https://file.mockplus.com/image/2017/10/5627bfee-8dbf-44b4-9...
Calculator: http://cdn.iphonehacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/iOS-10...
I live in an old Victorian house, and there's something very "human" and comforting about the tiny details that designers embark on a crusade to erase every other decade. Sometimes I wonder if flat UI and "brutalist design" [0] came about simply because folks got lazy and need to show something quickly Monday morning.
[0] http://brutalistwebsites.com/