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iOS 11 UI design.
- Thread starter Old geek 959
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In 2012 Apple introduced iOS 7 with a fresh design with Ive touches after the departure of Forstall. to this date Apple kept the design and changed small elements and of course the wallpapers.
Personally I was let down in the announce of iOS 10 because I thought its time for a fresh look.
Do you think Apple will keep this design for another year or maybe more? (original design lasted from 2007-2012) or they might introduce a new look for their OS? I hope they will.
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Please bite your tongue and take back those wishes.
if Apple re-invented (ruined) iOS again after they already deviated from near perfection in 2013, it would be like choosing to make basketballs into squares and then into pyramids five years from now just to have something different.[doublepost=1490673155][/doublepost]
I can't believe more people are not raising torches and pitchforks over the fact that reinvention is satisfying marketing and Jony Ive mostly, while resulting in change for the sake of change and too much abandoning of good UI. All those complaints about green felt and leather stitching resulted in an iOS (7) with unintuitive function and boring appearance - changes for sake of change, veering too far away from something that was pretty perfect (current calendar, alarm clock, and voicemail interfaces are still cringe worthy compared to iOS 6 and prior). Noting that so much of Jony Ive's iOS 7 changes included dumbing down the graphics and hiding functions behind swipes and clicks just for the sake of having a clean workspace, what other options are there to providing a fresh, new interface?
1) return to an ios6-esque UI with attractive metaphors
2) continue the minimalizatoon. What else is there to simplify down to at this point? An all new fresh/different black and white flatter design? All text instead of graphics?
3) some other made-up change for the sake of change monstrosity that will make people like me beg for an iOS reminiscent of ios7 through 10
I'd like to restate your summary.
iOS 4-6 Good Design
iOS 7-9 Bad Design (Unecessary overhaul)
iOS 10-12 Same Bad Design (Some New interfaces, nothing outrageously better but just different)
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Please bite your tongue and take back those wishes.
[doublepost=1490673155][/doublepost]
I can't believe more people are not raising torches and pitchforks over the fact that reinvention is satisfying marketing and Jony Ive mostly, while resulting in change for the sake of change and too much abandoning of good UI. All those complaints about green felt and leather stitching resulted in an iOS (7) with unintuitive function and boring appearance - changes for sake of change, veering too far away from something that was pretty perfect (current calendar, alarm clock, and voicemail interfaces are still cringe worthy compared to iOS 6 and prior). Noting that so much of Jony Ive's iOS 7 changes included dumbing down the graphics and hiding functions behind swipes and clicks just for the sake of having a clean workspace, what other options are there to providing a fresh, new interface?
1) return to an ios6-esque UI with attractive metaphors
2) continue the minimalizatoon. What else is there to simplify down to at this point? An all new fresh/different black and white flatter design? All text instead of graphics?
3) some other made-up change for the sake of change monstrosity that will make people like me beg for an iOS reminiscent of ios7 through 10
I'd like to restate your summary.
iOS 4-6 Good Design
iOS 7-9 Bad Design (Unecessary overhaul)
iOS 10-12 Same Bad Design (Some New interfaces, nothing outrageously better but just different)
Subjective and wrong...
We could "argue" till the end of the century, but the # of times my mother and other older relatives have called me confused over how to do something on their iPhone that used to be obvious has gone up substantially since around ios7. And the fact that even I (as their "expert") sometimes find myself unsure how to do something that used to be obvious, forcing me to resort to Google only to find that Jony Ive's team buried some command behind a menu or swipe that wasn't at all obvious just for the sake of a "clean" design with too much white space is all the proof I need that Apple has ruined their UI just to appease Jony Ive's misguided minimalist wanderings.
I agree with your point. And even if apple made their apps darker. There are still millions of apps in the appstore that are white.
THIS. Seriously. Once you reach a "best practice" level of UI design which was incrementally improved over 5 iterations (to iOS6), how can any significant redesign change possibly be anything but a step down and just change sake of change? The fact that Apple let this happen for iOS7 is still completely astounding to me.
Even better - assuming there's even a shred of validity to completely redoing a UI every ~7 years just to appease misguided consumers clamoring for something new & different, wouldn't it hold that Jony should completely revise his current UI in 2-3 years? Assuming his ego won't let him resurrect any of the iOS6-esque elements that I so miss, can you only imagine the monstrosity that would result?
Whether it's Apple's post-iOS6 UI, or Android, or Google's Material Design, all this pastel colored low-contrast flat design non-3D buttonless interface craziness is so less satisfying to use than anything from before 2013.
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And we have a new dock, as it can be seen in the new iPad pro demos. It looks so much nicer than the horrible one we have in iOS10. More Mac like. I wonder why I haven't seen any mention of this in the various forums.
Frankly, I'm a fan of the iOS 7 redesign; a big fan of it. It feels fresh even through this day, and it gave Apple engineers the ability to add much more advanced features within iOS.
But, I don't see a need for any major UI change for iOS. Incrementals, as Mr Todhunter pointed out above, are fine and natural. But until there is some radical new UI paradigm change in the market, iOS is strong in its current form.
But, I don't see a need for any major UI change for iOS. Incrementals, as Mr Todhunter pointed out above, are fine and natural. But until there is some radical new UI paradigm change in the market, iOS is strong in its current form.
What facets of ios7-ios10 allow the ability to add features which were not possible to be added with the ios6-esque UI? This is an honest question and something I wrestle with constantly especially since many if not most of the ios7+ aesthetic/UI changes cause me more need to pause, think, hunt, wonder, and click/swipe way more than I used to before ios7; actionable options are too often now not at all obvious or, worse, purposefully hidden just for the sake of an arbitrarily-chosen "minimal look" when it could easily be shown on the current screen. I also remain unconvinced how the eradication of 3D-looking pressable buttons in favor of small colored text with less touchable area (and as a result, less feedback that the action request was accepted) was an improvement, as it also removed the option to use colored text to group & help relay certain FYI information on the screen related to the available actions.
But back to my point: I continue to fail to hear how any current advanced features could not have been possible without the radical redesign of 2013.
After watching some iOS 11 videos I can conclude one thing, the "functional layers that help establish hierarchy and order with translucency giving you a sense of your context" from the iOS 7 design thinking is almost gone.
Look at the new Notification Centre, if you are swiping down to bring a new window/layer/whatever, it should blur the content behind it or give you the sense of going to a new window, which is not the case here, there's no feedback. Same thing with the new Control Centre, which blurs the background without bringing up a real layer, it just brings the icons. I think the only remaining of this philosophy is the dock (which actually looks well represented on the iPad) and the use of blur in some Apps.
Look at the new Notification Centre, if you are swiping down to bring a new window/layer/whatever, it should blur the content behind it or give you the sense of going to a new window, which is not the case here, there's no feedback. Same thing with the new Control Centre, which blurs the background without bringing up a real layer, it just brings the icons. I think the only remaining of this philosophy is the dock (which actually looks well represented on the iPad) and the use of blur in some Apps.
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I noticed this too. I think they are slowly going back to iOS 6 like elements and will add more in the future iOS versions. When I look at the iOS 6 like signal bars, new battery icon and more depth and shadows all around with bolder font, it screams to me that they are admitting that the choices they made with iOS 7 redesign were not right. The new animations also feel more physical and lively.
Couldn't agree more. I think iOS 7 was an ambitious and beautiful redesign that unfortunately didn't age well and didn't bode well with the average user.
Funny, I never liked (actually hated) translucency from day 1. My eyes/brain tend to lock in on anything translucent and actively try to bring it into focus, so I'd always feel a strain with translucency, whether it's Windows 7 or any OS/iOS that Jony Ive ruined. So I reduce translucency with iOS and have stuck with Mavericks on OS. Just as translucent sheets in a book or on our desk at work make no sense, why should anyone think it makes sense on a computer/iOS screen, other than to give programmers an interesting new project to work on? Perhaps most clumsy of all was the fact how the one thing you'd wish was translucent is oddly not -- namely, the on-screen indication when changing volume using the side buttons. When watching a video and changing the volume, the 2 seconds it takes for the volume indication to fade away and stop blocking the middle of the screen seems to take forever. Once again, Jony Ive's team shows its inability to design smart for function in place of favoring "the art."
https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/7/15757734/ios-11-new-volume-indicator-iphone
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-fixes-annoying-volume-box-in-ios-11-2017-6
I agree, only except I never thought it was beautiful as it had an awful personality.
Let's so hope the iOS6-esque UI elements keep reappearing.
There is a LOT to darken, yes even webpages. Look at dark mode done right, such as Microsofts high contrast mode. You will see dark webpages, but with all the colors perfectly tuned and the graphics untouched. This is something Apple is going towards with their smart invert and I'm very curious if they will implement it in safari in a useful manner, from what I understand its current implementation isn't great.
iOS is mired in this white on off white scheme which IMO is awful, but even more so when you have to use your phone in the dark or at night.
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That's just your opinion, I think it would look awesome. The best thing for Apple to do is simply give us a choice so we don't have to debate personal opinion. But there is no reason those apps, among others cannot be dark. There can also be degrees of darkness. Dark grey or darker colors may be a better option than blinding white on off white.
There is clearly a reason why both macOS and iOS do not have dark modes. Its obvious that Apple does not like how there wouldn't be a proper implantation because it would be inconsistent. Apple is all about consistency, that is a well established fact. They like clean designs. A dark mode can not be a true clear design. Thats not opinion, that is fact. Because there are certain apps that cannot be changed.
edit for typos.
That would make sense except that Apple has implemented smart invert in iOS11. What other reason than to allow us to darken the UI? Why wouldn't there be a proper implementation and why would it be inconsistent? Certainly others such as Microsoft have had great success and their solution is quite consistent from webpages to UI elements, it's very clean. Don't be so shortsighted to say "never". What you espouse is clearly an opinion, as is what I myself say, there isn't a single app out there which couldn't be changed, NONE.
This has been mentioned throughout the forum. Smart Invert is ONLY for accessibility. It is not meant for a dark mode that people want. The idea is for those that have vision problems so its easier on the eyes. This is not the same thing as a dark mode and is highly inconsistent throughout the UI because its not meant to be a dark mode.
How would you propose changing notes app, it has "colored pens". That alone adds a layer of difficulty.
I have vision problems, my eyes hurt if I'm in the dark viewing a blinding white on off white theme such as iOS. So smart invert is for me I suppose. It IS dark mode, or at least it "can" be, but you are right it's not consistent because it hasn't been fully implemented.
I think we are just splitting hairs here. Some may define dark mode as a cool dark theme they think looks interesting, where others define it as an accessibility feature which is necessary to use the phone, or a combination of both of those. Just because its an accessibility feature doesn't mean it's not dark mode, well not yet anyway. I'm pleased that Apple has more foresight than to just say dark mode will never work.
But you are now assuming they are going to continue work on it..They might tweak it to make sure its not buggy, but doesn't mean it will fully be implemented, such as Safari and other apps. Thats my point. We can't jump to conclusions by saying this is a start, when it could be at the finish line already.
And you're assuming they won't keep working on it. Sure they may abandon it, they may release the next iPhone in a bright pink too, who knows? None of what I say is fact, it's just my opinion and something I'd love for Apple to keep working on. If we didn't discuss things like this what the heck would we discuss on forums? That's what conversations are made of.
I don't think the signal bars replacing dots is slowly going back to iOS 6 style, I think it's because of the iPhone 8 and that there might be less space up there. Seems to me like iOS 7 went 180 degrees in another direction and eventually Apple will end up somewhere in the middle. I don't see faux leather and green felt coming back but thin fonts and icons are probably gone for good. More text will probably have shading around it to make it look like a button (see App Store redesign). One thing I wish is that they would replace the back button carrot "<" with an arrow. I think an arrow would look nicer.