What is not flat about iOS 11? Bolder text? While maybe not as sparse it seems just as flat.
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Who cares if something is original if it's ugly. IMO iOS 6 style was ugly. Microsoft Bob ugly.
I'm sorry, but I can't sit idly by at this post.
First, thank you for the reminders of back when things "just worked," and looked attractive to boot (particularly the last 2 images).
Few would have disagreed in 2013 that, sure, some aspects of iOS6 like the analog tape player and stitched leather were a bit over the top and ready for refinement. But for me and many rational individuals, these were hardly worth marching to Cupertino with torches and pitchforks raised and cries to burn the not only the witch but her cat, her house, her family, their houses, and the neighboring village. Your sentiment inspires the utter confusion many like me have about why Apple banished to hell all aspects of an iOS6 UI that was thick & rich with Apple-esque intuitive UI/function prioritized over form, only to replace it with a thin & fragile minimalistic reinvented UI that prioritized form/fashion over intuitive function and looked like a dumbed-down generic copycat of the competition (whose UI's ironically were forced to be generic copycats of Apple's UI and not attempt to pirate Apple's then-best-in-class we-were-here-first UI, lest they risk lawsuit). And worst of all, many things are HARDER and less intuitive to use. Maybe this is just Apple's being a victim of success, getting too mainstream over the last 10 years and receiving too many distracting cries from Joe Public who tricked Apple away from being a leader/individual that catered to users who "just got it," and inspired new management with "new ideas" to change course haphazardly and give in to the silly marketing tactic of providing "new and different is better" just to get the attention of all the new, diverse users (Like post #155, above, that prioritizes wallpaper/background over easy-to-use UI). Or maybe Steve Jobs was the last business leader with also good design taste, and the last cowboy willing to be the gate against Bad Design and prevent design-by-committee. Maybe we're just screwed post-Jobs.
The screenshots you shared remind me of what it was like when a UI contained elements that allowed the user to almost subconsciously differentiate between what's info-only vs. what's pressable/interactionable. The keyboard, particularly, was just so much more a pleasure to use than today's grey/whited-out 2D flat keyboard, even just the aspect of looking at a keyboard that beckoned you to use it. The Notifications view contains elements like shading/bordering again subconsciously helped the user prioritize attention and -- enriched the user experience IMHO, like the weather indication that is a pleasure to view, showing off some talented artistry (vs. today's 2D clipart weather graphics that virtually any joe shmo could create).
Until the world's museums remove 3D photo-looking paintings from 300 years ago and replaces them with posters of 2D presentations (like South Park town scenes) taped to the wall without frames, and until homes are built where the bathroom looks like the kitchen looks like the living room looks like the garage, it's clearly obvious that the white-washing of Apple UI starting with iOS7 was a short-sighted cheapening/worsening of things for no good reason other than to reflect the ineptitude of today's leadership at Apple. I'm not surprised that many consumers either like it or are indifferent, as it takes all kinds in this world. I'm maybe a little bit jealous of those who are indifferent to today's disastrous Apple iOS/OS UI's, while at the same time I hope Apple management veers back towards the type of leadership who values function/UIx first and form/fashion second. I still await an argument to convince me that the right path was for Apple to completely abandon 100% of a UI/UIX full of attractive elements that were proven to "just work" and replace it with what we have today, where iOS11 is just another set of band-aids and random reinventions trying to rescue the disaster that iOS7 started while SLOWLY bringing back certain elements that "just work" and avoiding any overt admission that they just went too far.
