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Poll: Are you a fan of iOS 11's Design?

Are you a fan of iOS 11's Geriartric Design? (Bolder fonts, more white space, de-densification)

  • Total voters
    236
  • Poll closed .
S

SumYoungGai

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 11, 2013
1,208
1,290
SF Bay Area, CA
I'm not a huge fan of what Apple is doing with the de-densification of the App Store and the large bold titles in apps such as messages. A sizeable portion of the Messages app is now dedicated to telling me that I just opened the messages app. This is seemingly a continuation of what Apple has done to Apple Music in iOS 10+, and it's clear that this is the general direction that Apple will be taking with iOS 11 even if it's a beta 1. So what are your guys' opinion?

iOS 11: https://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/img_0899-png.702398/

iOS 10: http://cdn.iphonehacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ios-10-handwritten-messages-5.jpeg

A user from reddit sums it up very nicely: "I opened Messages. I know I'm in Messages. Why are you gonna waste space on my screen to tell me inside of the Messages app that I'm in Messages?"
 
Last edited:
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SumYoungGai said:
I'm not a huge fan of what Apple is doing with the de-densification of the App Store and the large bold titles in apps such as messages. A sizeable portion of the Messages app is now dedicated to telling me that I just opened the messages app. This is seemingly a continuation of what Apple has done to Apple Music in iOS 10+, and it's clear that this is the general direction that Apple will be taking with iOS 11 even if it's a beta 1. So what are your guys' opinion?

iOS 11: http://cdn.iphonehacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ios-10-handwritten-messages-5.jpeg

iOS 10: http://cdn.iphonehacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/ios-10-handwritten-messages-5.jpeg

A user from reddit sums it up very nicely: "It makes even less sense there. I opened Messages. I know I'm in Messages. Why are you gonna waste space on my screen to tell me inside of the Messages app that I'm in Messages?"
Click to expand...
Seems like the images are the same.
 
I think it is awful. As stated, it serves no practical purposes and is at it worst a distraction and waste of space.

Note also these passages from Apple's interface guidelines:
Incorporate refined, unobtrusive branding. People use your app to be entertained, get information, or get things done, not to watch an advertisement. For the best experience, subtly incorporate your brand through your app’s design. Using colors from your app icon throughout your interface is one great way to provide context in your app.

...

Defer to content over branding. Showing a persistent bar at the top of the screen that does nothing but display brand assets means there’s less room for viewing content. Instead, consider less intrusive ways to implement branding, such as using a custom color scheme or font, or subtly customizing the background.
Click to expand...

To me that's what this is: intrusive branding.
 
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They’re trying to freshen up the design without redesigning it. iOS 7: Minimalistic and thin. iOS 11: big and bold.

Looking forward to any future design improvements. It feels like they’re wasting screen space. It’s weird that iOS 10 redesigned the NC and CC and they’ve already trashed both. Hope they find a clear direction soon and refine it.
 
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Paddle1 said:
They’re trying to freshen up the design without redesigning it. iOS 7: Minimalistic and thin. iOS 11: big and bold.

Looking forward to any future design improvements. It feels like they’re wasting screen space. It’s weird that iOS 10 redesigned the NC and CC and they’ve already trashed both. Hope they find a clear direction soon and refine it.
Click to expand...
I feel like the NC and CC are just more confusing and non-intuitive in iOS 11 beta 1. iOS 10 removed group-by-app for notifications and split the CC into two screens, but I've grown to personally get used to it and I think it works fine. It looks orderly and it's very easy to use.

Now they've combined the lockscreen and the NC so it takes two swipes to get to notifications (why???) and they've fragmented control center so there's no sense of order.
 
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Paddle1 said:
It’s weird that iOS 10 redesigned the NC and CC and they’ve already trashed both. Hope they find a clear direction soon and refine it.
Click to expand...

This crossed my mind too. They tweaked the animations multiple times throughout the lifecycle of iOS 10 and now they do it once more.

Not to mention that this must now be the 5th or 6th redesign of the calculator icon.
 
SumYoungGai said:
I feel like the NC and CC are just more confusing and non-intuitive in iOS 11 beta 1. iOS 10 removed group-by-app for notifications and split the CC into two screens, but I've grown to personally get used to it and I think it works fine. It looks orderly and it's very easy to use.

Now they've combined the lockscreen and the NC so it takes two swipes to get to notifications (why???) and they've fragmented control center so there's no sense of order.
Click to expand...
I agree, but CC at least has new toggles and is more convenient on one page, plus it’s customizable. At least there are improvements. iOS 10 basically just made both of them them less convenient, I can understand why they made another attempt but there’s definitely still plenty of room for improvement.

I don’t even understand what they’re trying to do with the NC, it’s just harder to open and close. What is the purpose... iPhone 8 I guess?
 
I, too, get the feeling that Apple software designers seem to be having mixed feelings about iOS's interface design these past few years. Control Center, after being introduced in iOS 7, was changed in iOS 8, iOS 10 and now iOS 11. Not a fan of the new iOS 11 design - it looks like a Tetris game with those jumbled, irregularly-shaped icons, though the new functionalities are good.

'Improving' the design is just a way of spinning things; the truth is they realised they shouldn't have changed it for the sake of changing it in the first place.

Also not a fan of the geriatric design with those big fonts and lots of empty white spaces. What's with those enormous, empty spaces at the top of some apps? They should've taken advantage of the screen real estate to allow more content to be seen at a given time, instead of putting a gigantic label there with empty white spaces around it.
 
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Beeplance said:
What's with those enormous, empty spaces at the top of some apps? They should've taken advantage of the screen real estate to allow more content to be seen at a given time, instead of putting a gigantic label there with empty white spaces around it.
Click to expand...

The interesting thing is, if you swipe up on the pane that contains the large label, it collapses & goes back to looking how iOS 10 currently looks - small label centered in the top bar. What's the point of the larger label?
 
SumYoungGai said:
The interesting thing is, if you swipe up on the pane that contains the large label, it collapses & goes back to looking how iOS 10 currently looks - small label centered in the top bar. What's the point of the larger label?
Click to expand...

Good to know.

When you put a group of middle-aged people with degenerating eye-sight as part of the software design team, I guess this kind of thing tend to happen.

#BringBackScottForstall
 
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Don't like it esthetically, but that's a taste-thing. Functionally though it's just a huge waste of space, especially on smaller devices like the iPhone SE. They should really adjust this dynamically based on the available screen space.
 
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I kinda like the new design but i hate the new appstore... such a waste of space
 
I have massive problem with it. Worse this really is an effective way to convince me to Samsung.

The worst experience for me apart from the big and bold text is the App update page in the App Store. Like for real?
 
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infernohellion said:
I have massive problem with it. Worse this really is an effective way to convince me to Samsung.

The worst experience for me apart from the big and bold text is the App update page in the App Store. Like for real?
Click to expand...
The update page is a rather interesting design. I’m sure it’ll be tweaked though.
 
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