Will Apple reintroduce design to iOS 9?

[darkgoob]

I'm curious if Apple will put design back into iOS when 9 comes out?

I thought it was weird that they erased design from most places in the system on iOS 7 and then did not add it back in 8. All the stuff that used to have design is still just plain white with the default font in black, or sometimes in that really ugly blue color.

Do you think they'll add back nice beautiful gradients and the easy-to-look-at high-contrast gray interface with drop-shadows to help you visually distinguish things?

Or for those who hate everything being white, do you think they might let users change the default background to gray or black, at least?

 

[Intell]

There are many forms of design and art. iOS 7, 8 and very likely 9 have design and art within them, even though it is different that found in earlier versions of iOS.

 

[Rodster]

I'm curious if Apple will put design back into iOS when 9 comes out?

I thought it was weird that they erased design from most places in the system on iOS 7 and then did not add it back in 8. All the stuff that used to have design is still just plain white with the default font in black, or sometimes in that really ugly blue color.

Do you think they'll add back nice beautiful gradients and the easy-to-look-at high-contrast gray interface with drop-shadows to help you visually distinguish things?

Or for those who hate everything being white, do you think they might let users change the default background to gray or black, at least?

That's another reason why I left my iPad 3 iOS 5. I really like and prefer that style of OS.

 

[darkgoob]

There are many forms of design and art. iOS 7, 8 and very likely 9 have design and art within them, even though it is different that found in earlier versions of iOS.

You remind me of those people who think a giant blue square is "art," like this crap:

OK, if you want to define "art" as anything that someone says is "art" ... then the word can mean literally anything, and therefore is a meaningless word, because it has no set definition anymore. But OK.

However don't bring that crap into iOS. Design is something with a definition. You can't just "select all" and then hit Delete, and tell me something has not been erased. If all that remains of the design is NOTHING, then the design is GONE.

Lack of design is not design, it's lack of design. To design is to take an action, otherwise designers wouldn't get paid money to do it. If all you had to do in order to design something is just to use the default font on a white background, then any schmoe off the street is a world-class designer. Give me a break.

 

[Intell]

Art is highly subjective. From a technical definition, iOS 7 and newer does have design within it. Everything is drawn and put in a place to give the operating system a look and non-tactile feel. This is design.

 

[XTheLancerX]

I don't get the whole issue with the iOS 7 design. I think it's great, it took a step forward for once, while iOS 6 was still essentially stuck in 2007. The new design allows more freedom for new features, you don't need a skeumorphic excuse for everything. However, this new design needs some slop taken out of it. Just some redundant things, or wastes of space. Especially on iPad. Also, inefficient design choices have led to huge amounts of UI glitches and stuttering. Really, those are my main issues with the new design. I miss the butter smooth performance of opening apps and such before. And the sheer speed of multitasking gestures on iPad, how the app switcher came up with your fingers, now you swipe up with four fingers and there's a delay, *then* it goes into the switcher. It felt impossible to slow down newer devices (Even A5 devices on iOS 6 were a dream to use) where now I can think of something that will cause stuttering in an instant on any iOS 8 device today. Pretty sad.

Anyway, iOS 9 *may* address some of these areas. Possibly (hopefully) a dark mode. Maybe some differing UI design choices to clean up redundancies or things of the like that cause issues.

 

[Paddle1]

It's not a lack of design, it's just designed to be simple.

What makes iOS 6 a design and 7 not a design?

 

[afsnyder]

It's not a lack of design, it's just designed to be simple.

What makes iOS 6 a design and 7 not a design?

Image

Left looks busy. Right looks simple.

Actually interacting with it is more enjoyable on the right because of animations and feedback.

 

[C DM]

No design means anything and everything goes, which is clearly not the case, meaning that there is design (no matter how "simplistic" or "unimaginative" or what have you it might be in the opinion--since it's mostly a subjective concept--of some or even many it might be).

 

[devinthomas]

I would love some updated iconography, the San Francisco font being made default font and maybe adopting the colored header/status bar that's present in some apps (like Facebook) being pushed a bit harder in stock apps. Also, I'd love to see Apple buy up small companies with great apps and borrow some juju.

Tweetbot is so well animated and Ecoute is so pleasant to use and they both follow every guideline set for iOS 7 while still being fresh and exciting. Apple's stock offerings are barely functional and not at all enticing to use outside of how well integrated they are.

The best thing they could do is make stock apps available to be updated via the App Store.

 

[Trahearne]

Lack of design is not design, it's lack of design. To design is to take an action, otherwise designers wouldn't get paid money to do it. If all you had to do in order to design something is just to use the default font on a white background, then any schmoe off the street is a world-class designer. Give me a break.

Just that flat design isn't what you think it worths the word "design". I respect your dislike of flat design, but I cannot agree with you. It is quite a good blend between flat and skeuomorphism, where some of the skeuomorphic elements become a metaphor hidden in the details, instead of being an explicit "just-like-real-world design". There are also clever uses of white space and margins.

Designing to be simple is not as easy as you might think. The CRT era had gone for years now anyway, and we have a mobile display that supports way wider range of colors. The situation is different, frankly.

 

[Lloydbm41]

I really hope that  and Google get away from the super bright white background for everything. Not only does that eat battery life, but it is annoying as well. Tone down the white for the love of all things holy!

 

[Bomb Bloke]

Certainly iOS 7+ follows a "design". But I'm also a believer that less is... less. Black and white screens were fancy thirty years ago. These days, not so much.

Take Paddle1's screenshots, for example. 6 fits more in less space, and uses colours and even labels in a manner that much more clearly defines the groups of settings and what everything means. The toggles are an excellent example of this - under 7+, without knowing what the opposite state looks like, how are you supposed to know whether Airplane Mode is "off"? 6 makes it clear to anyone, at a glance.

7+ also likes to make use of labels that may or may not respond as controls when you touch them. You can learn to use which are which, sure, through trial and error... and once you're familiar with it you'll become comfortable with it, as with anything. Although, this process is ironically to the detriment of its so-called "simplicity".

You don't have to learn 6's interface. Hand it to most anyone and they're good to go. I suspect that the days of glossy icons will return, though it may not be with 9.

 

[chabig]

I really hope that  and Google get away from the super bright white background for everything. Not only does that eat battery life, but it is annoying as well. Tone down the white for the love of all things holy!

The backlight is on no matter what colors are displayed. There is no affect on battery life.

 

[jr866gooner]

Will Apple reintroduce design to iOS 9?

It's not a lack of design, it's just designed to be simple.



What makes iOS 6 a design and 7 not a design?



Image

Left looks stuck in the past, right looks sleek, modern and clean. The left was good in its day, I liked it but you got the impression that design had been around for some time! iOS has a long way to go to bring back the all loving design but as with everything you can't please everyone!

I would love some updated iconography, the San Francisco font being made default font and maybe adopting the colored header/status bar that's present in some apps (like Facebook) being pushed a bit harder in stock apps. Also, I'd love to see Apple buy up small companies with great apps and borrow some juju.



Tweetbot is so well animated and Ecoute is so pleasant to use and they both follow every guideline set for iOS 7 while still being fresh and exciting. Apple's stock offerings are barely functional and not at all enticing to use outside of how well integrated they are.



The best thing they could do is make stock apps available to be updated via the App Store.

Whilst I agree that Apple should acquire smaller firms for their apps I always think they shouldn't. Look what happened to Tweetdeck when Twitter "bought" it. They killed it, they killed the competition. I love tweetbot but I fear that if Twitter makes an offer the devs would let go and sell but none of their design work would go into the parent app. That's what would happen I think if Apple did just that.

Surprisingly the only app I know of (and use) that was bought and continues to thrive is Instagram, that was bought by Facebook and seems to carry on strong!

 

[Zxxv]

You remind me of those people who think a giant blue square is "art," like this crap:
Image

OK, if you want to define "art" as anything that someone says is "art" ... then the word can mean literally anything, and therefore is a meaningless word, because it has no set definition anymore. But OK.

However don't bring that crap into iOS. Design is something with a definition. You can't just "select all" and then hit Delete, and tell me something has not been erased. If all that remains of the design is NOTHING, then the design is GONE.

Lack of design is not design, it's lack of design. To design is to take an action, otherwise designers wouldn't get paid money to do it. If all you had to do in order to design something is just to use the default font on a white background, then any schmoe off the street is a world-class designer. Give me a break.

Art according to John Lennon and Yoko Ono is a deliberate act. Im paraphrasing now but they said something like "if I take a cup and throw it to the ground deliberate that is art because I have intention to create something"

Art is not just something because someone says it is by looking at it. Thats just an opinion and you've heard the saying opinions are like *******s everyone has one.

for clarification of macrumours swear filter, that word ends in holes and begins with as with another s

 

[bushido]

It's not a lack of design, it's just designed to be simple.

What makes iOS 6 a design and 7 not a design?

Image

holy, I completely forgot how dated it used to look.
what I do hate about ios 7/8 are those pathetic slow animations they chose on purpose! I could never use an apple device without jailbreak + no slow animation. itdrives me up the wall

 

[T5BRICK]

iOS 6 and older are hideous, in my opinion. The simple sleek design of iOS 7 and 8 look great to me.

It reminds me of using OSX and then going back and using OS9.

 

[Rodster]

iOS 6 and older are hideous, in my opinion. The simple sleek design of iOS 7 and 8 look great to me.

It reminds me of using OSX and then going back and using OS9.

I find nothing hideous about iOS 5/6. The UI design was well thought out and proper colors were used where we didn't have to request a dark keyboard so as to make out the letters on the screen. The entire design including the choice of colors had an easy flow where the choices used were logical. I do find it amusing that the bookmark icon was moved back to where Scott Forstall first put it.

As far as OS X vs OS 9. It's ironic that OS X is now starting to take on the look of OS 9 and Windows XP.

 

[Lloydbm41]

The backlight is on no matter what colors are displayed. There is no affect on battery life.

Not all iDevices are LCD anymore, and many Android devices are not. White backgrounds impact battery life on these devices.

 

[deluxeshredder]

It's not a lack of design, it's just designed to be simple.

What makes iOS 6 a design and 7 not a design?

Image

I can look at all the details on the left and adore them for hours, while the right just makes me want to lock the device as soon as possible.

----------

Actually interacting with it is more enjoyable on the right because of animations and feedback.

The animations and "feedback" here are actually almost the same.

 

[G-Force]

Not all iDevices are LCD anymore, and many Android devices are not. White backgrounds impact battery life on these devices.

Only Apple Watch is using an OLED display, all other Apple devices use LCD screens. And what Androids use doesn't really matter does it? It's not that Androids run iOS...

I can't say what will happen in the future... But for now, white screens do not have any significant impact on battery life on those devices.

About iOS' design. I used to love the look of < iOS 7, but it just looks dated now. iOS 7 and 8 look great in my opinion, following the latest flat design trends. And yes, it is design. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not a form of design.

 

[pickaxe]

Left looks busy. Right looks simple.

Actually interacting with it is more enjoyable on the right because of animations and feedback.

So simple and not busy

 

[oldmacs]

To be honest, iOS 7 was a welcome breath of fresh air. I don't love every aspect of it, and I am nostalgic for iOS 6 at times (I thought some apps were fun with their skeuomorphism - Notes, Reminders and iBooks were highlights).

I can see why some preferred iOS 6. iOS 7 and 8 have too much white for some people, which can be hard on the eyes. Some people miss all the detail that was in iOS 6.

I don't think Apple will be heading back that way. I think iOS 9 will be mainly a major bug and speed fix, with some minimal design changes. iOS 10 will probably usher in a new interface. So far the iOS looks have lasted 3 versions of iOS each. The original look featured in iPhone OS 1,2 and 3. Then the iOS 4 look was in 4,5,6 (6 had design tweaks) and the iOS 7 look has so far been in iOS 7 and 8.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

So simple and not busy
Image

I am sorry to say but that is not "simple", it is primitive, like Naïve art which is often characterized by "a childlike simplicity in its subject matter and technique".

No offence, just an opinion.