Will Apple reintroduce design to iOS 9?

[darkgoob]

I'm guessing he meant "cluttered"?

He didn't say "cluttered," or mean cluttered. It's not cluttered.

Apple could have improved the organizational structure of the Settings app in iOS 7/8, but didn't. They actually made it worse by burying some of the most useful new settings three layers deep in Settings > General > Accessibility, an ironically-named place to hide common UI preferences.

God forbid Apple reorganize anything and have to retrain all their phone support staff and Geniuses. What would Apple support staff (and forum denizens who like to sound smart) ever do if they didn't have to explain to people where the useful settings are hidden? God forbid they move them to a top-level category called "Visual Preferences" or something logical where people might actually find them on their own.

I think you mean "decoration" or "ornamentation"?

No.

I mean using design elements like light and color in pleasant, useful ways.

iOS 6 was is a minimalistic, functional, uncluttered UI. I don't miss the app icon shininess effect, but 99% of the design they removed still needs to be replaced.

Design is more of a process (like engineering) rather than some sort of fuel-additive that you just pour into your tank

Are you suggesting fuel-additives and their bottles don't get designed?

If I told you to design a fuel additive and you removed half the useful chemicals, such that it no longer worked as well, was that a design process? Or the lack thereof? Can you not fairly call that a "lack of design"?

I do not find the removal of design in iOS 7/8 to be logically or intellectually defensible. It appeals to emotion only, like a feeling that somehow lots of white pixels and thin icons feels "less heavy" and "cleaner," although logically, heaviness is not a factor in visual design, nor is cleanliness. These are merely personal preferences, based on emotion and neuroses.

What *is* a scientific fact, however, is that white screens and thin fonts cause more eye strain with extended use. If what you call "design" were anything like engineering, as you suggest, then it would privilege science over whimsy and milquetoast neuroses.

I will agree with you that the lack of affordance (for what used to be press-able buttons) can be a bit confusing at times. That said, there's an option to turn on "button shapes" (or something like that) under Accessability settings. I tried that myself, but went back to the clean native look. I decided I don't like UI clutter.

It's important for you to realize that it's not actually clean, nor native, nor less cluttered. Those are merely words that represent your negative reactions to certain shapes and colors on a screen. Calling it "cluttered" is due to your own psychological issues. There is actually no more clutter or dirt when fonts are bolder and there is more contrast.

One other thought. If this iPad pro with a huge screen really does come along, I can see icon flatness and simplicity being - somewhat paradoxically - more important to avoid cognitive overload on a bigger screen. It will force app developers to come up with simple, easily-recognizable icons and controls, rather than lazily squeezing ever-more tiny details into an icon in the faint hope that will differentiate it in a crowd.

Which apps exemplify the "lazily squeezing ever-more tiny details into an icon"? Why is detail "lazy" or likely to cause "cognitive overload" (whatever that is)?

What is your opinion of the interface of common professional software on the Mac, like ProTools, Photoshop, or Maya? Would you agree being good these apps requires learning, and this is necessary for using them on the job as a professional?

Do you think people who get "cognitive overload" easily from detail should use professional software or buy professional computing devices with large, super-high resolution color screens?

 

[darkgoob]

Some things need work to really take advantage of the new design. Things like drop-shadows and outlines needs to be improved. Improved separation between sections and less white-space and more filled in space.

They did a good job replacing the old skeuomorphism but they need to go a step further and reinforce their philosophy with a bit more border and higher contrast in some areas.

My thoughts. Design is completely subjective.

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Let me ask you this: why does space have to be white? Are you a spacist?

When I look up to the heavens or look at my iPad screen when it's off, the space that I see is black. I call out any minimalist who de-privileges blackspace under whitespace as a spacist and, in fact, a maximalist.

I say let the user set their own color palette throughout the system, and be able to choose between different sets of home icons. Why not? Why have to live under the visually oppressive tyranny of white spacist maximalists?

Yes, that's the direction I'd like iOS 9 or 10 to move toward!

I concur, that's an improved homemscreen right there. If I was Apple I'd hire you as Head Design Refiner.

 

[Small White Car]

Curious:

What do you think of Macrumors?

It's mostly white space.

It has very few "buttons." (The only one I regularly see is the "Post Reply" and "New Thread" buttons.) Everything else is text links.

It has a very flat look.

So do you think Macrumors is "not designed" and needs to change?

 

[Trahearne]

Note that Apple has never called it "flat," and in fact one of the primary design princples laid out by Apple in its official guide to developers concerning the human interface of iOS 7/8, is "depth."

Mind you that flat design and depths are in two different contexts here. "Flat design" today is the general term for designs that embraces simplicity and drops heavy explicit use of third dimension illusion in the way you do skeumorphism. Does it mean flat designs cannot have "depths"? Definitely not, and parallax and vibrant glass are good examples. Even Windows Phone the "flattest" UI so far has 3D animations on the 2D elements for quite a few illusion in the UX.

Anyway, different people have different tastes in aesthetics. Just like how you and me might have a different opinion in the use of white space on margins. There is no one size fit all solution, frankly, and luckily I am a fan of publication-like flat designs so the design languages since iOS 7 and Yosemite are my cup of tea. (Migrated from Windows Phone 8 :/) But if there is a chance of having more options, it is definitely appreciated.

 

[darkgoob]

So this is in zero way art?

You do realize you're asking if Microsoft ads are art on MacRumors.com, right? I'd say your question is more artistic than the ad, and that, because zero is a very important number—without which we wouldn't have computers—my answer is no.

And who's the artist in Yayoi Kusama's "The Obliteration Room"?

Isn't it the American dream to get other people to do your work, or art, or whatever, for you, especially if they do it for free? Especially if it's small children? I'd say that's the truest art! You go, Yayoi!

YouTube: video
(if the video doesn't work. Click Here.)

She made this
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into this
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Or Roman Ondák’s room of heights. Where every visitor is encouraged to mark their height on the wall

Image

And after several months a dark band encircles the gallery.
Image
Is this art?
Who is the making it "art"?
Me?
You?
The people viewing?
The people participating?
Or the person who set it up?

I don't know. I was going to say "rich white people" or "gallery owners" but then again that assumes that without people who own spaces like these, which are white (spaces), then this kind of phenomenon would not still occur. I think you have to already be a proven artist who personally makes physical art objects of some renown before the rich white people will give you permission to let random people draw or put things on the walls. Just guessing.

Thinking of typefaces as fashion for letters is not a new idea.
It's been said that the work of a type designer is just like the work of a dressmaker.
Do you know anything about typography..?

Yes. Enough to know not to have "Comic Sans" installed. But nice try anyway.

 

[darkgoob]

Mind you that flat design and depths are in two different contexts here. "Flat design" today is the general term for designs that embraces simplicity and drops heavy explicit use of third dimension illusion in the way you do skeumorphism. Does it mean flat designs cannot have "depths"? Definitely not, and parallax and vibrant glass are good examples. Even Windows Phone the "flattest" UI so far has 3D animations on the 2D elements for quite a few illusion in the UX.

Anyway, different people have different tastes in aesthetics. Just like how you and me might have a different opinion in the use of white space on margins. There is no one size fit all solution, frankly, and luckily I am a fan of publication-like flat designs so the design languages since iOS 7 and Yosemite are my cup of tea. (Migrated from Windows Phone 8 :/) But if there is a chance of having more options, it is definitely appreciated.

Why do you call it "heavy"? I don't feel that mass or weight has anything to do with it.

Also, why do you think flatness is simple? I don't see how it is, necessarily. It seems to me the simplicity of an interface has nothing to do with whether or not it has a 3D-rendered look.

For example, Sony's PlayStation Vita has a really great, simple touchscreen interface. All the icons are 3D-rendered and feel like mylar balloons. It's not heavy at all. It has a fantastic, fun feel.

YMMV.

----------

Curious:

What do you think of Macrumors?

It's mostly white space.

It has very few "buttons." (The only one I regularly see is the "Post Reply" and "New Thread" buttons.) Everything else is text links.

It has a very flat look.

So do you think Macrumors is "not designed" and needs to change?

It's not mostly whitespace to me; I use it with "invert colors" turned on. It looks much better like this.

I prefer a darker theme like dpreview.com's look, personally, but hey. Also, MacRumors buttons have nice gradients to them and don't look flat. At least not on my iOS 6 iPad

 

[Trahearne]

Why do you call it "heavy"? I don't feel that mass or weight has anything to do with it.

It just means extensive by context. Well, maybe I've used the adjective in a way that you aren't familiar with. There is nothing to do with mass.

Also, why do you think flatness is simple? I don't see how it is, necessarily. It seems to me the simplicity of an interface has nothing to do with whether or not it has a 3D-rendered look.

Because flat design is visually more simple, well, as it is. Lines, simplistic iconography, nice use of typography and background in solid color or gradients. Done. No more fancy crystal button effect layer or whatever else. By the way, I did not really talk about "3D rendered look", but use of 2D/3D animations as illusions. Well, eye candies.

Having that said, some UI designs since iOS 7 really need polishing. Let's say, eh, the scroll bar of the Today view of the notification center on iPad.

 

[AppleP59]

You do realize you're asking if Microsoft ads are art on MacRumors.com, right? I'd say your question is more artistic than the ad, and that, because zero is a very important number—without which we wouldn't have computers—my answer is no.

So because it's from Microsoft it isn't art?
And likewise with Apple?
It seems more the case - if you don't like it, it isn't art.

Isn't it the American dream to get other people to do your work, or art, or whatever, for you, especially if they do it for free? Especially if it's small children? I'd say that's the truest art! You go, Yayoi!

I wouldn't know what Americans dream about.
If you can outsource you work, to increase production, quality or otherwise. Why not?
Apple doesn't make every single component to their iPhone, yet it's still theirs.

Small children's draws are art to them, and maybe their parents.
And often it's difficult to tell the difference between modern art or children's drawings.

Another great artist, Damien Hirst didn't create the cow, fly/cow, shark etc. But he had the vision. If there was a mangled cow anywhere else in the middle of London people work be repulsed.

Rich white people make it "art." Who else would pay for the careers of these people?

Just out of interest, what sort of race and class would you identify with?

I am also very interesting to know, what do you think of JW Curry's "i poem"?

The letter "i" dotted with his fingerprint.
Turning the word "I" from normally meaning "me" into something that can only mean "him"

Yes. Enough to know not to have "Comic Sans" installed. But nice try anyway.

Pretty good. I wasn't sure if you'd catch that.

 

[AppleP59]

Next we have the terrible iOS 7/8 keyboard
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I mostly agree, however what version is that?

Next up is the bookmarks view.
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I totally disagree on this one.
The iSO 6 reminds me of having ever folder on you deaktop

The next two images show the garbagely mess that replaced iOS 6's elegant favourites bar.

You might want to look at your "frequently visited" ... "Vaginal bleeding between periods"...
Hope everything ok

 

[Michael Goff]

I doubt you'll like the design of 9 any more than 8.

 

[Razeus]

I just want consistency, especially with icones.

Why are they using a mix of words and symbols? Most of those words don't really fit on the screen properly.

Why are some icones colored and some grayscale?

Why do native apps have different design for the app icons?

Bizarre.

 

[Arran]

If I told you to design a fuel additive and you removed half the useful chemicals, such that it no longer worked as well, was that a design process? Or the lack thereof? Can you not fairly call that a "lack of design"?

Depends on what the design brief was.

 

[afsnyder]

Let me ask you this: why does space have to be white? Are you a spacist?

When I look up to the heavens or look at my iPad screen when it's off, the space that I see is black. I call out any minimalist who de-privileges blackspace under whitespace as a spacist and, in fact, a maximalist.

I say let the user set their own color palette throughout the system, and be able to choose between different sets of home icons. Why not? Why have to live under the visually oppressive tyranny of white spacist maximalists?



I concur, that's an improved homemscreen right there. If I was Apple I'd hire you as Head Design Refiner.

Lol I'd prefer black over white any day but white-space is what's used these days. The Apple Watch uses black space over white space as to reduce the appearance of those nasty bezels.

 

[MacDevil7334]

Lol I'd prefer black over white any day but white-space is what's used these days. The Apple Watch uses black space over white space as to reduce the appearance of those nasty bezels.

Also, it uses an OLED screen so the black space reduces the demand on the battery.

 

[afsnyder]

Also, it uses an OLED screen so the black space reduces the demand on the battery.

That too. There's a lot that goes into the design of the OS.

 

[darkgoob]

It just means extensive by context. Well, maybe I've used the adjective in a way that you aren't familiar with. There is nothing to do with mass.


Because flat design is visually more simple, well, as it is. Lines, simplistic iconography, nice use of typography and background in solid color or gradients. Done. No more fancy crystal button effect layer or whatever else. By the way, I did not really talk about "3D rendered look", but use of 2D/3D animations as illusions. Well, eye candies.

Having that said, some UI designs since iOS 7 really need polishing. Let's say, eh, the scroll bar of the Today view of the notification center on iPad.

I don't see how what you call "flat design" is necessarily more simple.

Take the iOS 7/8 Settings app icon for example. That is a very complex icon, there is nothing simple about it. The iOS 6 one was arguably simpler.

Now the new Messages app icon is, iconographically speaking, identical. The shape represented, a speech bubble against a green background, hasn't changed at all. Iconographically it has not become simpler.mIt has the same size on the screen, also.

Now, they removed the background pattern and the very simple gloss effect, but I don't think that it seems flatter. I also do not think that this removal of design elements has simplified the UI at all, nor improved it at all.

This removal of design elements was just a different aesthetic style, and has absolutely no bearing on ease of use or simplicity, in the sense of UI simplicity. Personally I am OK with this move, and I have gotten accustomed to the new icon style. I'm fine with it, but lets not pretend it's "better." It's just different.

While I'm OK with the new, more cartoonish icons in iOS 7/8, it is only a "simpler" design insofar as it takes advantage of fewer design elements, in terms of layers like effects, textures, and patterns. This isn't necessarily a good thing, and I'm not sure it is an intellectually defensible position to argue that this necessarily has a positive impact on user experience, or on how simple the device is to use.

Apple clearly wants it to make the device seem simpler. But there are many user interface refinements that need to happen for iOS to become simpler, which Apple has been avoiding for years. They are content to just make these surface-level, visual changes, by lazily removing design and then not replacing it with anything, Emperor's New Clothes style.

Meanwhile organizing your apps into folders is still a huge pain. Want to move that new app from page 10 of the Springboard to a folder on page 2? You get to try to drag it through 8 screens of other apps and icons. Oops! You dropped it in the wronf place and every page between 2 and 8 is now off by one app because they all got pushed to the right.

UI SIMPLICITY IS IN HOW IT WORKS NOT HOW IT LOOKS.

Or how about adding a bookmark in Safari. First, you have to press the "Share" icon, which makes zero sense: bookmarks are opened from the "book" icon, so why should the share icon be used to save them?! So then when you press the share icon, next you have to press—guess what—the book icon!! Ridiculous. Why didn't they just use the book icon to start off with, then? Next, you're gonna a scrolling list of hundreds of nested folders, all expanded, such that you can't navigate the hierarchy of bookmark folders in any organized way. Wouldn't it be SIMPLER if you could see all your top-level categories at the same time?!

But no, we've got to change how everything looks, and ignore how it works. Because after they've bought the device, users are locked into a contract, and so who cares if it's actually simple TO USE. As long as it LOOKS simple to use, we'll be fine. Right?

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I mostly agree, however what version is that?



I totally disagree on this one.
The iSO 6 reminds me of having ever folder on you deaktop

It was 8.1.2 or 8.1.3, whatever the latest downgrade is.

And, there's no resemblance between a crappy Windows desktop and a well-organized iOS 6 bookmarks view. Not sure where you can draw the similarities.

 

[darkgoob]

So because it's from Microsoft it isn't art?
And likewise with Apple?
It seems more the case - if you don't like it, it isn't art.

Not at all. I already said at the beginning of this thread, the word "art" has no meaning, because it means anything and everything.

These days, art often seems to all be about context: it's about the conversation about the thing, not the thing itself. The thing is at best a context-dependent artifact, which if removed from its context on the whitewashed, track-lit walls, and anonymized from the fame of its (likely black-rimmed-glasses-wearing) author, would have little or no intrinsic value, or would even be recognized as "art" by most people.

I believe some art has a universal human aesthetic appeal and transcends its creator and context. The story of how it was made becomes irrelevant to the story of the thing itself.

I remember seeing some ancient Etruscan gold jewelry in Rome where the fine details were so tiny as to require a magnifying glass to even discern them, yet they were made by hand thousands of years ago. To me that is pure art: we don't reference the artist's name but we wish we knew who he or she was. The art is in a museum because of itself, not because the "artist" is famous, or because of some "statement" that is supposedly being made.

Art today has become a game to see what kind of BS people can get away with and still call it art, BSing their conversation around it, struggling to con any gallery into putting it up, or any sap into buying it—because they will, if they think the guy is famous, just so they can name drop him to their dinner-party guests. They don't even care about the art itself.

Is a Microsoft ad art? Sure but not very good art IMHO, just like everything they do. Sub-par.

My fear with Jobs gone was Apple becoming Microsofty.

The whitewashing of the UI has me worried.

I wouldn't know what Americans dream about.
If you can outsource you work, to increase production, quality or otherwise. Why not?
Apple doesn't make every single component to their iPhone, yet it's still theirs.

They don't outsource its design.

Small children's draws are art to them, and maybe their parents.
And often it's difficult to tell the difference between modern art or children's drawings.

I totally agree.

Another great artist, Damien Hirst didn't create the cow, fly/cow, shark etc. But he had the vision. If there was a mangled cow anywhere else in the middle of London people work be repulsed.
Image

Image

Aren't there butcher shops in London where people go buy chunks of cows every day to make their bangs and mashers or whatever Brits eat? This isn't why he's a great artist. It's a cow, cut in half, mashed up against glass. How do you know if people were or were not repulsed? I heard some of his exhibits were poorly sealed and would leak disgusting ooze, much to the chagrin, and likely, the repulsion of museum staff!

He only gets away with this because, as per my previously stated rule, he previously established himself as a painter, but due to not getting much press that way, he resorted to disgusting, attention-grabbing stuff to get in the news. Hey, it worked!

Just out of interest, what sort of race and class would you identify with?

Non-rich white person. Rich compared to most of Earth but middle class in America.

I am also very interesting to know, what do you think of JW Curry's "i poem"?
Image

The letter "i" dotted with his fingerprint.
Turning the word "I" from normally meaning "me" into something that can only mean "him"

Sorry, my definition of "I" is not like yours; mine derives from the Gurdjieff/Ouspenskii school, and so, to me, every man is composed of many often-contradictory "I's" and the notion of a unified "I" is the real religion of today: the church of self. The idea that one out of ten fingers would dot the "I" is therefore appropriate because the "I" is just one small object within the group of many "I's," just like the single fingertip is just one small object within the group of fingers.

This "i poem" therefore does not strike me as the least bit ironic. The only ironic thing would to think that it's ironic, when really, it's not.

One might speculate that this false irony exemplifies the artist-as-ego that lies at the fetid core of the temple of modern art, which is a major wing of the church of self. Maybe it represents that very false lie, which says, "I am the person who touched here," which would be ironic both if he used a cadaver's hand borrowed from a black-market Damien Hirst exhibit, and if he used his own hand (since he didn't design his own hand, nor the letter I, nor the mottled and variegated collection of I's that comprises his personality a structure of his own design).

That's why' IMHO, art needs to be able to be appreciated for itself and not for the sake of the artist or the conversation or the context: the artist is a house of cards, and the rest crumbles from there.

Pretty good. I wasn't sure if you'd catch that.

==;;

 

[DoctorKrabs]

My main feelings are that I am already bored with the design because there's so much less substance to it.

It took 6 years for the original design language to get "boring", even though I was not exactly sick of it when iOS 7 was announced.

The iOS 7 design has existed for less than 2 years and I'm completely sick of it.

This thread needs to be made prominent so that Apple sees it, because they do read these forums. The feedback from people on these kinds of sites back in the iOS 6 days is what led Apple to redesign iOS in the first place.

Complain about the lackluster design and the bugs. They'll do something about it.

 

[C DM]

My main feelings are that I am already bored with the design because there's so much less substance to it.

It took 6 years for the original design language to get "boring", even though I was not exactly sick of it when iOS 7 was announced.

The iOS 7 design has existed for less than 2 years and I'm completely sick of it.

This thread needs to be made prominent so that Apple sees it, because they do read these forums. The feedback from people on these kinds of sites back in the iOS 6 days is what led Apple to redesign iOS in the first place.

Complain about the lackluster design and the bugs. They'll do something about it.

Given the infinitesimal and fairly specialized/unique group of users that people on sites like this represent, it really likely couldn't matter less to Apple.

 

[DoctorKrabs]

Given the infinitesimal and fairly specialized/unique group of users that people on sites like this represent, it really likely couldn't matter less to Apple.

This site generally represents the enthusiasts, who are generally the people Apple should and does listen to.

The general public didn't care about the design of iOS in 2013 but Apple went and redesigned everything after articles on Gizmodo called out ugly stitched leather and green felt, and forum users complained of staleness. They made direct jokes about this at WWDC, where the entire audience was a group of enthusiasts and developers whose lives revolve around Apple software.

 

[C DM]

This site generally represents the enthusiasts, who are generally the people Apple should and does listen to.

The general public didn't care about the design of iOS in 2013 but Apple went and redesigned everything after articles on Gizmodo called out ugly stitched leather and green felt, and forum users complained of staleness. They made direct jokes about this at WWDC, where the entire audience was a group of enthusiasts and developers whose lives revolve around Apple software.

The vast majority of people with iOS devices are not really enthusiasts, which is really who Apple caters to in order to appeal to the vast majority.

Of course the general public cares about the design, simply from the "give me something shiny and new to look at" because to the general public something new and different means better which means it keeps their interests.

There's a lot of supposition as to what Apple should do or who it is that might influence this or that, but I'm not sure that much of that can be attributed to anything, even if it might seem like it.

 

[El Tuga]

I don't see how what you call "flat design" is necessarily more simple.

Take the iOS 7/8 Settings app icon for example. That is a very complex icon, there is nothing simple about it. The iOS 6 one was arguably simpler.

Now the new Messages app icon is, iconographically speaking, identical. The shape represented, a speech bubble against a green background, hasn't changed at all. Iconographically it has not become simpler.mIt has the same size on the screen, also.

Now, they removed the background pattern and the very simple gloss effect, but I don't think that it seems flatter. I also do not think that this removal of design elements has simplified the UI at all, nor improved it at all.

This removal of design elements was just a different aesthetic style, and has absolutely no bearing on ease of use or simplicity, in the sense of UI simplicity. Personally I am OK with this move, and I have gotten accustomed to the new icon style. I'm fine with it, but lets not pretend it's "better." It's just different.

While I'm OK with the new, more cartoonish icons in iOS 7/8, it is only a "simpler" design insofar as it takes advantage of fewer design elements, in terms of layers like effects, textures, and patterns. This isn't necessarily a good thing, and I'm not sure it is an intellectually defensible position to argue that this necessarily has a positive impact on user experience, or on how simple the device is to use.

Apple clearly wants it to make the device seem simpler. But there are many user interface refinements that need to happen for iOS to become simpler, which Apple has been avoiding for years. They are content to just make these surface-level, visual changes, by lazily removing design and then not replacing it with anything, Emperor's New Clothes style.

Meanwhile organizing your apps into folders is still a huge pain. Want to move that new app from page 10 of the Springboard to a folder on page 2? You get to try to drag it through 8 screens of other apps and icons. Oops! You dropped it in the wronf place and every page between 2 and 8 is now off by one app because they all got pushed to the right.

UI SIMPLICITY IS IN HOW IT WORKS NOT HOW IT LOOKS.

Or how about adding a bookmark in Safari. First, you have to press the "Share" icon, which makes zero sense: bookmarks are opened from the "book" icon, so why should the share icon be used to save them?! So then when you press the share icon, next you have to press—guess what—the book icon!! Ridiculous. Why didn't they just use the book icon to start off with, then? Next, you're gonna a scrolling list of hundreds of nested folders, all expanded, such that you can't navigate the hierarchy of bookmark folders in any organized way. Wouldn't it be SIMPLER if you could see all your top-level categories at the same time?!

But no, we've got to change how everything looks, and ignore how it works. Because after they've bought the device, users are locked into a contract, and so who cares if it's actually simple TO USE. As long as it LOOKS simple to use, we'll be fine. Right?

----------



It was 8.1.2 or 8.1.3, whatever the latest downgrade is.

And, there's no resemblance between a crappy Windows desktop and a well-organized iOS 6 bookmarks view. Not sure where you can draw the similarities.

Wow, couldn't agree more!! iOS 7 was just a re-skin of iOS 6 (and a terrible one at that). As a bonus it added lots of bugs As I'm writting this post on my iOS 8 iPad, this page has reloaded several times and I couldn't select the part of the text I wanter to quote due to the lousy text selection implementation (which used to work fine in iOS 6)...

 

[technosix]

The last few years have revealed a different side of Apple that's a bit more unpredictable than ever. Who knows what they may do with iOS 9. I have zero expectations which prevent any pre conceived ideas as to what they may or may not do.

One consideration addressed in recent rumors yet obviously unconfirmed is the issue of bugs, annoyances and user experience. It'll be good if Apple decides to use their years of experience, vast resources and talented engineers to bring quality back, to improve user experience and to elevate their image back to its previous level of excellence.

Some buyers don't care or don't know any better, but for those who are long time loyal Apple OS X and iOS users, Apples return to excellence will be a very terrific, welcome achievement.

 

[XTheLancerX]

I just want them to somehow change the dock and add more dropshadows. There's no diffeentiation between the icons and the wallpaper now, and the dock is just so sudden, plus it covers a lot of the wallpaper. The homescreen of iOS 6 looked incredible because of the shadows and the smaller dock. Now, finding a wallpaper that looks good is almost impossible. Just revamp the icons and the shading and the dock and it will be much better. After that add a dark mode and TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THESE LARGE SCREENS IN THE IPHONE 6/6+ AND IPADS.

 

[darkgoob]

Wow, couldn't agree more!! iOS 7 was just a re-skin of iOS 6 (and a terrible one at that). As a bonus it added lots of bugs As I'm writting this post on my iOS 8 iPad, this page has reloaded several times and I couldn't select the part of the text I wanter to quote due to the lousy text selection implementation (which used to work fine in iOS 6)...

^^^THIS.

You possess the ability to say in one paragraph what my blow-hard a** has taken like 50,000 words to try to say. This is exactly it.

Generally speaking, iOS 7 was a re-skinning, but in most places, not a re-working/re-organization, and not a simplification.

The great things iOS 7 introduced were just "catch-up" things that other OS's had done first:
• the control center (Android did it first)
• the app-switching screen (Palm's WebOS did it first, way back on the Pre)

And… Apple still doesn't have notifications right, along with a host of other things. Below I explain a lot of the stuff that still needs simplification.

Notifications

Palm WebOS was perfect: when a notification appeared it would remain on the screen until you dismissed it. The oldest two or three would always be there until you dismissed them. This ensured you always saw a notification or reminder alert before it got dismissed. For example you could leave a to-do item reminder on your screen until you did it; this really helped my ADD butt out.

However in iOS 8, notifications go away after only a few seconds. Supposedly if you tap on a text message notification, you can reply right from the notification banner, but I've never been able to catch it in time! What's the point of a notification if you never see it, or a reminder, if it's gone before you have a chance to see it?

Worse, when I open Notification Center, I have fifty million useless notifications. Every freaking app wants to send you notifications. To turn this spam off, you have to scroll through an unsearchable list a million miles long in the Settings app. Why can't you just permanently deactivate notifications from an app, right in the Notification Center? Why can't you manage notification permissions for apps by long-pressing on their app icon in the home screen?

Battery Notifications

Why must battery warnings interrupt whatever I'm doing? It causes audio recordings to stop, it interrupts games, but it doesn't provide me a way to see exactly where I'm at after the notification is gone. The notification goes away and if I'm in an app that hides the battery indicator (which most games do), then unless I manually check battery life—which requires pulling down the Notification Center and totally obscuring the whole screen of the app, or exiting the app to the home screen—then I am flying in the dark until the device just dies.

What it *should* do is show a little red bar, one or two pixels wide, along the bottom edge of the screen, that slowly shrinks until your battery is dead, so you can milk every last drop of usage out of the thing before it dies, even in an app that hides the normal battery indicator.

Sorting & Finding Apps on the Springboard (Home Screen)

Why can't you send an app to any of your folders without having to drag it across 10 or 20 pages of other apps, screwing up how they're neatly arranged if you make one single mistake, which is easy to do since you have to nearly drag the app of the screen to get it to go to the next page?

For that matter why can't you search for where an app is in your home screen, and automatically scroll right to it? Or filter out all the other apps and folders off the screen other than whatever matches your search criteria?

I'd much rather that the search function for apps acted like a filter that would hide all the other apps on the springboard until you clear the search field, than that it would—maybe, if you're lucky—show the app with a tiny icon in a list containing a ton of other things including web search results, contacts, etc. I can't tell you how many times I've opened up a web page instead of an app (like eBay or Facebook for example) because it's easy to get them confused in the search results list.

Settings App

On another note, why can't you search the Settings app on iOS like you can on Mac? Wouldn't that make life easier? (Yes.)

Music & iTunes

Why can't I add music that I've created using a DAW app like Garage Band, FLStudio, or Multitrack, to my device's iTunes library? If it was a photo or video, you would let me add it to my Camera Roll, but if it's an audio recording or musical creation, then I have to export it to my computer, then add it to iTunes there, then sync my device, to get it onto my iOS device. Why, Apple, why?!

Photos

Why can't I change the filenames of photos in the Photos app, or upload them to websites without it auto-renaming them all to "image.jpg"? Ugh!

Go Directly to Jail, Uncollect $99

Why can't the WiFi version of iPad, and the iPod Touch, run non-signed code like Macs can? It's ridiculous to have to pay a $99 developer license fee just to learn how to program on your device, or run MiniVMac, etc. Apple's argument for why iPhones are locked down is because it's your phone and it could cost you thousands of dollars in extra usage fees if something runs out of control, but the WiFi iPad is not your phone. Yet it's still locked down. Why? Don't even answer that, because there is no valid reason.

Summary

The reason iOS was successful was IN SPITE of all these annoying limitations, not BECAUSE of it. This is not simplicity, it's a lack of useful features that causes no end of frustration and consternation—the exact *opposite* of simplicity. Minimalism is about paring things down to the functional elements—simplicity is not *removing* or *neglecting to include* much-needed functional elements.

Simplicity is ensuring consistency across the system, like having a search field wherever it would be useful, or having the ability to add user-created content to the system's media playback apps, whether it be a photo or a song. A Swiss Army Knife seems complex but really, if you have the right one, it's much simpler than any other alternative, because you can just carry that one thing with you, and in a single step, have the tool you need.