Skeuomorphism appears to be on the way out in the newest version of Apple's iOS platform, as a new screenshot claims to show iOS 7 with aspects of the much anticipated "flat" design aesthetic brought in by Sir Jony Ive.
Supposedly one of the first things up for reworking was the "skeuomorphic" aesthetic ? epitomized by things like the Calendar app's faux stitched leather interface or the green felt table in Game Center ? seen throughout iOS. Ive's guidance, though, has also led to the disappearance of some other aspects of the operating system.
This is getting like when people keep saying 'I could care less' in the hope that prolonged usage will change its meaning - simply prefacing it with 'as if' would make it correct. They'd have to get rid of the icon of a letter, an old-fashioned telephone, the sun and clouds etc for skeuomorphism to be on the way out so prefacing it with 'some' would be correct i.e 'some skeuomorphsm is on the way out'. The only indication from flat shaded icons is that they are matching how they present icons on OS X - Federighi is in charge of both now so they'll be more consistent. They stripped the glossy aqua style from OS X too (and that wasn't referred to as skeuomorphism - not that the description isn't suitable but it applies as much to drop shadows as it does to gloss):
We'll only be able to tell if the fake leather and Game Center style is gone once we see the apps and even then, the majority of the skeuomorphic elements will remain.
This also doesn't look like as big of a change as some people expected. People who call it stale for not having widgets slapped all in front of everything. Widgets should be done like Dashboard and only used when people want, they shouldn't be front and center like on Android and Windows Phone. They could expand the Notification Center to have a widget API. Notifications would just push widget info down or there could be a tab on it. This way, widgets can be accessed while inside an app e.g seeing the weather while staying in the maps app.
I don't see what the big deal is about this. So, some of the Apple icons will look slightly different? That's hardly a huge OS overhaul. If there are some great new features in iOS7, then fine, but I don't really give a crap about these icons at all. Do I really care if an icon has a gloss layer or not?
I hide some of the Apple apps in folders, the ones that I don't use. And I'd imagine that most people's screens are covered with third party app icons, which can be anything from glossy and colorful to dull and boring. Is Apple going to demand only "flat" icons from now on, even from third party developers? I doubt it. I fail to see how Apple changing some it's own icons will drastically change the look or feel of iOS.
I look forward to some new features in iOS7, but I can't get excited over a few icons.
Well, you're right; it's nothing worth getting excited over. The truth is that 99% of Apple customers will not give a hoot about changes to the icons.
I blame Tim Cook for the dull Apple rumours these days. Last year he said he'd double-down on security, which gave everyone a good laugh with all the iPhone leaks that followed. This year, he's got Apple buttoned up so tightly that any sliver of a rumour, no matter how ridiculous, is repeated for weeks on end.
Flat icons? Really? That's all anyone can find out? I thought this was supposed to be journalism?
If I thought that running a website was as easy as writing the word 'skeuomorphism' over and over again then I would have started one years ago.
WOW, people really think this is a real photo... the bloody icons don't even line up correctly. Unless it has a curving screen on it. Bottom icons line up pretty good, and along the right, but look at the left side... the icons are getting cut off. So, printout on paper overlayed on a iPhone screen. The top bar is clear, but the icons/screen is blurry? And look at bottom, no bar under the base icons.
Just hold your kittens for another week, and Apple will actually make a formal announcement on what is going on. You waited this long, another week won't kill ya.
Is there like a wave effect on the blurry image or do the icons wave upwards when you hover over them with your thumb? They look as if they tilt with the gyroscope... ?? I also don't see a dock.
And to point something else out, this is running on an iPhone 5, you can see that the title bar with the time is at least a cm above the OS.
So either this was a picture sent to an iPhone 5 user, then he took a picture of it... or they are they aren't using privacy filters any longer.
One last thing... while the icons do look more like they would be in iOS 7 why is the background the one found in iOS 6 by default when you restore it?
I think this is a theme on Cydia made by someone else that doesn't work at Apple. Also the music note in the music icon doesn't have a drop shadow like the rest.
This is a fake. The screen is skewed, it doesn't cover all the way to the top of the info bar, and only the main part of the screen has the weird pixelated look, not the top info bar. The icons are not cut off uniformly when swiping between screens, as is normal with all versions of iOS. Its, at best, a bad copy/paste of someones mediocre concept design
This is a fake. The screen is skewed, it doesn't cover all the way to the top of the info bar, and only the main part of the screen has the weird pixelated look, not the top info bar. The icons are not cut off uniformly when swiping between screens, as is normal with all versions of iOS. Its, at best, a bad copy/paste of someones mediocre concept design
There have been things like this in the past that have actually proved true. It could be a screenshot being viewed on another device, taken in the dark with an old iPod touch. Besides, 9to5mac said on Twitter that the design has come along way since then, and they've have has reliable info at times.
It's quite sad that, even after months of this nonsense, Apple Insider thinks that "Skeuomorphism" is the "faux stitched leather" in the calender app.
That's just a texture and part of the visual design, it has enhances skeuomorphism, but it has nothing to do with it.
Microsoft's metro UI is skeuomorphic as well.
Skeuomorphism is how it works-- working like real world objects.
Alas, people who know nothing about design think that design is how it LOOKS not how it WORKS.
Whatever. Replace the settings icon with a picture of a dick and see if you're still so right. And no, the pattern in my recent comment has not been intentional.
The Music icon shows a gradient but the messages icon and phone icon show flat green with no gradient. Personally I like a subtle gradient and agree with TS on having a more pronounced shadow. Also taking this with a grain of salt since the graphic is someone's interpretation of a very badly taken blurry photo of a phone's screen that could also be completely bogus.
Dies anyone really care if the Apps are simple or high gloss?? It's more important , for me at least to see more functionality and new features.
I care, because it's something that will have an impact in every corner of the OS, and in the design language and thinking behind all of the apps in general. I'm thinking the Notes app in particular. I've white that to be plain white for as long as I can remember. But yes, we'll certainly need many new features, and more importantly, a cleaning up and tightening up of existing concepts and ideas. And a much more invasive and robust iCloud.
WOW, people really think this is a real photo... the bloody icons don't even line up correctly. Unless it has a curving screen on it. Bottom icons line up pretty good, and along the right, but look at the left side... the icons are getting cut off. So, printout on paper overlayed on a iPhone screen. The top bar is clear, but the icons/screen is blurry? And look at bottom, no bar under the base icons.
Just hold your kittens for another week, and Apple will actually make a formal announcement on what is going on. You waited this long, another week won't kill ya.
So glad it only took to posts 45 and 47 to get this point out there... First thing I noticed...
Comments
This is getting like when people keep saying 'I could care less' in the hope that prolonged usage will change its meaning - simply prefacing it with 'as if' would make it correct. They'd have to get rid of the icon of a letter, an old-fashioned telephone, the sun and clouds etc for skeuomorphism to be on the way out so prefacing it with 'some' would be correct i.e 'some skeuomorphsm is on the way out'. The only indication from flat shaded icons is that they are matching how they present icons on OS X - Federighi is in charge of both now so they'll be more consistent. They stripped the glossy aqua style from OS X too (and that wasn't referred to as skeuomorphism - not that the description isn't suitable but it applies as much to drop shadows as it does to gloss):
http://appleinsider.com/articles/11/04/11/inside_mac_os_x_10_7_apple_to_strip_most_aqua_gloss
We'll only be able to tell if the fake leather and Game Center style is gone once we see the apps and even then, the majority of the skeuomorphic elements will remain.
This also doesn't look like as big of a change as some people expected. People who call it stale for not having widgets slapped all in front of everything. Widgets should be done like Dashboard and only used when people want, they shouldn't be front and center like on Android and Windows Phone. They could expand the Notification Center to have a widget API. Notifications would just push widget info down or there could be a tab on it. This way, widgets can be accessed while inside an app e.g seeing the weather while staying in the maps app.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Apple ][
I don't see what the big deal is about this. So, some of the Apple icons will look slightly different? That's hardly a huge OS overhaul. If there are some great new features in iOS7, then fine, but I don't really give a crap about these icons at all. Do I really care if an icon has a gloss layer or not?
I hide some of the Apple apps in folders, the ones that I don't use. And I'd imagine that most people's screens are covered with third party app icons, which can be anything from glossy and colorful to dull and boring. Is Apple going to demand only "flat" icons from now on, even from third party developers? I doubt it. I fail to see how Apple changing some it's own icons will drastically change the look or feel of iOS.
I look forward to some new features in iOS7, but I can't get excited over a few icons.
Well, you're right; it's nothing worth getting excited over. The truth is that 99% of Apple customers will not give a hoot about changes to the icons.
I blame Tim Cook for the dull Apple rumours these days. Last year he said he'd double-down on security, which gave everyone a good laugh with all the iPhone leaks that followed. This year, he's got Apple buttoned up so tightly that any sliver of a rumour, no matter how ridiculous, is repeated for weeks on end.
Flat icons? Really? That's all anyone can find out? I thought this was supposed to be journalism?
If I thought that running a website was as easy as writing the word 'skeuomorphism' over and over again then I would have started one years ago.
You're right about the more pronounced drop shadow. I'd prefer that, too.
WOW, people really think this is a real photo... the bloody icons don't even line up correctly. Unless it has a curving screen on it. Bottom icons line up pretty good, and along the right, but look at the left side... the icons are getting cut off. So, printout on paper overlayed on a iPhone screen. The top bar is clear, but the icons/screen is blurry? And look at bottom, no bar under the base icons.
Just hold your kittens for another week, and Apple will actually make a formal announcement on what is going on. You waited this long, another week won't kill ya.
I also don't see a dock.
And to point something else out, this is running on an iPhone 5, you can see that the title bar with the time is at least a cm above the OS.
So either this was a picture sent to an iPhone 5 user, then he took a picture of it... or they are they aren't using privacy filters any longer.
One last thing... while the icons do look more like they would be in iOS 7 why is the background the one found in iOS 6 by default when you restore it?
I think this is a theme on Cydia made by someone else that doesn't work at Apple.
Also the music note in the music icon doesn't have a drop shadow like the rest.
Someone in an Apple lab with an old candy bar phone down their trousers?
There have been things like this in the past that have actually proved true. It could be a screenshot being viewed on another device, taken in the dark with an old iPod touch. Besides, 9to5mac said on Twitter that the design has come along way since then, and they've have has reliable info at times.
LOL
That's on my wish list for all default and third party Weather, Clock and Calendar apps.
It's quite sad that, even after months of this nonsense, Apple Insider thinks that "Skeuomorphism" is the "faux stitched leather" in the calender app.
That's just a texture and part of the visual design, it has enhances skeuomorphism, but it has nothing to do with it.
Microsoft's metro UI is skeuomorphic as well.
Skeuomorphism is how it works-- working like real world objects.
Alas, people who know nothing about design think that design is how it LOOKS not how it WORKS.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ireland
Someone in an Apple lab with an old candy bar phone down their trousers?
"That's no candy bar..."
Eeeek!
Chocolate bar down the rear as a backup.
Whatever. Replace the settings icon with a picture of a dick and see if you're still so right. And no, the pattern in my recent comment has not been intentional.
The Music icon shows a gradient but the messages icon and phone icon show flat green with no gradient. Personally I like a subtle gradient and agree with TS on having a more pronounced shadow. Also taking this with a grain of salt since the graphic is someone's interpretation of a very badly taken blurry photo of a phone's screen that could also be completely bogus.
I care, because it's something that will have an impact in every corner of the OS, and in the design language and thinking behind all of the apps in general. I'm thinking the Notes app in particular. I've white that to be plain white for as long as I can remember. But yes, we'll certainly need many new features, and more importantly, a cleaning up and tightening up of existing concepts and ideas. And a much more invasive and robust iCloud.
Originally Posted by XTR Nutrition
Rounded corners suck REALLY bad.
Thanks for ignoring all UI design since 1983.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpamSandwich
You have to keep in mind this is likely phony.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HawkBlade
WOW, people really think this is a real photo... the bloody icons don't even line up correctly. Unless it has a curving screen on it. Bottom icons line up pretty good, and along the right, but look at the left side... the icons are getting cut off. So, printout on paper overlayed on a iPhone screen. The top bar is clear, but the icons/screen is blurry? And look at bottom, no bar under the base icons.
Just hold your kittens for another week, and Apple will actually make a formal announcement on what is going on. You waited this long, another week won't kill ya.
So glad it only took to posts 45 and 47 to get this point out there... First thing I noticed...