Well the design snobs at the Verge have spoken and call iOS 7 simply confusing. I didn't click on the article knowing it was just click bait (unfortunately the Verge is going that way now). But I do wonder how much time they've has to play with it or if its just a knew jerk reaction based on the different app icon designs? I haven't used Windows 8 but I know people who have and they say once you've used it for a while you start to like it and its not confusing at all. I think too many are making snap judgements about iOS 7 without spending enough time with it.
The Verge isn't completely off base. I would not call it confusing. I would call it unfinished. Honestly, I think they didn't have time to do everything.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tt92618
Earlier today I was impressed by iOS7. That was before I downloaded and installed it.
All I can say is that minimalism for the sake of minimalism is just as big a design mistake as the skeuomorphic designs that Ive dislikes so much. There are actual usability reasons for some choices, and just because those reasons are not immediately evident does not make them wrong.
IOS has some glaringly design based choices that impact usability in very negative ways. It is as if someone enamored with a design principle forgot that the device has to be used by realpeople. And real people don't all have 20 / 20 vision. Real people have differences in how they process visual stimuli. Real people need certain kinds of cues within a visual field to properly parse and understand the information therein. IOS7 skews so harshly to the minimal that it actually degrades the first and primary purpose of a software UI: helping the user derive value from the services it provides.
...
If IOS7 is allowed to make its way onto consumer's devices as it presently is, there is a good chance that it will puncture the company's stock value, and the value of its offerings, in an irreparable way.
Bear in mind they have not had a lot of time to pull this off. I think they did the right thing putting together a design language and process first. But I am not convinced they have followed it. The icons are wildly inconsistent, as if different designers worked on a few each and didn't share. In some cases, I have to wonder if the app icon designer was involved in the UI design of the app, or used it at all.
This whole thing is unfinished. I don't know about irreparable damage and don't care about the stock. But they have work to do.
I predict most people will be pretty happy with iOS 7, despite these issues. If it's a universal complaint, Apple can always tweak it, so be sure to tell them, not just post about it on these forums.
I've reached out to Apple, but it remains to be seen if anyone is listening.
I agree that this is all fixable. I'm concerned about the brand damage it will do for them to publicly showcase this design as is, and then to change it. But I am more concerned about what may happen if they do not; I am very convinced that if they don't change these core issues surrounding font clarity and contrast, this is going to ultimately work against them.
Tim made a point today that more revenue and use comes from IOS devices than from any other mobile OS. I suggest that is because, among other things, users find IOS devices more pleasant to use. And as a result, owners of IOS devices use them more - a lot more.
Lots of things contribute to why users of IOS find it more pleasant, and a truism is that most users cannot explain why it is that they like one thing more than another. I believe this is primarily because many of these opinions are at their core emotional responses, and they are formed at a mostly unconscious level - a level mostly revolving around the processing of stimuli. When our sensory systems are pushed harder by something - when we have to expend more attentional resource in order to obtain value from it, or to use it in the pursuit of a goal... then emotionally our experience of it is harmed. It causes a form of fatigue that is experienced, at a core level, as some form of unpleasantness. We in turn use the device less, we like it less, and we gravitate to those things that are less offensive to our unconscious mind. That may sound like garbage, but as a designer and a usability / UX architect, I believe it to be true. People experience things emotionally, and the degree to which something promotes negative feelings very much influences how likely it is for us to continue using that thing. And the kicker is that much of this happens below the surface, to the extent that users cannot fully or even partially explain why they favor one thing over another. But these factors exert a large effect on the user's behavior with respect to a system.
So, while these seem as if they are minor issues, from the perspective of the brand and of the long term viability and saleability of the platform, they are less minor than one might assume.
The 3D and layering effects of their new interface is likely to be profound and will be quickly incorporated by developers. Games will most certainly take advantage of it. My guess is feature will be huge.
The 3D and layering effects of their new interface is likely to be profound and will be quickly incorporated by developers. Games will most certainly take advantage of it. My guess is feature will be huge.
Perhaps. Right now, it is very subtle and I suspect most users would miss it entirely if it weren't pointed out to them. It also doesn't work properly, with the result that UI elements sometimes make sudden and jarring movements that are very unpleasant.
Perhaps. Right now, it is very subtle and I suspect most users would miss it entirely if it weren't pointed out to them. It also doesn't work properly, with the result that UI elements sometimes make sudden and jarring movements that are very unpleasant.
iOS 7 is still beta, so I would expect problems similar to what you've noted.
iOS 7 is still beta, so I would expect problems similar to what you've noted.
I'm a long time developer and i've been around through betas of the OS going back to the second generation. This is the most unfinished and tweaky UI layer I've ever seen Apple release to beta.
I'm a long time developer and i've been around through betas of the OS going back to the second generation. This is the most unfinished and tweaky UI layer I've ever seen Apple release to beta.
Hopefully, as a developer, you'll provide the feedback that will help see iOS 7 released as a polished product. The parallax seems to be a clever application of the accelerometer/gyroscope capability, inputs from both of which would be necessary to make the effect work.
The Verge isn't completely off base. I would not call it confusing. I would call it unfinished. Honestly, I think they didn't have time to do everything.
Bear in mind they have not had a lot of time to pull this off. I think they did the right thing putting together a design language and process first. But I am not convinced they have followed it. The icons are wildly inconsistent, as if different designers worked on a few each and didn't share. In some cases, I have to wonder if the app icon designer was involved in the UI design of the app, or used it at all.
This whole thing is unfinished. I don't know about irreparable damage and don't care about the stock. But they have work to do.
Seems to me there's a fair number of people hating on it just because they don't like the app icons. For me the added functionality outweighs some not so nice looking icons. I'm still amazed they were able to do what they did in a very short period of time. But Apple knew they had to shake things up. This is by no means a finished product in terms of their ultimate vision. I've no doubt it will get refined and perfected over time.
John Gruber was right though about it being polarizing. I see the people that hate it really hate it. I'm not seeing a lot of 'meh', people are either liking it or they're not. The guys on the Macworld podcast liked it, the guys on the Cult of Mac podcast hated it, John Gruber likes it, the Verge calls it confusing. WWDC audience gave it a standing ovation. Honestly I think a lot of the hate is a knee jerk reaction from people who don't have the beta and just have the home screen icons fixated on their brain. Or people who aren't software developers that downloaded the beta and expect it to function like production ready software.
Even back with iOS 5 I felt the UI Visual was tired. I considered Windows Mobile more modern and applauded the ability to design without copying (one of the few nice things I've ever said about MS). Now I feel that Apple have leap-frogged the competition such that now Apple are again ahead in all areas. My only area of concern relates to contrast/legibility, so hopefully the level of translucency will be user-controllable. I'm very happy feature/functionality wise too
Looks pretty well labeled to me, I love this feature.
Sure, the icon is labeled in Settings. So is the TTY icon. Both are asked about a lot on the 'net, because if either gets accidentally turned on, the icon by itself is meaningless unless you know about it.
(More intuitive Do Not Disturb icons are usually a phone or a speaker with an X or diagonal bar like a traffic Do-Not-Something sign. That at least gives a huge visual hint that something is turned off.)
In any case, that's why I wish they'd included labels in the control center, just like they do for non-standard icons almost everywhere else.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hentaiboy
Is that a torch app bottom left?
Yes. Thus the threads about what that means to flashlight app developers, since it's very unlikely that Apple would let the user decide which flashlight app to launch.
(There seems to be some confusion. Some think that the bottom line shows your most-used apps. Others say that the apps are hardcoded. I think it's the latter. Anyone know for sure?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by hill60
I don't know, maybe Samsung will release an ad that explains it instead of bumping phones together all the time.
Samsung's done several ads showing people sharing photos or documents across a group. But yeah, you're right... bumping is visually more memorable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aderutter
Even back with iOS 5 I felt the UI Visual was tired. I considered Windows Mobile more modern and applauded the ability to design without copying (one of the few nice things I've ever said about MS).
It was easy to predict, even when the iPhone first came out, that eventually Apple would have to update the UI. Styles change. Technology advances. People want features from other devices. So this isn't the last version either. The UI will change AGAIN sometime in the future. History guarantees it.
I am really disappointed in the initial images of the new look. I am a huge Apple fan, but this new look lacks the beauty of the current IOS. I know others have mentioned this but it very much looks like a copy of Android.
I just re-watched the iOS 7 portion of the keynote and I'm really jazzed about the features they added. This is a major feature release. These features are way more important than what an app icon looks like. Too bad people seem to be focusing so much on the app icon designs instead of the great features iOS is finally getting.
Also I'm glad they didn't make a big deal about iTunes radio. I like that they treated it as a nice new feature to the music app rather than some big new service. Again I think Apple is more concerned about users having a great experience than being a pandora killer or whatever.
I'll be curious to see what they saved for the new iPhone release. There has to be some feature they held back to announce with the new phone. Will be interested to see what that is.
To me the new look is about change for nothing more than the sake of change. I hope I am wrong, but the images of the new IOS are boring and plain looking. They lack the visual appeal of the current IOS.
To me the new look is about change for nothing more than the sake of change. I hope I am wrong, but the images of the new IOS are boring and plain looking. They lack the visual appeal of the current IOS.
Did you even watch the keynote where Craig talked about all the new FEATURES? Quick access to most used settings and better multitasking is not change for the sake of change. Yeah Apple could have added them to the iOS 6 design but then everyone would have complained that its the same old boring UI. :rolleyes:
The weather app looks nice but until they add hour-by-hour forecast and actual radar maps it's still completely worthless to me. I don't know about where everyone else lives but it can be totally sunny and hot the same day there's a torrential downpour so I'd like to be able to see what time that is and be able to look at radar. I guess I'm stuck with TWC until someone else decides that people who are interested in more than just "what's it doing right now" deserve a useful app.
The color scheme they showed off does have a distinct Samsung feel to it but it felt like a massively refined Samsung which, well, that's what Apple is best at. Taking the status-quo and ratcheting it up a few notches.
To me the new look is about change for nothing more than the sake of change. I hope I am wrong, but the images of the new IOS are boring and plain looking. They lack the visual appeal of the current IOS.
Oh and when you buy new clothes, or artwork for your house, or if you reprint your walls, or buy a new comforter for your bed, is that change for the sake of change? iOS had basically the same look and feel for 6 years. Does your house look exactly the way it did 6 years ago? Are you still wearing the same clothes you wore 6 years ago? My guess is not.
I love the iOS 7 look. It's got the functionality I wanted from Android like the control center. All they need to do is build a phone that's just under 5 inches and I am back to being all in on Apple. (If they do I am going to have to figure out a way to change my name from Ex iPhone Owner to Current iPhone Owner.)
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by hentaiboy
Can we take Sir Jony's knighthood back now?
Straight from the Hello Kitty design manual
Stand back, everybody.
The guy with the Japanese porn username wants to give a lesson on classiness.
Ooh, classy!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogifan
Well the design snobs at the Verge have spoken and call iOS 7 simply confusing. I didn't click on the article knowing it was just click bait (unfortunately the Verge is going that way now). But I do wonder how much time they've has to play with it or if its just a knew jerk reaction based on the different app icon designs? I haven't used Windows 8 but I know people who have and they say once you've used it for a while you start to like it and its not confusing at all. I think too many are making snap judgements about iOS 7 without spending enough time with it.
The Verge isn't completely off base. I would not call it confusing. I would call it unfinished. Honestly, I think they didn't have time to do everything.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tt92618
Earlier today I was impressed by iOS7. That was before I downloaded and installed it.
All I can say is that minimalism for the sake of minimalism is just as big a design mistake as the skeuomorphic designs that Ive dislikes so much. There are actual usability reasons for some choices, and just because those reasons are not immediately evident does not make them wrong.
IOS has some glaringly design based choices that impact usability in very negative ways. It is as if someone enamored with a design principle forgot that the device has to be used by real people. And real people don't all have 20 / 20 vision. Real people have differences in how they process visual stimuli. Real people need certain kinds of cues within a visual field to properly parse and understand the information therein. IOS7 skews so harshly to the minimal that it actually degrades the first and primary purpose of a software UI: helping the user derive value from the services it provides.
...
If IOS7 is allowed to make its way onto consumer's devices as it presently is, there is a good chance that it will puncture the company's stock value, and the value of its offerings, in an irreparable way.
Bear in mind they have not had a lot of time to pull this off. I think they did the right thing putting together a design language and process first. But I am not convinced they have followed it. The icons are wildly inconsistent, as if different designers worked on a few each and didn't share. In some cases, I have to wonder if the app icon designer was involved in the UI design of the app, or used it at all.
This whole thing is unfinished. I don't know about irreparable damage and don't care about the stock. But they have work to do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton
I predict most people will be pretty happy with iOS 7, despite these issues. If it's a universal complaint, Apple can always tweak it, so be sure to tell them, not just post about it on these forums.
I've reached out to Apple, but it remains to be seen if anyone is listening.
I agree that this is all fixable. I'm concerned about the brand damage it will do for them to publicly showcase this design as is, and then to change it. But I am more concerned about what may happen if they do not; I am very convinced that if they don't change these core issues surrounding font clarity and contrast, this is going to ultimately work against them.
Tim made a point today that more revenue and use comes from IOS devices than from any other mobile OS. I suggest that is because, among other things, users find IOS devices more pleasant to use. And as a result, owners of IOS devices use them more - a lot more.
Lots of things contribute to why users of IOS find it more pleasant, and a truism is that most users cannot explain why it is that they like one thing more than another. I believe this is primarily because many of these opinions are at their core emotional responses, and they are formed at a mostly unconscious level - a level mostly revolving around the processing of stimuli. When our sensory systems are pushed harder by something - when we have to expend more attentional resource in order to obtain value from it, or to use it in the pursuit of a goal... then emotionally our experience of it is harmed. It causes a form of fatigue that is experienced, at a core level, as some form of unpleasantness. We in turn use the device less, we like it less, and we gravitate to those things that are less offensive to our unconscious mind. That may sound like garbage, but as a designer and a usability / UX architect, I believe it to be true. People experience things emotionally, and the degree to which something promotes negative feelings very much influences how likely it is for us to continue using that thing. And the kicker is that much of this happens below the surface, to the extent that users cannot fully or even partially explain why they favor one thing over another. But these factors exert a large effect on the user's behavior with respect to a system.
So, while these seem as if they are minor issues, from the perspective of the brand and of the long term viability and saleability of the platform, they are less minor than one might assume.
Quote:
Originally Posted by waldobushman
The 3D and layering effects of their new interface is likely to be profound and will be quickly incorporated by developers. Games will most certainly take advantage of it. My guess is feature will be huge.
Perhaps. Right now, it is very subtle and I suspect most users would miss it entirely if it weren't pointed out to them. It also doesn't work properly, with the result that UI elements sometimes make sudden and jarring movements that are very unpleasant.
iOS 7 is still beta, so I would expect problems similar to what you've noted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by waldobushman
iOS 7 is still beta, so I would expect problems similar to what you've noted.
I'm a long time developer and i've been around through betas of the OS going back to the second generation. This is the most unfinished and tweaky UI layer I've ever seen Apple release to beta.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tt92618
I'm a long time developer and i've been around through betas of the OS going back to the second generation. This is the most unfinished and tweaky UI layer I've ever seen Apple release to beta.
Hopefully, as a developer, you'll provide the feedback that will help see iOS 7 released as a polished product. The parallax seems to be a clever application of the accelerometer/gyroscope capability, inputs from both of which would be necessary to make the effect work.
All the best.
John Gruber was right though about it being polarizing. I see the people that hate it really hate it. I'm not seeing a lot of 'meh', people are either liking it or they're not. The guys on the Macworld podcast liked it, the guys on the Cult of Mac podcast hated it, John Gruber likes it, the Verge calls it confusing. WWDC audience gave it a standing ovation. Honestly I think a lot of the hate is a knee jerk reaction from people who don't have the beta and just have the home screen icons fixated on their brain. Or people who aren't software developers that downloaded the beta and expect it to function like production ready software.
Even back with iOS 5 I felt the UI Visual was tired. I considered Windows Mobile more modern and applauded the ability to design without copying (one of the few nice things I've ever said about MS). Now I feel that Apple have leap-frogged the competition such that now Apple are again ahead in all areas. My only area of concern relates to contrast/legibility, so hopefully the level of translucency will be user-controllable. I'm very happy feature/functionality wise too
Quote:
Originally Posted by punkndrublic
Looks pretty well labeled to me, I love this feature.
Sure, the icon is labeled in Settings. So is the TTY icon. Both are asked about a lot on the 'net, because if either gets accidentally turned on, the icon by itself is meaningless unless you know about it.
(More intuitive Do Not Disturb icons are usually a phone or a speaker with an X or diagonal bar like a traffic Do-Not-Something sign. That at least gives a huge visual hint that something is turned off.)
In any case, that's why I wish they'd included labels in the control center, just like they do for non-standard icons almost everywhere else.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hentaiboy
Is that a torch app bottom left?
Yes. Thus the threads about what that means to flashlight app developers, since it's very unlikely that Apple would let the user decide which flashlight app to launch.
(There seems to be some confusion. Some think that the bottom line shows your most-used apps. Others say that the apps are hardcoded. I think it's the latter. Anyone know for sure?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by hill60
I don't know, maybe Samsung will release an ad that explains it instead of bumping phones together all the time.
Samsung's done several ads showing people sharing photos or documents across a group. But yeah, you're right... bumping is visually more memorable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aderutter
Even back with iOS 5 I felt the UI Visual was tired. I considered Windows Mobile more modern and applauded the ability to design without copying (one of the few nice things I've ever said about MS).
It was easy to predict, even when the iPhone first came out, that eventually Apple would have to update the UI. Styles change. Technology advances. People want features from other devices. So this isn't the last version either. The UI will change AGAIN sometime in the future. History guarantees it.
Also I'm glad they didn't make a big deal about iTunes radio. I like that they treated it as a nice new feature to the music app rather than some big new service. Again I think Apple is more concerned about users having a great experience than being a pandora killer or whatever.
I'll be curious to see what they saved for the new iPhone release. There has to be some feature they held back to announce with the new phone. Will be interested to see what that is.
To me the new look is about change for nothing more than the sake of change. I hope I am wrong, but the images of the new IOS are boring and plain looking. They lack the visual appeal of the current IOS.
The weather app looks nice but until they add hour-by-hour forecast and actual radar maps it's still completely worthless to me. I don't know about where everyone else lives but it can be totally sunny and hot the same day there's a torrential downpour so I'd like to be able to see what time that is and be able to look at radar. I guess I'm stuck with TWC until someone else decides that people who are interested in more than just "what's it doing right now" deserve a useful app.
The color scheme they showed off does have a distinct Samsung feel to it but it felt like a massively refined Samsung which, well, that's what Apple is best at. Taking the status-quo and ratcheting it up a few notches.
I love the iOS 7 look. It's got the functionality I wanted from Android like the control center. All they need to do is build a phone that's just under 5 inches and I am back to being all in on Apple. (If they do I am going to have to figure out a way to change my name from Ex iPhone Owner to Current iPhone Owner.)