It's getting a good reception. Why would they be shocked? Come off it.
Source? Proof? Anything?
I think if you were honest, you'd have to agree that the reception has been mixed, which I expect is probably below the response Cook expected. He seemed quite proud during the keynote. From my perspective, IOS7 is getting critical review. And I think that is absolutely a good thing. I don't think Apple is off-base in their goals or in the effort to refine the user experience and break new ground. I simply think this effort, as it is, has some very big design issues that need to be fixed. I think that's a pretty reasonable position.
As to the source for my second comment, it seems to have been reported here first:
Please stop telling people what you are. This forum is filled with UI designers. Steve Jobs didn't finish college and David Karp didn't finish high school. What you are trained in means nothing. Tiger Woods telling us he's a golfer means nothing if we don't know who he is. They're all just words.
With that said, I do agree with your thoughts in the colours blending thing in iOS 7 that makes edges and contrasts ridiculous. But I also understand that this whole thing was 7 months in the making. And it's not out yet. We can complain about that ugly icons and stupid contrasts, I have myself, but they may fix all that stuff by September. And you can be sure they are well aware of this stuff. iPhone OS 1.0 changed heaps between beta and release, and that was with 0 outside devs testing the thing. iOS now has 6,000,000 devs I think. I'm confident they'll hear and feedback and fix the crucial stuff. They did a huge amount in 7 months. They can pull this off.
I honestly hope you are right. The problem I have, and what I am grappling with, is in trying to understand why they would release a publicly consumable version with these obvious flaws. This is basic stuff, really. Tiny, white, narrow fonts with no discernable neutrality from their background are going to be hard to read against a huge swath of the sorts of backgrounds users will want to use. Tiny fonts of any color barely different in contrast from their background are going to be hard to read. Iconography composed of narrow lines floating on a background where the contrast ratio between icon and background are low... are going to be difficult targets for a user to visually acquire. These are just obvious things - these are not startling, deep concepts that one needs huge experience or a PhD to recognize. I cannot get my mind around why they demonstrated a UI with these easily fixable characteristics.
I've been around a while and I've seen a lot of things, and honestly, this is what this stuff looks like to me: amateurish. It strikes me as the mistake of a novice UI designer - someone who is just starting out and is more focused on the quality of the design as an art piece rather than its functionality for a use. That's just how it strikes me.
Photos is an unclear icon. A simple stack of photos (as seen for iPad album) would be apt.
All icons have lost their shadow effect. The font too. A lighter background would make visibility challenging.
Without a 3D depth effect, icons looks very flat. Earlier ones would feel complete with the edge depth.
Jony Ive clearly rushed the icons, using a marketing team instead of the app design team. hence the disconnect between the UIs of icons and apps. Hope the app designers take over the icons UI for the final release.
We don't know for sure that marketing did the final designs. Quite honestly we don't know if they did the first designs. Nothing has been confirmed by Apple.
Based on his statements, yes he is. He does not even know that there is no such thing as different launcher and that you cannot download it from Apple store. As we all know the only way to have different "launcher" is to jailbreak your iPhone.
I hope they don't change the new look too much, or even worse - cop out to the recent criticism and back track to more of the current look of iOS. I think the new look is fabulous, really a breath of fresh air after the staleness of the current design...keep it up and be brave Apple!
I find it strange that stelligent thinks this is a very unfinished product. I am surprised how stable the current beta actually is. It should be a given that this is a beta and bugs are expected and I have found a few crash bugs. I don't see any major issues with it though unlike previous betas I have tested where major functionality was affected with the first betas. I honestly expected major issues with the first build that changes so much in the OS.
I have been using the beta on my main iphone for a few days now and don't plan to go back. I honestly thought i would have to revert after trying it for a day or so based on previous experience with the first ios betas.
iOS app icons should probably show a bit more dimensionality and align with OS X icons.
While I can't comment on specific app details because I don't have access to the beta, my overall impression of the internal UI, layout and font changes within the apps seem smart, logical and elegant, and align much better to the hardware.
However, I am happy that it is a work-in-progress. Especially for the app icons sake. While the icons seem to fit the direction of the app internals, they feel cold.
I've always liked the design dialog between the hardware and software. Hardware, figuratively flat and one color. Software, more dimensional, multi-colored. This is not saying I liked the skeuomorphs concept but I do like a little more software dimensionality to contrast the hardware. At least for the icons if nothing else.
So ... as far as the icons, I hope they receive a treatment that finds a middle ground between current iOS icons and the work-in-progress icons. 1) Keep the new color palette, possibly enriching the colors and adding subtle (ie less than iOS 6 icons) texture /shading / dimensionality. 2) Maintain the simplicity but fiddle with the icon pictorials, like not making the camera icon clip art. 3) Whatever app icons are finalized for iOS should be transferable to OS X for cross-platform seamlessness and familiarity.
The internal UIs between the OS X and iOS apps of the same name are always going to be somewhat different. But the driving concept behind them should always be the same and that should be reflected by the icons matching cross-platform.
There are some aspects of iOS7 that are much improved, but the keypad screen for the Phone App sums up everything that is wrong with the new design.
I do like how when you press a key the color of your background shows through. That's a nice feature.
The call features look too Windows Phone. I think Apple could round out the call button or something to help differentiate.
Anyway as I was looking at more of iOS 7 today, I think the home screen icons are too big. The fact that they are bigger than iOS 6s causes some of the distraction IMO. If they make the new icons smaller and tone down the colors a bit I think the home screen would look far better.
There are some aspects of iOS7 that are much improved, but the keypad screen for the Phone App sums up everything that is wrong with the new design.
Ah! I'd forgotten the iOS Simulator existed. That's my fault, of course; did development on the system only... dear me, four years back. I should update my copy.
It is a beta. Smart to get all this feedback now. I can see where they are going with it, and if I am right, it will be very cool. I think in the final version you will be able to change the system font... and lots more. They are setting it up to be very customisable though it's not yet.
I'm sure Apple will listen to their customer satisfaction results and usability feedback and if they don't get "it's amazing" they'll fix the bloody icon..
You're making an assumption that neither he nor any of their design team are able to decide for themselves if it's right or not. It's not as if they didn't think about all the decisions they've made. Jony Ive is right here in a long video explaining all the decisions:
If you have a very light background, I'm sure a few UI elements will be hard to see but you'd just avoid using white backgrounds. They're trying to design a single UI for about half a billion people, it's obvious they won't please everyone but they have to go with something. I think the typography looks great. The colors could be a little more subdued but generally it's an improvement to me. There's certainly no mad rush to get them to go a different direction. If they need to add some slight shadowing or adjust colors, it's not that big of a deal.
Yeah, I think that looks nice. I like the more subtle shades and some of those icons look better. I don't like iOS7's Game Center icon. That one identifies games better for me.
The new look is an example of an Apple unbalanced. Forstall and Ive were opposites. Yin Yang. Jony the light, Forstall the darkness. Together, having the friction would have produced great things. Now we just have a light Apple, all white, everyone happy and soon to be working in the happy circular spaceship. Following and not leading, going round and round in circles.
Comments
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
It's getting a good reception. Why would they be shocked? Come off it.
Source? Proof? Anything?
I think if you were honest, you'd have to agree that the reception has been mixed, which I expect is probably below the response Cook expected. He seemed quite proud during the keynote. From my perspective, IOS7 is getting critical review. And I think that is absolutely a good thing. I don't think Apple is off-base in their goals or in the effort to refine the user experience and break new ground. I simply think this effort, as it is, has some very big design issues that need to be fixed. I think that's a pretty reasonable position.
As to the source for my second comment, it seems to have been reported here first:
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2013/06/12/why-does-the-design-of-ios-7-look-so-different/?fromcat=all
But is being cited widely:
https://www.google.com/search?q=IOS7+marketing+icons&oq=IOS7+marketing+icons&aqs=chrome.0.57j62l3.4097j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram
Two letters: B; S.
How typically eloquent and polite. On can count on you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ireland
Please stop telling people what you are. This forum is filled with UI designers. Steve Jobs didn't finish college and David Karp didn't finish high school. What you are trained in means nothing. Tiger Woods telling us he's a golfer means nothing if we don't know who he is. They're all just words.
With that said, I do agree with your thoughts in the colours blending thing in iOS 7 that makes edges and contrasts ridiculous. But I also understand that this whole thing was 7 months in the making. And it's not out yet. We can complain about that ugly icons and stupid contrasts, I have myself, but they may fix all that stuff by September. And you can be sure they are well aware of this stuff. iPhone OS 1.0 changed heaps between beta and release, and that was with 0 outside devs testing the thing. iOS now has 6,000,000 devs I think. I'm confident they'll hear and feedback and fix the crucial stuff. They did a huge amount in 7 months. They can pull this off.
I honestly hope you are right. The problem I have, and what I am grappling with, is in trying to understand why they would release a publicly consumable version with these obvious flaws. This is basic stuff, really. Tiny, white, narrow fonts with no discernable neutrality from their background are going to be hard to read against a huge swath of the sorts of backgrounds users will want to use. Tiny fonts of any color barely different in contrast from their background are going to be hard to read. Iconography composed of narrow lines floating on a background where the contrast ratio between icon and background are low... are going to be difficult targets for a user to visually acquire. These are just obvious things - these are not startling, deep concepts that one needs huge experience or a PhD to recognize. I cannot get my mind around why they demonstrated a UI with these easily fixable characteristics.
I've been around a while and I've seen a lot of things, and honestly, this is what this stuff looks like to me: amateurish. It strikes me as the mistake of a novice UI designer - someone who is just starting out and is more focused on the quality of the design as an art piece rather than its functionality for a use. That's just how it strikes me.
I think if you spent time weeding out those whose opinions don't matter, you'd agree with me.
Ah, thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ireland
You're an Android user, right? Like I said.
Based on his statements, yes he is. He does not even know that there is no such thing as different launcher and that you cannot download it from Apple store. As we all know the only way to have different "launcher" is to jailbreak your iPhone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tt92618
I'm a developer, usability professional, and UX architect.........................
<clipped for space>
I wish I could get Ive to read this.
PLEEEEEZ SEND IT TO HIM!
I have been using the beta on my main iphone for a few days now and don't plan to go back. I honestly thought i would have to revert after trying it for a day or so based on previous experience with the first ios betas.
While I can't comment on specific app details because I don't have access to the beta, my overall impression of the internal UI, layout and font changes within the apps seem smart, logical and elegant, and align much better to the hardware.
However, I am happy that it is a work-in-progress. Especially for the app icons sake. While the icons seem to fit the direction of the app internals, they feel cold.
I've always liked the design dialog between the hardware and software. Hardware, figuratively flat and one color. Software, more dimensional, multi-colored. This is not saying I liked the skeuomorphs concept but I do like a little more software dimensionality to contrast the hardware. At least for the icons if nothing else.
So ... as far as the icons, I hope they receive a treatment that finds a middle ground between current iOS icons and the work-in-progress icons. 1) Keep the new color palette, possibly enriching the colors and adding subtle (ie less than iOS 6 icons) texture /shading / dimensionality. 2) Maintain the simplicity but fiddle with the icon pictorials, like not making the camera icon clip art. 3) Whatever app icons are finalized for iOS should be transferable to OS X for cross-platform seamlessness and familiarity.
The internal UIs between the OS X and iOS apps of the same name are always going to be somewhat different. But the driving concept behind them should always be the same and that should be reflected by the icons matching cross-platform.
There are some aspects of iOS7 that are much improved, but the keypad screen for the Phone App sums up everything that is wrong with the new design.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chadmatic
There are some aspects of iOS7 that are much improved, but the keypad screen for the Phone App sums up everything that is wrong with the new design.
I do like how when you press a key the color of your background shows through. That's a nice feature.
The call features look too Windows Phone. I think Apple could round out the call button or something to help differentiate.
Anyway as I was looking at more of iOS 7 today, I think the home screen icons are too big. The fact that they are bigger than iOS 6s causes some of the distraction IMO. If they make the new icons smaller and tone down the colors a bit I think the home screen would look far better.
Ah! I'd forgotten the iOS Simulator existed. That's my fault, of course; did development on the system only... dear me, four years back. I should update my copy.
I'm sure Apple will listen to their customer satisfaction results and usability feedback and if they don't get "it's amazing" they'll fix the bloody icon..
[img]http://forums.appleinsider.com/content/type/61/id/26781/[/img]
That's a horrible yellow for Reminders. Game Center would NEVER fly. Maps is unnecessarily plain, as is Photos.
And get rid of the hideous Google envelope.
Seeing them side by side, I can see a few that look like a downgrade but most of them look improved to me.
You're making an assumption that neither he nor any of their design team are able to decide for themselves if it's right or not. It's not as if they didn't think about all the decisions they've made. Jony Ive is right here in a long video explaining all the decisions:
http://www.apple.com/ios/ios7/
[VIDEO]
If you have a very light background, I'm sure a few UI elements will be hard to see but you'd just avoid using white backgrounds. They're trying to design a single UI for about half a billion people, it's obvious they won't please everyone but they have to go with something. I think the typography looks great. The colors could be a little more subdued but generally it's an improvement to me. There's certainly no mad rush to get them to go a different direction. If they need to add some slight shadowing or adjust colors, it's not that big of a deal.
The UI elements are much better:
Yeah, I think that looks nice. I like the more subtle shades and some of those icons look better. I don't like iOS7's Game Center icon. That one identifies games better for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prima Kingu
One of the best concept based on flat design
Some of those icons are too different from iOS 6. It would confuse users more than the new icons Apple chose in iOS 7.