Inside iOS 7: Calendar app comes with sterilized UI, few feature changes

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
While Apple updated every first-party app for iOS 7, one of the most heavily modified is Calendar, which sheds the silver and blue skin seen in iOS 6 for a grayscale theme almost devoid of color.

Calendar Views
From left: Month, week and day views in iOS 7's Calendar app.


With the new Calendar app, Apple is going for a spartan, almost bleached look with an all white background, subtle gray borders and lines, and text that is either a shade of black or bold red.

The design is eye-pleasing, though users familiar with previous version of iOS may find the change a bit jarring. The main full month view shows a Sunday through Saturday layout, with weeks demarcated by thin gray lines. Also in gray are the weekend dates.

Instead of "press-able" buttons for dates, Calendar in iOS 7 drop almost all shadow effects for simple black and red dots. A red dot on a date denotes the current day, while a black dot shows that a date has been selected and is ready to edit.

It appears that Apple has taken a step back in its design, however, as the month view no longer shows the small tick on dates with scheduled events. Also gone is the brief day-by-day view that appears below the month calendar in iOS 6.

In addition, the "add new event" dialogue can no longer be triggered with a long press. The only way to create an event is to drill down into day view, or click the plus symbol at the top right. Unless users want to check what day an upcoming date falls on, this particular page has been greatly handicapped.

Backing out from the month layout takes users to a full-year view, with the red "today" dot standing out against a background of incredibly small numbers.

List Day
List view has been integrated into Calendar search (left), while overlapping events show up as tiered overlays.


Moving into day and week view, things become a lot more usable. Days of the week are displayed at the top of the screen with their corresponding dates, as well as the current day and date, set against a light gray backdrop. This allows users to tap to select other days rather than swipe

Below the date header is a take on the iOS 6 day view, with hours and a moving red line for the current time.

The user interface for day view remains largely unchanged, and is more of a graphical, rather than functional, overhaul. Unlike iOS 6, however, events that coincide are not set off in their own boxes, but are instead overlaid one atop the other in a tiered fashion.

Event creation is largely the same as it is in iOS 6, with the same data fields presented in the new iOS 7 color scheme.

Event Creation


With iOS 7 beta, Apple has moved the "List" view to be included with the Calendar search utility, which can be found by clicking on the magnifying glass at the top of any in-app page except when in landscape mode.

Flipping the iPhone into landscape, iOS 7 throws up a five-day view which is, again, mostly a re-skinned version of the iOS 6 Calendar. Days and times are browsable by scrolling horizontally and vertically. Adding events requires the tap and hold method as no menu buttons are available.

Landscape


Overall, the look of Calendar has changed more than its feature set. The layout is clean and uncluttered, but the removal of the month view's event notations and easy event creation could be a deal breaker for some.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 102
    scotty321scotty321 Posts: 313member
    No thanks, I'll stick with BusyCal... it has hundreds of extra features that I need and depend on!
  • Reply 2 of 102
    scotty321scotty321 Posts: 313member
    No thanks, I'll stick with BusyCal. It has the hundreds of extra features that I actually need and depend on every day!!
  • Reply 3 of 102
    danoxdanox Posts: 2,799member
    OVERBOARD IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION!!!!
  • Reply 4 of 102


    Fantastical blows all calendar apps away. Once you start using it, you'll never go back.

  • Reply 5 of 102
    freediverxfreediverx Posts: 1,423member
    .
  • Reply 6 of 102
    freediverxfreediverx Posts: 1,423member


    What iOS7 delivers:


     



     


    What Mikey Campbell wants:


     


  • Reply 7 of 102
    zberniezbernie Posts: 37member
    Sterilized and FUGLY!
  • Reply 8 of 102
    iaeeniaeen Posts: 588member
    The loss of functionality in month view is disappointing. Oh well, I guess I'll learn to like week view.
  • Reply 9 of 102
    "the look of Calendar has changed more than its feature set. The layout is clean and uncluttered, but the removal of the month view's event notations and easy event creation could be a deal breaker for some."

    Absolute deal breaker for me on the calendar app.
  • Reply 10 of 102
    djzappdjzapp Posts: 9member
    @Scotty321 isn't Busycal a OSX version. Was not aware of an IOS version.
  • Reply 11 of 102
    vadaniavadania Posts: 425member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by macaholic_1948 View Post



    "the look of Calendar has changed more than its feature set. The layout is clean and uncluttered, but the removal of the month view's event notations and easy event creation could be a deal breaker for some."



    Absolute deal breaker for me on the calendar app.


    I really don't like it and I've been trying to get used to it for a week now.  The year view is worse (which I use a lot for some unknown reason).


     


    I'm horrified by the new hospitalized white version of iOS7.


     


    I understand that it's just the stock apps, and it's great there are replacements.


     


    It just kind of gets to me that Apple knows how to code very well, but now they're regressing on the UI.  The UI which made them famous.  So now we need to turn to 3rd party apps to get away from the sterilization.


     


    I thought they were tying to make it personable...


     


    To be fair, I really like iOS7 a lot!  However the colors used in the stock apps make me feel dead, tired, sterilized.  I'd rather they just not ship the stock apps with those colors.  Let me delete them and I'll find some lively alternatives.


     


    ...and then there's the Crayola contest icons...  They're just Baaaaaaaaaad!

  • Reply 12 of 102
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Sadly this is what I'm afraid of, new gloss but few new features. Frankly Calander isn't the heavy use app for me so I'm hoping other apps do get real functionality improvements. For me the appearance of the app means little I need feature compatibility with the equivalent Mac Apps.
  • Reply 13 of 102
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    Month view was never much use to me: nearly EVERY day is packed with stuff.

    As long as I can quickly reach List view--the only one I ever use--I'm OK.
  • Reply 14 of 102


    I get the sense this is simply a Red Cross awareness campaign - don't forget to support your local chapter.  The real design will be revealed in the fall.

  • Reply 15 of 102
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    ...




    Calendar Views

    From left: Month, week and day views in iOS 7's Calendar app.



    ...


     


    Actually, this would be year, month, and day views, with week view missing (if it exists)


     


    I'm not a fan of this design either.  I absolutely hate the bright red highlight (and the entire idea of colour coded apps), and it's trying so hard to copy Windows Phone that it's just embarrassing.  I find the new contacts app similar.  


     


    What's been missing for years in both apps is a good, robust, feature set.  All they've done here is re-skin the thing.  How about making a better calendar (and Contacts) instead?  I don't think Apple understands this stuff at all.

  • Reply 16 of 102
    vadaniavadania Posts: 425member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by mookiemookie View Post


    I get the sense this is simply a Red Cross awareness campaign - don't forget to support your local chapter.  The real design will be revealed in the fall.



    Yea, I like that!  I also hope it's true.


     


    The two posts previous to you tried to make it seem like their schedule is so busy they don't even bother to look at it.  I will tell you that if you do have a busy schedule, it's literally the thing you keep looking at all the time.  Especially if you see a clock.  Might as well make it look nice while you're staring at it.

  • Reply 17 of 102
    dreyfus2dreyfus2 Posts: 1,072member
    nagromme wrote: »
    As long as I can quickly reach List view--the only one I ever use--I'm OK.

    You can, but it is, like many things in the new apps for now, not exactly intuitive... The only way to get into list view (I have found) is to click the tiny search icon. Found it by accident while failing to tap the status bar.
  • Reply 18 of 102
    blackbookblackbook Posts: 1,361member
    dreyfus2 wrote: »
    You can, but it is, like many things in the new apps for now, not exactly intuitive... The only way to get into list view (I have found) is to click the tiny search icon. Found it by accident while failing to tap the status bar.
    Give Apple feedback of this so that it will be easier access and more intuitive by fall.
  • Reply 19 of 102
    ruel24ruel24 Posts: 432member


    Personally, all the white background with hyper-saturated foreground colors in iOS7 makes me wonder how readable it will be in sunlight. The combinations of glassy overlays and this white+neon colors looks rather disconjointed. I'll have to experience the final product at my Verizon showroom to make a final judgement, but I stand by that I don't like what I see so far. The lock screen looks stolen right from Samsung, glassy overlays a la KDE 4.11 Air theme, and other bits are just a turn off... Hopefully, they tweak it enough that it looks a lot better in the end.

  • Reply 20 of 102
    vadaniavadania Posts: 425member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


     


    Actually, this would be year, month, and day views, with week view missing (if it exists)


     


    I'm not a fan of this design either.  I absolutely hate the bright red highlight (and the entire idea of colour coded apps), and it's trying so hard to copy Windows Phone that it's just embarrassing.  I find the new contacts app similar.  


     


    What's been missing for years in both apps is a good, robust, feature set.  All they've done here is re-skin the thing.  How about making a better calendar (and Contacts) instead?  I don't think Apple understands this stuff at all.



     


    Quote:

    Originally Posted by dreyfus2 View Post





    You can, but it is, like many things in the new apps for now, not exactly intuitive... The only way to get into list view (I have found) is to click the tiny search icon. Found it by accident while failing to tap the status bar.


    Why, if you don't mind, does it sound like you wrote that as you were literally just falling asleep?

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