No argument here: Jony Ive has produced some of the best industrial design in the history of consumer products. He’s done it by cutting out all the extraneous parts. By eliminating edges, by smoothing and streamlining.
But what works beautifully for hardware does not work for software.
iOS feels like it’s following a trend called “flat” without really understanding what that means. The examples given in this article are telling – especially since there are enough examples of “flat” design that work just fine and do not have these problems; see Material Design, for instance, which, while flat, makes a lot of use of planes and depth and still makes it very clear what is clickable and what isn’t (mostly).
Another good article. One thing that it seemed to me that Apple really nailed with iOS 6 was this library where any programmer could make a good looking app.
I mean I have worked with some very intelligent people that will demo utter garbage, in terms of “look” – and while that doesn’t bother me, it really destroys their presentation, and while one can hope that someone is going to clean up later, not every project is that big – and garbage gets out there.
I liked how my demo’s in iOS 6 just looked beautiful, and I didn’t have to think about it – and the user wasn’t confused by what was a button or not.
I think just because a lot of us know that design is important in the Apple App store, that apps continue to look good, but without much coming ‘for free’ any longer.
Edited 2015-09-11 21:42 UTC
I don’t care if it’s flat, skeuomorphic, isomorphic or xenomorphic… to me that’s all irrelevant designer speak. It’s not a real iOS “problem” it’s just designer subjectivity.
What’s important about iOS and differentiates it from the rest of the known universe is: its SIMPLICITY.
iOS renounces to functionality just to keep it simple and stable!!! OMG!!! OMG!!
Today that philosophy is so uncommon that I cannot believe a mainstream company like Apple is still following it with iOS (they abandoned it completely with OSX which managed to suck more and more with every release since Snow Leopard).
In a nutshell, I will keep loving iOS if they keep it simple. I doubt Apple will be able to do it because Android influence is too strong to ignore… but so far they are doing it pretty well (to me at least).
PS: I’m being positive about iOS in OSnews… mmm I got the feeling I will be downvoted xD
Edited 2015-09-11 22:53 UTC
This, pretty much. Over the years, I’ve come to realize that most design vocabulary is made up of weasel-words, much like the vocabulary of audiophiles and art critics.
Sure, there’s lots of design elements in iOS that annoy me (some of them on a regular basis), but I’d rather take what’s out now than go back to the gumby-like beveled everything embossed everywhere (plus a notes app that looks like Jobs and Forestall took a shit on it) iOS 6 design.
Edited 2015-09-12 00:35 UTC
I didn’t have a problem with iOS6 looks, but I’ve found iOS7/8 much better yes. Hands down.
BTW I think it’s a 100% subjective thing so I don’t really give a fuck about it. There’s no “truth” about aesthetics.
if it works OK and It’s not bloated… I’m in.
Stock Android is simpler. It is also more consistent, more powerful, and better looking despite the pervasive belief that iOS leads on those fronts.
Seriously I think most of the debate over Android vs iOS comes from the fact that most people have only ever used one or the other. Use a Nexus device for 6 months and try and tell me, for example, that notifications on iOS aren’t a complete joke. It is a shame that the OEMs screw up the OS so much (I won’t debate anyone who says Samsung TouchWiz and HTC Sense are garbage) because that also really muddies things. I’ll give iOS kudos for app permissions but Android just fixed that.
I will also give Apple credit for their industrial design which is the best in the industry by a decent margin (not just iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro, etc).
They claim Apple brought this and inspired others. That seems completely backwards by my recollection. The flat design was first made by Microsoft for Windows Phone, and while WP didn’t catch on, their design did, and everybody copied Microsofts design choices, including Apple.
This is what we live with now. Apple having a bad copy of a Microsoft design.
Edited 2015-09-12 01:45 UTC
Microsoft didn’t invent flat design either, it was something that was happening in web design. And there are Linux window managers that have technically always been a “flat design”.
Microsoft was the first major operating system/ecosystem to implement a flat design, but I think it’s not right to say others are copying. Microsoft’s flat design is really terrible. The two tone icons are awful, they don’t communicate well and they look cheap. The widgets aren’t great either, there’s no discrimination between title text and buttons. Visually it’s OK but usability is awful. Their software only becomes usable when you know where all the buttons are.
They took flat design to the extreme, but they didn’t do it well.
Minimalistic design worked fine for hardware actually. Bringing it to software without much consideration is the misconception.
And as regards minimalistic harware design, that was also championed already before Apple, e.g. by Braun.
To me, the only proper and noteworthy implementation of a flat design UI is exactly that of Microsoft’s Modern UI (in its purest form, before Windows 10 adulterations). All others just seem like a me-too copycat. I prefer to stare at a beautiful, clean, eye-relaxing Windows Phone 8.1 app screen than one implemented in that polluted surrogate that is Material Design. And I can’t understand why a lot more people do not experience this uneasy feel on Android like me – my (biased) response so far has been that they lack a bit of aesthetic taste.
And the article about Apple is quite right IMO, but not because of flat design in general, but only because of Apple’s specific, very-flawed implementation. More than that, they don’t even benefit from their product history in this sense: while Microsoft had to rectify years and years of ugly design and kitsch UIs and responded with Metro, they already had a beautiful and stylistically-distinguished design that was built over time and acted as some sort of ‘brand’ for them – that is, until they decided to destroy it.
The Metro design of Microsoft has the same issues as Apple’s: a user has to find out if a text is clickable or not.
Design must be practical ans easy to use. It helps when it is beautiful, but being beautiful is very subjective
All those words and hardly any examples.
So the time dial… Other than the 3D effect, how is this different than most other time pickers. Far worse is the material design time picker: http://www.andbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/device-2015-04-1…
Most people don’t use analog clocks on a regular basis. basing your time picker on that is both space wasting and confusing for many people.
Colored text for buttons is standard in iOS. You might not like it but it’s standard. People are used to this from links online and I’ve never seen anyone confused by it.
I work with people with cognitive disabilities on using mobile devices to support their independence. I have not seen people be confused with iOS design of interfaces.
I also find it weird they don’t see the obvious contradiction in their writing. Apparently Apple’s design is so obviously terrible, and yet they are leading the industry and others are following them? If Apple’s design was so horrible surely they would not be leading the industry in any way and every other product would be 100% completely differently designed.
Edited 2015-09-12 02:47 UTC
Wow, I love that Android time picker! I wish my iphone had it. I feel that using iOS’s time picker is really unpleasant and anxiety invoking.
Always loved the one in the N9, it was one of those things that was totally new at the time, and still works so well. I find it far more convenient than a digital picker where it can take quite a few taps and swipes to set the numbers to what you want.
https://sfietkonstantin.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/time-picker.jpg
Digital clocks are fine when you are within a hour of the reason you need to know what time it is. Analog clocks rule when you need to plan hours ahead. That’s not to say which is better for a time picker though. On mobile I like analog popup pickers better than giant rolls.
And I guess giving users some choice between different UIs and designs styles is an extraordinary complex endeavour ?
It is not as if KDE, Gnome and many Linux UIs offered just that.
And they’ve had so much mainstream success, haven’t they?
So, if marginal platforms with limited resources can do that, can’t Apple and Google be able to do the same ?
Android is of lately has become equally unusable.
There’s ZERO indication as to which elements on the screen are clickable and which are not. Oftentimes the elements which have the same palette have a different behavior in Google’s own apps.
It’s a fucking mess which, if I remember correctly, Microsoft started with Windows 8 and then everyone decided to make it even worse.
Let me say it: I ABSOLUTELY HATE MODERN COMPUTER DESIGN because it’s NOT design, it’s some oversimplified shit thrown at us.
Fuck Microsoft (Windows 8/10), fuck Google (Android 5/6), fuck Apple (iOS>=7).
I switched to the Apple ecosystem a while back, in part due to the depth of the graphics and the interface. The new flat design leaves me cold. Why am I paying for multi-megapixel displays with huge color palettes for a washed out UI?
If Apple and the others (Microsoft, and Google) do not wake up to the fact that the UIs do not do the hardware justice, consumers will either downgrade on the hardware or flock to the next mobile OS that turns up (assuming it has a rich UI).