"This new iteration of iOS was supposed to save us from the unnecessary skeuomorphism that Jobs and Forstall loved."
I don't understand. What is wrong with skeuomorphism? I am not a designer or anything, but I liked the old iOS 6 UI.
I don't understand. What is wrong with skeuomorphism? I am not a designer or anything, but I liked the old iOS 6 UI.
People get stuck on the word 'skeuomorphism' here but the key word is 'unnecessary':
Find My Friends is often condemned for being too skeuomorphic. Mythbusted: Find My Friends uses standard iOS UI that is themed using custom graphics. The fine corinthian leather and stitching does not harken back to a day of fine corinthian leather products we used to use to find our friends. There is no connection to real world objects by using these materials.
The same thing is still true for any icon (such as the "save" floppy disk or the old-style trash can), but at least they're simple and don't require realism. They'll simply become abstract symbols that represent some actions.
I'm an absolute fan of flat design, and my favorite mobile OS is Windows Phone. However, I still prefer iOS 6 to iOS 7, if only for the look of third party apps.
To me an icon is a quick way of telling me what the app is and for lack of that (I tend to hoard apps) some clue as to what it might do. I really have to wonder if they did any tests on this. For example, show someone an icon and see how long it takes for them to correctly say what it does. Amorphous blobs just doesn't do it for me for things like Game Center.
We live in an age where flatter, more consistent UI designs are a necessity. Not flat to the point where you can't tell what the hell is going on, like Metro, but minimalist with visual cues to let you know what is happening, which is similar to Google's interface for Android and their web services.
We don't need to be reminded that games used to be played in casinos. We don't need to be reminded of how a ledger notepad with leather binding looks. We don't need to be reminded of how a bookshelf looks.
Why?
Because we don't use bookshelfs, game tables, or ledger pads on our phones.
We use digital representations of games, text, and input devices. The need to have an analog analogue is gone. And apart from the horrid icons in iOS 7, it's a step forward in every way. Except, of course, for the icons.
Did I mention the icons were awful?
There's probably some specific scope of "necessity" which would make this something other than fairly extreme hyperbole, but its certainly not one which it is obvious is the intended scope of this posting.
Now, I would agree that I like fairly flat design, and I actively dislike skeuomorphism for the sake of skeuomorphism, since it tends to add visual clutter that doesn't contribute to (and often impairs) usability.
But that's a preference (there are people that like baroque UIs, and that's not objectively wrong), not a necessity.
Which also meant that apps were actually distinguishable at a glance. You could be the slowest user ever and it was hard to miss that "yellow with lines across the page" meant Notes - on OS X, iOS and iCloud.com. There was zero disconnect between the icon and the actual app. Same for Reminders and GameCenter. iOS7 doesn't bother to develop a "mini-brand" for each app - the 'link colour' in each app is different but there aren't even enough colours for the stock apps.
Of course this branding in iOS6 could have been pulled of with fewer textures and shadows :)
Flat vs "3D" user interface elements are just a cycle of fashion.
It also seems like there's a general trend against the concept.
But I'm not a designer as well.
Pure flat design is IMO inferior, but necessary.
Now that we know what virtual objects are about, we can move to a design scheme that's made for virtual objects.
I inherently don't like the phrase 'Flat Design' - there is so much more to this.
Sku was teaching designers to fake dimension by hand, flat will aid them to getting to the point of texturing real 3D objects. And if you think iOS7 doesn't still use 3D space to make skumorphic metaphors you haven't looked at Safari' tabs yet.
in many of the comparison screenshots of ios 6vs7 it looks like they just switched from textured background to a solid background, and left the workflow the same. Not an eschewing of skeuomorphism but a change in visual style.
I have a feeling that in a few decades we'll be looking back on the 2010s like we do the 80s and 70s, and "flat design" would be one of the trends that mark this decade.