Here’s my opinion as a Graphic Designer. Despite really wanting to like the redesign, I have a few issues with it. First the icons. As Josh said in the article, where’s the cohesiveness of the design? Some of the icons display flat iconography such as the camera icon, while others, “game center” are detailed, glossy, bubbles with catchlights. It just feels off.
My other main issue is with the overuse of the frosted transparencies. From the keyboard to the control center, it’s everywhere. Transparencies give a sense of depth. Depth does not = flat. That aside, the gaussian blur/frosted glass look is just more skeuomorphism, that Apple tried to eliminate.
Like I said, I really wanted to like the redesign. I’ve been looking forward to this year’s WWDC for months. But, from a pure design standpoint, it’s not appealing.
Transparencies do not lend to the “flat design” idea. With transparencies you get a great sense of depth, the opposite of flat. I like the new color palette, but why keep the icons in rounded-corner boxes?
I thought about keeping my GS3 for another year, but if this story is true, I might just upgrade. either way my next phone will be stock Android out of the box.
