It’s still kind of derivative from Apple’s own redesign. Sorry if that sounds harsh but now that we’re on this narrative path, any design that apes the iOS 7 house style has lost before it’s even started.
It would be great to see a redesign of iOS 6, on your own unique path.
I like iOS’s new house style, I just think it looks cool and goes with the hardware very well. However, it’s no more an escape from real life metaphors than any other version.
What’s really happened to the metaphors in iOS 7 is that they’ve all turned into very chic monochrome line drawings as apposed to more detailed artwork. The Mail app still uses drawings of boxes to denote an inbox, and a paper aeroplane to denote a ‘sent’ message, nothing there has really changed. It’s funny to think that in a world where very few people still send paper letters to each other, that this new system of communication would remain so utterly dependant on relating to it’s predecessor.
The true step away from skeuomorphism would be the step that takes us away from playing pictionary with our devices, and towards a newly learned language of arbitrary symbols. Something standardised and with a clear grammatical structure using maybe colour, size or line weight as a way of dividing the symbols up into instantly recognisable families.
No, you’re saying that Mavericks is outdated tripe and that Windows 8 runs circles around it.
Exactly what about Mavericks counts as outdated tripe? In what areas do you see Windows 8 running circles around Mavericks? You’ve gone into zero detail on these assertions so far.
I didn’t guess much, but I did say that layout design in apps would become more important in an iOS with less skeuomorphism. I think that has started to happen to some extent with apps like Calendar and Photos, though I was expecting something more fun and quirky from Apple, a bit of Bauhaus print influence.
The circles and rounded rectangles used in Apple’s Control Center describe a hierarchy of function between toggles and mini-apps.
For us that may be unimportant because we already understand these functions, not just for iOS but even in the context of other mobile OS designs, so it’s easy for us to forget the significance of this structure. However for a new user only just getting to grips with these functions and their meaning for the first time, your concept would be a very confusing introduction.
It’s really important for designers to remember how much more they know than the people they design for, and to put themselves in the shoes of someone who doesn’t have the same insights.
