The "after" screenshots don't seem to have anything in common anymore. Some of the apps look like Android, some look like Windows Phone, some look like Palm webOS.<p>The previous iterations at least shared a few button styles and navigation bar styles, but now it seems like everyone has taken the opportunity to reinvent those too.<p>It's certainly ok by me that app developers are taking more liberties in making their apps look unique. But if I were running the iOS show at Apple, I'd probably be worried about this development: if the visual presence of the OS disappears entirely from apps, it becomes that much less scary to pick up an Android phone because the apps won't look any different there.
I feel like Apple learned the wrong lesson from the huge flap last year that suddenly jammed "skeuomorphism" into all our vocabularies. There's nothing wrong, IMHO, with UI that looks like a polished, compact control panel. The problem was UI that looked like a rodeo in an office-supply warehouse.<p>I do like Android's "floating cyberspace icons" approach, but I liked Apple's "UFO hi-fi panel" look too, and it's a shame to see a former design leader becoming such a follower. On the other hand, it's delicious irony to see an enthusiastic tosser of look-and-feel lawsuits reduced to stealing from the same people they've been suing, so it balances out.
Wow. Hipmunk is a great example, in my opinion, of how flat can be bad by removing so many visual cues.<p>The old one is easy to see, understand, and instantaneously "grok", because of the depth cues and shading. The new one is a mess of plain colored boxes, where you have to spend time figuring out what is a header, what is a row, etc. -- it's not instantly obvious. The prices are clearly clickable on the left, on the right I'd never guess they were (if they are). So much flatness just makes the screen to hard to figure out.
Few of these look better, IMO. And I'm definitely not seeing a lot of consistency in design. That said, many of them weren't great in the first place anyway.<p>One clear trend: getting rid of the bottom tab bar. I will mourn that loss - the top left corner is the least accessible place on the screen, and Apple saw fit to put the most important button (Back) there. The bottom bar was a very accessible shortcut in many apps. Although many faulted Android for having a back button, it's actually incredibly convenient to have it accessible in all apps.
These mostly look average at best, downright bad at worst. Before and after.<p>And, kids: "Making something look like iOS 7" does not absolve you from your duty to use good UX and to think about the "why" behind your visual design. Shitty design skinned to look like iOS 7 remains shitty design.
My first reaction was that there was no curation, no filter here, given the broad range of UI quality (both before and after), but then I realized this collection was even more interesting because of it.<p>While Hipmunk, for example, clearly has a team of UX and UI designers, and RecordOrders is almost certainly the design work of a single Cocoa programmer, I'd say the latter actually improved by a greater margin. Hipmunk already had a very nice pre-7 approach which they translated expertly to the new design language, but RecordOrders' awkward color fields and cramped buttons benefit greatly from the enforced minimalism.
Most of these look MUCH better after the redesign. And, surprisingly, they look a lot like Android apps. For years and years Apple was way ahead of Android on app design, but now I think an app that follows the iOS 7 design guidelines and the Android design guidelines will look about the same.
Fascinating. The new designs seem to look very W8 Metro.<p>I confess an idle curiosity as to why the art style shift and if there's a genuine change in design philosophy (e.g., Modern vs. Romantic type watershed moments) or if it's just a flavor of the day shift (I can often date websites and books by their visual design elements, but it doesn't mean that there was a fundamental philosophy shift).
Personally, I like the redesigned "flat" app design. However, in the case of Photo Investigator, it seems that the "flat" design is worse off. The buttons are no longer visible due to the cluttered background.
Wow, that Photo Investigator after shot is terrible: <a href="http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple6/v4/cc/ad/2c/ccad2c57-de45-45f5-9d0d-63e43020a54f/screen568x568.jpeg" rel="nofollow">http://a2.mzstatic.com/us/r30/Purple6/v4/cc/ad/2c/ccad2c57-d...</a> Are we supposed to read that glaring hot red on a cluttered map background?
Maybe it's just me but a lot of these apps look really shoddy and half assed. I can't believe these are real apps that people expect customers to pay for.
I realize this means nothing, but I love coming to the comments here, and the top 3 comments are effectively:<p>1. Hate it.
2. Meh.
3. Love it.<p>Yes, I'm summarizing, but I just found it highly amusing.
The message I'm getting from these examples is that designers will need to invest a lot more effort into UX under iOS 7 compared to 6.<p>To me it seems obvious which teams have spent a lot of time reworking their app to fit the language and who have just slapped on a new coat of paint and hoped for the best. I think approaching my apps from the ground up rather than 'reskinning' the current designs will work best for me.<p>Unfortunately it seems finding ways to take elements away from the UI has stumped a few of these teams for the time being.<p>I'm predicting fairly large teething problems while we all adjust based on this group. There's definitely potential for growth for the guys that can nail it from day one though!
I can't be the only person to think that iOS 7 does not look good. Right? A lot of the "after" screenshots do not look any better. I'd say some of the after screenshots look worse!
EVERYTHING beautiful is skeuomorphic. The page turn in iBooks, page curl in maps, cover flow, the shred animation in passbook, the date picker in iOS, rotating settings gear (when updating iOS), the Time Machine interface in OS X, photo borders and shadows in iWorks documents, etc.<p>This is not surprising, because our sense of beauty comes from the physical world.<p>So what is the problem with skeuomorphism?<p>Tech enthusiasts would like their phones to look like something from the future, not something from the past. But ordinary everyday people prefer for it to look like things they are already familiar with.<p>Tech enthusiasts worry that the skeuomorphism was getting totally out of hand, particularly where the UI metaphor started limiting functionality (e.g. an address database that's limited to what a Rolodex can do, rather than exploiting what is possible with a computer). But this is not really true. For example, iBooks has instant search, something only possible with a computer.<p>Some people say skeuomorphism looks tacky. This is partly true. Skeuomorphism is hard to do. When done poorly it does look tacky. But when done well it looks very beautiful.<p>By removing all skeuomorphism Apple is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
I wish they would have been more consistent with their screenshots (at least per app). Its kind of annoying to compare what is clearly an iPhone 4-sized screenshot (with no status bar) to an iPhone 5-sized screenshot with status bar.
Whoa, a cell phone number was included in one of the screenshots? That can't be good. (Cobook Contacts)<p>Also, the interface for Photo Investigator is horrible. It's really hard to read the buttons at the bottom!
I consider myself rather forward-facing developer when it comes to design, and have, as a general rule, enjoyed the new interface design choices in iOS7. However, I'm worried that this Oddysean journey into "flat design" is counter-intuitive to some basic UI principles.<p>I find that the bottom toolbar is harder to read now, and requires more eye-scanning to figure out what the different icons do. It's not as pronounced and grounded anymore. Also, the top navigation is less intuitive, and more subtle. I'm also finding information and text presentation to suffer as well. As much as I hated the beveled edges and skeumorphic design of the previous iOS, it was much easier to navigate. I'm sure companies and designers will work some of these early-stage kinks out of the interfaces, but I can definitely see a drop UI flow quality and information presentation with the move to this new interface design.
Looks much better. iOS used to look like Mac OS from the mid 90's, now it looks like it belongs in this decade. It does look more Android and WP8 ish, but I consider that a good thing.
Some of these don't seem "iOS 7ish" at all. Content in shaded boxes (within yet more shaded boxes!) is very much <i>not</i> the iOS 7 way. And strong lines separating content are rarely a good fit with the new look.<p>The ones that seem like they "get" it look much better to my eye. Lighter, cleaner, simpler, more open.
Awful, just awful. Very surprised to see a company that has design as such a focus blow it like this. The flat design doesn't help the user (imho) and actually hurts him/her. It takes longer to understand and discern between different elements in apps. Can't wait for iOS 8.
One thing to keep in mind is that things 'feel' different on the phone than they do in screen shots. I was pretty 'meh' about iOS7 until I installed the GM on my phone. It still has some weird spots, but over all it looks a hell of a lot better 'live' than it does in pictures. The transitions effects are nice, the removal of skeuomorphism is awesome and the operation is nice. It is not 'revolutionary' but it is a nice evolution from iOS6
I have to say the game has just started. Just like my previous comment on another thread (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6387986" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6387986</a>):<p>As I wrote in my past blog(<a href="http://mattzlw.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/ios-7-beta-ux-thinki..." rel="nofollow">http://mattzlw.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/ios-7-beta-ux-thinki...</a>): "Making users think which part of the iOS application I am in less, instead, a more strong feeling in one single place Apple provides." Apple made their move. Whether the rebalance can be reasonably achieved or not, how and when remain uncertain. I do think, in terms of graphic design choices, it seems to have fewer variables. But, perhaps this is where a more dynamic 2D physics UI engine comes to help.<p>I also would like to add:<p>A playful, responsive, hence visually less heavy UI system may wait ahead. But I don't think it could be the same scale of positive feeling like the original iOS UI brought to us years ago. That was like achieving from 0% to 65%. This time, 75% to 85% maybe? Both are not easy jobs to do though. And Apple's continuous effort on this at a systematic level is a good thing for users.
I think that the inconsistency of these designs is important. It reminds me of when the App Store was first opened for the public and the v1.0 of the apps we use today were launching. Apple has, effectively redone their entire ecosystem, design-wise, with iOS7. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, especially once the designs start to become a bit more consistent.
One thing I'm seeing on Hipmunk specifically is lower contrast and lack of shading has to be made up for by white space - the after seems to have a lot less information on screen, while still being (at least in my perspective) harder to read at a glance.
All I saw was a lot of bright white, something I try to avoid because it makes my eyes hurt. I kinda annoyed at apple for messing up an interface I really liked, I'm gonna have a hard time recommending it to un-tech savvy friends and family because (in my opinion) all this flatness makes it harder to use...<p>Up until this point I always recommended the iphone to anyone who just wanted a phone that worked, and didn't want to have to worry about bugs, or confusing UI (even though personally I'm a windows phone guy, I can't recommend the OS because it doesn't yet match the full feature set of iOS or Android).
The number take-away from this for me is wow, Apple wields an awesome power. They move to change design conventions, and boom! - a worldwide ecosystem of designers and developers scramble to retrofit every aspect of their complex applications to match the changes. Microsoft could only dream of having that power. I've been on Windows Phone for over a year now and at this point in time they seem years away from even having anything resembling this sort of following. The difference of course is that one phone feels exciting and dynamic to own, and the other feels completely and utterly barren.
The comparisons are pretty striking. Apple really set the standard for smartphone design and it took competitors quite a while to catch up. I have an Android phone and iPad and I think both design approaches have their benefits and drawbacks.<p>It was probably easier to design an app using the iOS 6 and lower defaults and have it look nice, while the completely flat design requires careful use of whitespace and color and differentiate the various UI sections and elements. In the long-term, best practices will be better documented and flat designs won't be a problem.
I finished updating my app to iOS7 and I think it looks way better than most items in that page: <a href="http://pic.twitter.com/QSruUkzMzr" rel="nofollow">http://pic.twitter.com/QSruUkzMzr</a>
We shouldn't forget that these are all iterations on existing designs, and that at least partially the improved readability/understandability(there's a better word that is escaping me here) is in part due to this in addition to the flatness. It isn't just "flat" that's doing it here, a lot of these examples are also making better choices with whitespace and data presentation in addition to downplaying gradients (chatter moving to cards and ditching the tabbar for example).
I'd say most of these are arguable which is better.<p>Except for Photo Investigator. The before picture has readable buttons on the bottom. The after picture is pretty much completely unreadable.
Don't care for the white backgrounds everywhere. Going to be even more difficult to use at night. Wish there was a way to choose a theme, like we had in the 90's.
In some ways iOS7 looks cleaner and more subtle but to me it is generally MUCH worse for understanding what to do (like when MS Office went away from menus and to the tool strip junk). The old version used blank space better, it was clear what elements could be clicked as buttons were clearly buttons, content was more separated from control, etc.<p>Some of the icons/fonts/colors are clearly improved but in general I think it’s a fail. And, to me, flat looks cheap.
apps that mostly use standard controls look much better to me (instapaper, quip, punjabi dictionary, stamps for direct mail) but anything with significant custom controls looks terrible. a bunch of them look like they belong on android. i guess that's cause for optimism as it means apps can look great and designers should eventually manage to get a feel for the platform
So how hard was it for the developers to support iOS 7? If they used the correct core UI elements, the transition was seamless[~], right? Because with Android (until recent versions) such a major update in UI would have been a disaster (not that develoeprs care much, there aren't even strict UI guidelines).<p>[~] edit: -smoothless | +seamless
One thing I noticed a lot of these updates are forgetting to include are changes to use the stock keyboard available in iOS7. It pains me to see the default iOS6 keyboard still used in iOS7 in focus in inputs.<p>Devs, please remember to make the changes necessary so that the new keyboard is used in your application.
For me, this is good. Generally speaking, I like the right side more, although there were one or two (notably Salesforce and Hipmunk) which I thought regressed a little. In both cases, the lower information density on the right hand side is the problem.
It looks VERY similar to the Windows Phone OS now.<p>(Please don't vote me down - really, this is just my honest opinion. I actually think the Windows Phone OS looks very nice although it is not very usable in practice. Personally I have an android phone)
Steve Jobs is turning in his grave. All of these look so random and interchangeable to me that it could probably even have effects on the common 'iOS first' mentality. What was so special about the iPhone again?
I feel like the befores are significantly better. The gradients and heavier weights divide up the space better, and let you easily find the natural boundaries. In the afters almost everything blends together.
Most look like Android apps to me, whats not showing here is that most of these have shifted to using left side pull out menus, just like Android.<p>More cross platform design consistency is a good thing in my opinion.
Semi-unrelated: To me, this page of screenshots did a better job of helping me discover new iPhone apps -- than any other attempt I've seen. And it's unintentional.
Can I just say that I <i>hate</i> icons lacking text. I hate trying to decide what the designer meant by an arrow going up vs down. What exactly do "3 lines" mean?
here's what the updated Zillow app that Tim Cook featured looks like <a href="http://www.zillowblog.com/2013-09-10/coming-soon-zillow-apps-for-ios-7/" rel="nofollow">http://www.zillowblog.com/2013-09-10/coming-soon-zillow-apps...</a><p>disclosure: Z employee