iOS 7 Impressions – A Clean Cut
Posted by Wade Mendham (@Waderman)
With colours and design that would feel at home in the opening scroll of a video nasty VHS tape, Apple’s newest handheld operating system, iOS 7, has finally been released to the masses. The only things missing are the scan lines and VHS scratch artefacts. It’s a refresh that was not only needed, but manages to push the platform forward (visually and technologically) into the right direction for the future. It’s free, so you should probably get it if you have an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch but be warned: it is quite a change from what came earlier. Still, It holds true to the Apple design mantra while feeling like new and fresh.
Good design is consistent; it informs the user of its function while not getting in the way. Apple's iOS7 has an ‘80s feel (Reminds me of this) with neon colours and linear gradients, straight minimal shapes in logo designs and frosted glass overlays that don’t feel like they get in the way. There’s a lot of white, especially in Safari and the default mail app. It looks like a white-on-white lounge room that would have had a large white porcelain greyhound in the corner. It’s minimal, clean and consistent - the only flourishes are there to improve the user’s experience.
For current iPhone users, the slower animations for going to the home screen, opening a folder of apps, or the fade in and out when awoken could be considered a big change and maybe too slow, but the brain does need a break between tasks. It’s like the establishing shot before a scene in a film. It’s what Apple does to improve user experience; natural animations like when it introduced the bounce-back when you’ve scrolled too far in a browser.
A major improvement to me is the implementation of gestures. They’re everywhere and it’s great. You just swipe from the left to go back and from the right to go forward in the default apps. It works in Safari, mail, settings and even the music app. An initially puzzling and possibly unintuitive change is swiping down gesture to access the search bar. Not down from the top, its down anywhere in the home screen. It makes perfect sense as now you can access search from any home screen. The long awaited swipe up now opens the control panel. Quick access to toggles like wifi, bluetooth, airplane mode, rotation lock, brightness settings and a spotlight, as well as quick launches of the clock and the calculator (I’m pretty chuffed by the calculator). Swipe down from the top to access the mostly useless notifications – I only use it to see which apps have updated in the background. Oh, by the way, apps update in the background now (shut up Android users, we know). There are too many new features to list here, but then again, half the fun is discovering them for yourself.
Nothing is perfect and above criticism, so I’m sure there will be much said about iOS7. Visual design as far as user experience is concerned is a personal preference - I’m not a designer so I won’t argue specifics, but I really enjoy the clean, playful and consistent user experience. However, I don’t understand Apple’s decision to not allow users to choose its default apps. I prefer to use Safari over Chrome, but I don’t prefer the default mail app. Siri has not improved in voice recognition and speed so it’s still of no use to me. If the home button sticks there will be that bing-bong sound and an unintentional Siri launch (which I hear in the public more often than I should). Hopefully the fingerprint scanner Touch ID in the iPhone 5s will not lead to further unintended Siri sounds.
Apple has innovated on another platform and I think the design template its established will be further justified in future app designs from 3rd party designers. There’s plenty under the hood, so only time will tell if all of the new features are exciting or not (such as iBeacon and controller support), but iOS7 is pure Apple design that is not based on any previous Apple product. It shows promise and while it’s not the ‘everything for everyone’ system, that isn’t why you love or use Apple anyway. It’s a recommended download and is a reason to join (or re-join, for some of you) the iOS ecosystem. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Have you updated to iOS7? Tell us what you think of it in the comments below!
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