Apple’s aesthetic skills went off the rails

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Oliver Peters] “Huh? That makes no sense in the context of a UI discussion.”

You said there’s a schism.

Adobe Acrobat and Adobe After Effects probably don’t check in with each other to match UIs, probably similar to how all of Apple can’t match UIs across all software.

[Oliver Peters] “But, UI design IS being unified within the CC apps.”

A bit. There is certainly some visual cohesion, but they still work very differently across each app even if the buttons look the same. And then there’s Speedgrade. 🙂

[T. Payton]

As a graphic designer I must say that I’m not in complete agreement with the direction Apple took in iOS 7, the icon margins especially. We just dissected some of the elements with my fellow creative director a few minutes ago. Much of it looks amateurish. However, design is very subjective. We were given a few general rules by “our designer” on what is pleasing. Balance. Symmetry. Clear Focus. Variety. Contrast. The rest is fair game and very much dependent on the cultural norms of design.

(A great example of how our culture effects us is my when my son was in 3th grade and leaned I was a designer. He said with great enthusiasm, “So dad, you draw things and get the laminated too!”. To him a piece of artwork was only done when it was laminated.)

Overall however, design is about logical thought and a reason for why something is done the way it is. Sometimes us designers try to do something new and, while it looks great to us, may be a complete disaster to others. That may be the case for some of the design elements for iOS 7. But Apple is now bringing to the masses design trends that were already bubbling. Shadows were overused, as were feathered edges. Embossing is defiantly out. White and airy is all the rage. Photography is also playing a much more prominent role in design as is non photorealistic illustration. (Look at the Vimeo home page. Or Google Chrome start page. Can you say flat!)

I agree too that Microsoft did a very good job with “metro” and they were very good at creating something wasn’t a rip off of iOS, which Android was. With that said, I have to hand it to Apple for putting out iOS 7 the way they did. A very bold move. You can bet that there were and are MANY naysayers at Apple, picking apart the design. Because Apple is full of designers.

(BTW. I think you could apply this thought to FCPX as well. Apple was very bold to put it out there with the simplified interface and dark design. Now when something like Logic X, or Resolve 10 released that minimal black design looks very pro. I’ll bet we see the same thing in the next few years with the “flat” design that we see in iOS 7.)

Also, I happen to be working on a trade show both for a new iPhone app and trying to keep with the iOS 7 flat design is very difficult. It is driving me crazy in fact.

Just my 2 cents. Great thread topic.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Oliver Peters]

[T. Payton] “I agree too that Microsoft did a very good job with “metro” and they were very good at creating something wasn’t a rip off of iOS, which Android was. With that said, I have to hand it to Apple for putting out iOS 7 the way they did. A very bold move. You can bet that there were and are MANY naysayers at Apple, picking apart the design. Because Apple is full of designers. “

Ironically, Apple is coming to this flat design trend rather late in the game. Not only Windows, but also Canonical with Ubuntu have been there for a while. In the video world, Quantel has ALWAYS used the flat design look. So too have Autodesk, The Foundry and even Adobe.

I think the Apple approach isn’t totally about flatness, but also the re-introduction of color. They’ve been on the dark, grey, metallic, sophisticated design style for quite awhile – hardware and software. iOS7 and other things point to Ive trying to return Apple back to the candy-colored first gen iMac era mentality. More “playful”, I guess.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Bret Williams]

So annoyed I upgraded my iPad 3. Apparently it’s too old to have the cool blur bgrnd in notification center and control center. Even though it’s a whole 6 mo older than the current iPad. Makes you realize just how lame much of the ios7 interface is without the blur. Ios6 stood on its own. I loved the folders. Ios7 folders really suck. Inefficient, ugly, and not very communicative. The app switcher is even worse. Ugh.

But yet I’ll be ordering my phone at 3am. But I deserve it. I’m living with a 4.

[Chris Harlan]

[Oliver Peters] ” iOS7 and other things point to Ive trying to return Apple back to the candy-colored first gen iMac era mentality. More “playful”, I guess.
“

And most obvious among those other things would be the 5C.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Bret Williams] “Ios7 folders really suck. Inefficient, ugly, and not very communicative. The app switcher is even worse.”

I’ll give you the folders. Not a big fan of them, either. The grey is too grey.

But I find the app switcher, while not super pretty, is much more functional than iOS6, and much easier to close apps as well without all the shaking chiclets.

[Burt Hazard]

Actually I guess I’m sort of mixed on Apple’s new design strategy as well. I don’t know how long it took me to tweak the settings in Mountain Lion to tame that kitty to make it behave more like Snow Leopard (actually I do have a Snow Leopard partition on my MacBook Pro as well, but that is mainly due to discovering that I still had a couple of PPC apps like FXHome’s VisionLab Studio). As for the “Dark Linen” BG, don’t even get me started on that travesty. Every time I open up Motion 5 (which otherwise I love) that BG in the Canvas irritates me beyond belief even I suppose it is a stupid little detail. I even downloaded the Logonix app to change the BG of the login screen.

[Bret Williams] “I mean, they brought us the “desktop.” “

That’s true of course, well with Steve “borrowing” the “paperless office” paradigm from Xerox PARC. And it is true that “classic” FCP is slightly skeuomorphic with its “burnished aluminum” panels and scrubber wheel, etc. I guess I wouldn’t mind so much if Apple just gave you a choice, i.e. if in Mavericks you could toggle the “skins” of the Calendar and Notes apps to either “computer streamlined” or “steam-punk retro” or whatever.

Having said all that I’m sick of my dumb-phone and am seriously thinking of purchasing one of the new candy-flavored iPhones, either the Blueberry or the Lime one.