> On Tue, Sep 24, 2013 at 7:39 PM, Rick Mann <rm...@latencyzero.com> wrote: > >> On Sep 24, 2013, at 17:04 , Luther Baker <lutherba...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> The new UI is > > better overall.
I won't render a "better" or "worse", or even a "like" or "dislike". I've been repeatedly reminded of the fact that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and there will inevitably be people strewn across the like-it-don't-like-it spectrum. Aesthetic preference is highly subjective -- some will like it and others hate it. Also, there's some that will like anything new and different, and there are others that will hate anything new and different. I will render this much of an opinion, that I couldn't be more in favor of the general design philosophy, of promoting content and demoting chrome. I personally prefer minimalism, and so a cleaner and less cluttered presentation is a more pleasing aesthetic for me. That said, I think there is a fairly objective point that can be made: in the effort to un-clutter and minimize the chrome, the recognizability of controls and intuitiveness of function has been made, in places, more ambiguous. My limited observation of long-time iPhone users who have upgraded to iOS 7 is that things they were used to doing weren't made more intuitive, but less so -- they couldn't figure out how to do it anymore, and had to hunt, play around, in order to get their bearings again on how to do things they've always done. Whether it unfolds as a minor adjustment for a short time and then more efficient use, or consistent confusion remains to be seen. I find all this pretty interesting, as having followed iOS design guidelines from the beginning (original iPhone SDK), there are a few points which Apple has done a complete 180 on in iOS 7: 1. Maximizing iconification in your app. Prior to iOS 7, Apple strongly recommended representing control functions using universally recognizable icons. Icons not only can transcend language barriers, but they also help minimize and make consistent real estate used by controls. iOS 7 now trends away from icons, and design guidelines now recommend text. This seems a bit interesting that Apple would change course on this, as universal design (think airports, freeways, bathrooms, and any other heavily traveled international venue) tend to trend away from text and more toward symbolization. 2. Minimization of text for controls. Prior to iOS 7, Apple recommended minimizing text in your app, with the philosophy that the design should imply its function without need for explanation. Somewhat the inverse of iconification, using text by definition is presents function controls that are inconsistent in size used, and whose meaning is pinned to a particular language, and therefore must be translated for universal understanding. But in addition, following the theme of intuitive distinction between controls and content, using text, especially without borders or varied texture, causes the control text to blend with content text, which starts to defeat the goal of being highly intuitive, with recognizable metaphors that are understood at a glance. Whether these reversals are good or bad, I suppose that's for users to decide. For me personally, I prefer screen design to be universally recognizable at a glance -- what the logical divisions of the screen are, what are controls, what is content, where one begins, and one ends. Aesthetic preferences aside, I can't reach the conclusion that IOS 7 has further distilled these things for the user (nor have I observed this to be the case with the few who have given me their iOS 7 feedback), but rather has blurred them. In certain areas, it may feel cleaner because the chrome isn't so heavy (and I believe this is generally the case where the content isn't text-heavy), but in others (usually where the content is text-heavy, like Mail), it feels very text-heavy and my eye has to work to identify what text is content and what text are controls, and the dividing lines for each screen element. Anyway, I didn't intend to come down on any side of the I-like/don't-like debate, but I do think there are some things which can be said about the iOS 7 design changes which aren't entirely subjective. Brad _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: https://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to arch...@mail-archive.com
