Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

iOS 7

mattgemmell.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 284 posts

Re: iOS 7

#141

Post by cheald »

runjake wrote: post #26
dylangs1030 wrote: post #16

I'm glad someone wrote a blog post like this. It's getting to be somewhat annoying how many people are whining about Windows Phone and Android similarities. Design and engineering decisions are not made in a vacuum. Android copies from iOS and vice versa - they each follow the cultural trends of smart design. I would much rather see blog posts like this - where the author considers the iOS in its own right instead of…

> It's getting to be somewhat annoying how many people are whining about Windows Phone and Android similarities. Design and engineering decisions are not made in a vacuum. I agree, but the similarities are being pointed out precisely because Apple (and their major pundits like Marco and Gruber) makes a big deal about how others have borrowed ideas from them. For example, the infamous "Redmond/Mountain View, start you…

This is it, really. There is, IMO, nothing wrong with borrowing inspiration from what your competitors do well. I think that iOS7, on the whole, is much prettier and more modern than prior versions. I think that the platform desperately needed the refresh, and if they get some of the weaker parts worked out, it's going to be a solid across-the-board upgrade for people.

The thing is, Apple fan(atic)s (the pundits and those who echo them, really) love the "Apple innovates, never copies, only bad companies without any talent copy" routine, and here we have an example where Apple has pretty blatantly ripped design elements from their competitors. For the people riding the "everything Apple produces is unique and amazing" train, iOS7 is a deep betrayal specifically because it is so familiar to things that others did first.

Re: iOS 7

#142

Post by FireBeyond »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #100
jmduke wrote: post #34

Man, iOS 7 feedback is incredibly frustrating for no reason that actually matters. I feel like I spent the past few years falling in love with flat design, on mobile and on the web -- and I read article after article from historically pro-Apple bloggers/authors explaining that no, flat design was fundamentally a bad move: the strongest metaphor is that of the phone as a tool -- that we needed skeumorphism, we need hi…

>> "(People arguing 'its just a beta, it'll obviously change over time': what happened to Apple's relentless pursuit of quality before introducing something to the public? What's the point of secrecy if you're showing off v0.8 and not v1.0?) " They haven't really introduced it to the public. They introduced it to developers at a developer conference so they can prepare their software for it. Every single iOS release…

Err. They also have placed imagery and video of it all over their (general, not developer) pages for iOS. They've provided high res imagery and video for the media. It's effectively introduced.

And I say that as someone now running iOS 7 and OSX 10.9. I see a lot of potential in both, but iOS needs a fair amount of polishing.

Re: iOS 7

#143

Post by crazygringo »

> The thing is, we’ve grown up. We don’t require hand-holding to tell us what to click or tap... iOS 7 is an iOS for a more mature consumer... who doesn’t want anything getting in the way of their content.

Even though the author is defending this, this hits the nail on the head for why I dislike this style.

I do want hand-holding to know what to click or tap. So does my mother. I don't want to have to guess what the designer wanted. I don't want to have a phone that requires me to be a "mature" consumer. I don't want to have to think when using it. And I want things to get in the way of my content -- things that help organize it, delineate it, and let me interact with it in clear and unambiguous ways. I didn't buy my phone to admire pretty pictures of my contacts -- I bought it to tap and swipe my way to getting stuff done quicker.

The original quote above isn't really about flat design -- I personally think flat design, done right, is great. The quote is about a different philosophy -- that just happens to have gone hand-in-hand with the new flat design movement. But I don't know what to call it -- an anti-interface movement? A make-the-user-guess movement? Microsoft's been doing this for a few years now; only now has Apple jumped on the bandwagon.

Re: iOS 7

#144

Post by kunai »

jmduke wrote: post #34

Man, iOS 7 feedback is incredibly frustrating for no reason that actually matters. I feel like I spent the past few years falling in love with flat design, on mobile and on the web -- and I read article after article from historically pro-Apple bloggers/authors explaining that no, flat design was fundamentally a bad move: the strongest metaphor is that of the phone as a tool -- that we needed skeumorphism, we need hi…

To me, this feels like OS X Public Beta all over again. Aqua was polarizing and many of the changes were met with elation, hostility, or utter despair. The stability and UNIX features were welcomed but everything else was shunned.

In about a year when the final release shipped, many things were fixed and polished, but people were still polarized, and many refused to budge from OS 9. About a year later, Jaguar was released, and OS X began coming into its own.

I predict the same thing will happen with iOS 7.

Re: iOS 7

#145

Post by archagon »

jmduke wrote: post #34

Man, iOS 7 feedback is incredibly frustrating for no reason that actually matters. I feel like I spent the past few years falling in love with flat design, on mobile and on the web -- and I read article after article from historically pro-Apple bloggers/authors explaining that no, flat design was fundamentally a bad move: the strongest metaphor is that of the phone as a tool -- that we needed skeumorphism, we need hi…

What Apple bloggers have you been reading? John Gruber, who is arguably the most famous Apple blogger of all, has always been a proponent of the Metro look, as well as an opponent of the kitschy skeuomorphic elements in iOS. I mean, he's been anticipating the "flattening" of iOS7 ever since Forestall went out the door!

And personally, I love the way iOS7 looks and feels from the videos, way more than my current iOS6. (Except for Game Center, don't know what's up with those bubbles.)

Re: iOS 7

#146

Post by mullingitover »

mjhagen wrote: post #88
mullingitover wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But at least battery life is also dramatically worse.

Look in the dev forum there's a reason for it, not really a fix yet, but at least it's narrowed down. Also, it's a beta and these issues are to be expected at this time.

True, and I'm not bitter about it. I think I got it sorted out by eliminating the background updates for stocks and weather, and aggressively killing any apps I'm not using.

Re: iOS 7

#147

Post by ohwp »

The discussion about style is useless because everybody is different and has a different taste.

The only thing that matters is usability. And that's where iOS7 fails. Some examples:

  On the home screen "Reminders" is barely readable.
  Receiving a phone call: You can't read the name.
  Messages: white text on a light background: bad for reading.
  The weather: barely readable.

Re: iOS 7

#148

Post by jcampbell1 »

toyg wrote: post #61

I don't care about flatness or skeutransmogrification or whatnot, but the damn thing must WORK. Look at his iMessage screen comparison [1]: yes, the old screen looks a bit geocities, but you can actually read text very well; the new screen is almost unreadable. The prime aim of iMessage is to make people read text, not to look cool. It doesn't matter if there are options to thicken the font -- the whole point of OSX/…

You can't possibly determine the legibility of font rendering designed for a 727k pixel display based on a 115k pixel screenshot.

Have you tried the current Gmail app? It uses thin fonts, and I don't find it to be a problem.

Re: iOS 7

#149

Post by eclipxe »

FireBeyond wrote: post #139
dylangs1030 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a fair response to the industry in my opinion. iOS 7 is not just "flat" - at the risk of sounding like a fanboy, it's so much more than that. You're judging it based on the most obvious first impression - the icons and such. Those can be improved, yes (especially Safari's...) but you're not reviewing the actual interface. I'm typing this comment on iOS 7 and I assure you it feels smoother. There are kinks…

As another user of iOS 7, one of those kinks - the "new" keyboard is only available in Messages.

What new keyboard?

Re: iOS 7

#150

Post by mitchty »

coldtea wrote: post #117
jmduke wrote: post #34

Man, iOS 7 feedback is incredibly frustrating for no reason that actually matters. I feel like I spent the past few years falling in love with flat design, on mobile and on the web -- and I read article after article from historically pro-Apple bloggers/authors explaining that no, flat design was fundamentally a bad move: the strongest metaphor is that of the phone as a tool -- that we needed skeumorphism, we need hi…

> People arguing 'its just a beta, it'll obviously change over time': what happened to Apple's relentless pursuit of quality before introducing something to the public? Nothing. They were always pragmatic about it, not "relentless". And it's not a beta. The final version is coming in very short time, so it will be 98% the same. What it is is a FIRST version (iteration) of the new design. It will improve in iOS 8 and…

Wait, you're saying a beta release of ios7 isn't beta? Even if it is mostly the same for gA that doesn't discount it being beta software right now.
Post reply on HN