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

iOS 7 before and after screenshots

tapfame.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 165 posts

Re: iOS 7 before and after screenshots

#21

Post by mortenjorck »

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.

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.

Re: iOS 7 before and after screenshots

#22

Post by chasing »

These mostly look average at best, downright bad at worst. Before and after.

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.

Re: iOS 7 before and after screenshots

#23

Post by ajross »

pavlov wrote: post #4

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. 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. It's certainly ok by me that app developers are taking more liberties in making their app…

I noticed that too. Lots of the new apps have a distinctly "Android" feel to them, even to the point of Fancy having what looks clearly like an Android menu button (though not in the standard Android location).

A fun flame war to start (i.e. let's please not) would be to argue whether this is due to app designers feeling an increasing need to target Android or whether it's because the truth is that iOS's "new look" seems distinctly Jellybean-like to an app designer.

Re: iOS 7 before and after screenshots

#25

Post by Edvik »

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.

Re: iOS 7 before and after screenshots

#26

Post by HeyItsJames »

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.

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.

Re: iOS 7 before and after screenshots

#27

Post by HeyItsJames »

chasing wrote: post #22

These mostly look average at best, downright bad at worst. Before and after. 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 thoughts exactly. A lot of these designs came down to putting lipstick on a pig. Yep, it's still a pig.

Re: iOS 7 before and after screenshots

#28

Post by badman_ting »

pavlov wrote: post #4

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. 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. It's certainly ok by me that app developers are taking more liberties in making their app…

Perhaps, but overall it seems like bad strategy to avoid doing something because you're afraid it might help competitors. You do whatever you think is the best thing.

Plus, Apple has been doomed for a long time now. Ditto the iPhone and iOS. And yet...

Re: iOS 7 before and after screenshots

#30

Post by HNLogInShit »

untog wrote: post #6

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. 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 a…

The new tab bar is spindly, low-contrast crap with no clear demarcation between it and the rest of the screen above it. If you had glyphs amongst the scrolling screen content above it, there would be NO distinction.

The iOS 7 GUI is an unmitigated debacle.

Post reply on HN