So iOS 7 is coming. Apple have always been about aesthetics. They usually don’t have the most powerful tech, but damn if they don’t have the prettiest. This can be seen all the way through their current line of products, from the iPhone, to the iPad to the the iMac and the Macbook range. Everything has the clean lines and clear emphasis on making a good looking piece of kit. That emphasis also is apparent in their software design, with iOS and OSX being very pretty to work with.
So, of course, with WWDC coming closer all the time, the reports on what we can expect from iOS 7 are starting to surface. After all, Apple, have said that they want developers to have a clear idea of what the latest iteration of the mobile OS will look like and be capable of.
We’d already heard a while ago that skeumorphism was on the way out after Jony Ive took charge of the design process. He’s a big proponent of more modern design aesthetics, where flat tiles and simple, clean lines are where it’s at.
So what’s the word on the street?
Well, apparently that we should be expecting a lot of black, grey and white.
Essentially Ive thinks that Skeumorphism style design looks dated quickly and loses its edge without constant updates, whereas the simpler style he’s aiming at is more timeless. After all making things in the digital world look like real world items with real world textures is very late 200Xs and there are multiple examples of OS design moving away from that, with obviously Metro from Windows being the most extreme example. Whether users of iOS will take to this change up is another thing entirely but Ive is clearly quite confident about it.
Also in the redesign is apparently an improved notifications bar that supports multi-touch gestures and better organisation. It’s also getting rid of the linen texture background in favour of a more black and white style. Adding to this is also a host of new widgets like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc. So very Android then.
Also from Android comes the scrollable wallpaper on the Home Screen, allowing you to have larger picture that reveals different parts as you move between screens. The Home Screen is also getting a visual upgrade, losing the 3d shine on the app buttons and instead flattening out and incorporating the blockier shading again. This applies across a lot of the core apps as well, giving the whole experience a much more consistent feel apparently. The lock screen will be losing it’s raised, shiney effected look, with instead a simplistic black set of rounded buttons replacing the current grid system.
As for new features, well we’ve not heard a lot about them yet, but apparently there’s a stand alone FaceTime app for the iPhone, as well as Flickr and Vimeo integration along side much more emphasis on integrating with cars for hands free useage of Siri and navigation apps. As usual with an update of iOS, it’s also likely we’ll see an update on the developer side of things, which is where we at Kumulos are definitely most interested.
