6 Reasons You’re Going To Love iOS 7

Why, then, did so many people form negative opinions of the refresh, Jony Ive’s homework and Apple’s current state of affairs within hours of the company’s WWDC 2013 announcement? Is it because Apple are an “all or nothing” company, worshipped by rich kids and hated by idiots?
Regardless, you can stop whining now. iOS 7 is going to be just fine.
You might have only seen a few images, perhaps Apple’s rather short 7-minute introduction video that’s chock-full of the usual flowery fluff we expect from product reveals. Even the developer copy is sorely in need of work, but then that’s to be expected from beta software.



The take-away here is that it’s not finished yet but when it is, oh my, are you going to love it. User interfaces aren’t just about aesthetics, but also about interactions and responsiveness. Simply seeing a video of how something is supposed to work does not do it justice, and as with Apple’s usual design – the marriage of input and response is wonderful.
Springboard animations are one of the many examples I could call upon, and make for an example you can see for yourself in Apple’s marketing materials. Tap an app, and you will “zoom” into it as it launches. Press the home button to exit an app and this animation repeats in reverse, zooming out of the corresponding springboard area for that app. These animations feel like more than gimmickry, instead providing a degree of feedback that matches the UI. Interactions like this make iOS 7 feel like a layered interface which you “dip into” with each app, panel or system function you trigger.

Passing judgement before trying something out (even seeing someone use something) is a mug’s game. Even the most reluctant Apple sympathisers can admit credit where credit’s due, and take my word for it: there’s a lot of credit due here.
Get rid of your faux-leather couch, rip up the wood-effect lino and let iOS 7 guide you to a skeumorph-free existence with its sexy new translucent layers. I’ll admit that the translucency doesn’t look like much to shout about in screenshots, but after spending some time with the layered approach I’ve been well and truly converted.
Unlike the Windows Phone interface, iOS does not use solid blocks of colour. This gives it quite a different feel to Microsoft’s OS, with iOS 7 having very “light and airy” feel with an almost visible sense of “depth” that is missing (by design, they are different after all) from Microsoft’s modern UI.

The interface wouldn’t have been any less usable with solid blocks of colour everywhere, after all, translucency is quite a way off transparency. Colours are instead blurred into fuzzy, frosted-glass-like backgrounds and the illusion of a layered interface is given a final push with the inclusion of the parallax effect. The translucency adds nothing in the way usability but merely serves to make the time you spend navigating the device more pleasant. A lot more pleasant.
No, I’m not referring to performance or screen resolution but the long-awaited marriage of hardware and software aesthetics. Mac computers have traditionally “just worked” thanks to carefully controlled hardware and iOS itself was designed to device specifications. At last it finally looks like the department that designed the physical metal and glass iPhone were wearing the same hats as the team that did the software.

That “frosted” back piece on your iPhone 5 makes sense now! The understated colour schemes of black and white (let’s forget the entire iPod Touch range for a moment) contrasting beautifully with the playful colour scheme, bold icons and a radical departure from faux-textures and drop-shadows. iDevice software and hardware visuals are finally joined in elegant uniformity, and it only took the entire life span of the iPhone to make it happen.