iOS 7 will be flat, as in flat design. After months of speculation on where Jony Ive would drive the look of the system software after the company famously ditched iOS VP Scott Forstall last November, the word is that a blocky, bold-colored look will be replacing the faux stitched-leather-and-aluminum skeuomorphism of current and previous OSes.
Some experts feel, however, that speculation of round versus square iOS features misses the point, losing that Apple magic in the details, rather than assessing the deep innovation Apple needs to get its groove back. Skeuomorphism, and how much of it the new iOS (and by extension, the new Apple) will include is just one of many tools at the giant's disposal, and fangirls and fanboys are going to expect Ive to do more than just axe the faux-retro skins that he's believed to disdain.
Is a new-look design for iOS 7 what really matters for Apple? Maggie Hendrie, the Chair of Interaction Design at Pasadena, CA's Art Center, doesn't think so.
"The very fact that we’re talking about who’s going to design the icons, who’s going to design the applications and the operating system is a little bit of a concern. Because that’s not innovative," she explains. "What I’m interested in is not so much what they’re going to do about skeuomorphism, and those awful leather book pieces and daily planners, but a couple things that Apple didn’t hit the ground running. Like for today, Wii and Microsoft own gestural."
"Apple kinda missed television and missed social," she continues. "I’d be concerned that they’d miss natural user interfaces because they’re busy getting rid of skeuomorphism."
With Ive's vague new Human Interface title, and innovation as one of Apple's core competencies, Hendrie's concerns may have merit. Some attribute Apple's recent Wall Street decline to their iterative routine with its products, like the iPhone 5. The iPad and even the heavily predicted Apple "smart watch" can be seen as an extension of that same line, which launched almost six years ago.
Others take the stance that the moves matter because it gives Apple a jolt as a design innovation firm. With Ive's new human interface duties, the acclaimed industrial designer is now at the helm of just about everything consumers will see. While his feelings for — or distaste of — skeuomorphism has been the subject of speculation, many predict that we’ll see the end of Forstall’s faux-leather wrapped apps. Beyond that, it’s hard to know what else will change. But from now on, it all starts with design.
“At a broad level, Apple has been pretty outstanding because they led by design,” says Kristian Simsarian, chair of California College of the Arts’ undergraduate interaction design program and an IDEO fellow. “That’s really been a great credit to Steve Jobs, because he was one of the few business leaders that would actually make bold decisions, that didn’t necessarily have the quantitative backup which most business leaders want.”
Simsarian hints that a more cohesive and design-centric leadership could prevent problems like the Apple Maps fiasco — which he sees as the company's first serious mistake since the Jobs era — as compared to a scattered focus driven by competing engineering goals.
“Engineering is a very evidence-based thing, and design is a very qualitative thing,” he says.
But Apple built its brand design-first, and its work on iOS 7 likely represents a return to that.
“You can take the amazing skills of engineers, the kind of, make it more reliable, make it faster, make it smaller, and put them in service of making it more meaningful, useable and delightful,” says Simsarian. “And then we win. We as Apple users, and Apple shareholders, and every other organization that’s trying to do something similar.”
