IOS 7: Johnny Ive changed the understanding of the Apple design
Makradar Technologies / / December 19, 2019
At the long-awaited Apple Developer Conference presented at least the long-awaited iOS 7. Impressed by what he saw well-known journalist John Gruber (John Gruber) I wrote their thoughts in Daring Fireball blog on the topic of how to change the attitude to the Apple Design under the watchful eye of Johnny Quince.
"There was no doubt that Johnny Ive able to lead the industrial design department. But will he be able to lead the Department of software development? This question tormented by Apple for the past eight months. And no wonder, the question is burning: if it will work in the company to create innovative software without you-know-who at the helm of "apple" of the ship?
Yesterday we learned the answer. This is a firm "yes" - Johnny Quince everything turned out. What is the key of success? Yes that Ive not share the concept of "iron design" and "design of software" - for him there is a design as a whole, in the light of which he looks at all the Apple products.
iOS 7 design is deeply intelligent and austere - it's hard not to notice, especially knowing that in the past, Ive studied the appearance of devices. The industrial design of all solutions is limited by physics: mass, density, size, fasteners, joints... These limitations do not exist for software design. But this space for imagination did not go to the benefit of the old design of iOS 6, for example, you click on a folder on the desktop, and under it unfolds linen. You open the Notification Center - and then again linen. It is everywhere. With hardware this trick will not work, but with the program - easily, because you can do anything you want, and to hell with the conceptual and logic in the field of software design.
Let's go back to iOS 7 design. It is built according to the rules. In this rather complex system of layers organized in a logical sequence. Yes, the use of artificial three-dimensional visual effects has come to decline, but iOS 7 this does not become flat. She remained not so much a three-dimensional appearance, as logically. Transparency it is used not only for beauty but also for the feeling of airiness. From iOS 7 Use the feeling of space and depth that is similar to what you feel like picking up a device. It's like something tangible, not the pixels behind the glass.
It seems that the conditions to a software Ive subject to the same as that for iron. And then his team was not limited to physics. And the result was a real system.
iOS 7 is not perfect. The new design structure over time will develop and become better, as it was with the original iOS outside view - a new conceptual framework already threw all the old excesses. It is radically different, yet just as intuitive. Less showy, without the "ruches" refined.
This is the first Apple product made without Jobs. And to some extent, Apple software design has become better, because Jobs like Forstall, gravitated toward the rich looking textures and an abundance of all sorts of "fishechek". To the taste of Jobs against devices did not complain, but the software... Maybe, the former head of Apple in this way to compensate for their sugar cravings? This tells search with luscious decorations: wood grain, linen, expensive artificial leather and so on. From this and the eyes may stick together. But now we see that Johnny Ive passion for sweets design does not suffer.
Software is now integrally formed with iron. Two sides of the same coin. Not industrial design and software design. Simply design.ยป