IOS 7: The Great Debate

Despite some criticisms, iOS 7 shines with depth and color.

The wait is over. After more than three months of anticipation, we no longer have to stare longingly at the images at the images on Apple.com or pore through beta release notes to get our fix – on September, 18, iOS 7 was unleashed into the wild, and Apple user’s everywhere were finally able to get their fingers on all the new features. People have understandably been eager to update – 200 million of them hit the download button over the first few days alone – and based on the early reaction, most are liking what Jony Ive’s done with the place (in site of some minor complaints) Apple routinely touts hundreds of new features in its annual iOS refreshes, but there’s never been one quite like this before. Though we can usually barrel through the new stuff in just a few minutes, iOS 7 is whole new animal, a ground-up redesign that thrusts Apple’s mobile operating system into the future and sets the stage for years of enhancements.



But for everything that’s changed, there’s one thing that Apple hasn’t messed with: usability. There are a couple of new gestures here and there, but for the most part, iOS 7 behaves exactly as it has for the past six years. At it’s WWDC introduction, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi described it as “getting an all-new device that you already know how to use.” it’s clear the company went to great lengths to preserve navigation, even if the operation of specific gesture triggers has been modified.

Actions that you’ve mindlessly used for years will make you stop in your tracks when you see them for the first time in iOS 7: Opening a new tab in Safari. Double-tapping the home button to bring up the app switcher. Browsing through the images in your camera roll.

It’s all part of the stunning new design that Apple has brought to every square pixel of iOS 7. Everything from the dock to the Notification Center has received a visual makeover, removing any traces of skeumorphism, and stripping each interface down to its simplest, most essential pieces.

But most new users will need a little time to appreciate just how much better everything is. It can definitely be a little overwhelming, especially after that first unlock. While the home screen may be essentially the same. Apple has introduced an entirely new palette in iOS 7, one that’s significantly brighter than before. App icons still adhere to the same general color scheme (green for Phone and Messages; blue for Weather, etc.), but they’ve been completely re-stylized, for a flatter, simpler motif. They’re the first things anyone notices, and not always in a good way.

Barely a day after the iOS 7 update hit the streets, musician Miley Cyrus summed up the negative reaction in a terse tweet to her 14 million followers: “I hate the iPhone update.” It’s an easy snap-judgement to make (we know people that cringed the first time they saw the icons, too), but as you dive deeper into iOS 7, it all begins to make a little more sense.

There are essentially five layers to iOS 7: Notification Center, Control Center, apps, icons, and wallpapers. This isn’t necessarily new – we always pulled the Notification Center drawer down over the home screen – but Apple has given much more attention to the hierarchy, creating distinct levels of translucency to illustrate where you are.

It’s this depth and dimensions baked into iOS 7 that really make the new colors stand out. The parallax effect of the wallpaper gives you an illusion of depth without the use of shadows, while the glassiness of the new Control Center lets you see shades of icons below it – small shots of colors that blend with the background to create a rich Gaussian blur. Even the nearly opaque Notification Center still lets some brighter shades peek through.

It’s a subtle, remarkable effect, and one that’s inherent to the experience – so much so that Apple even built a less-graphics-intensive version for the iPhone 4′s inferior chip. Color is far more important to the iOS 7 interface than it was to iOS 6, and developers are already beginning to adapt to the new style.

The same goes for the apps themselves. There aren’t a ton of new features in Apple’s stock apps – iTunes Radio, a few pretty camera filters, and Notification Center’s Today summary are the main highlights – but each one of them feels brand-new, with carefully redesigned interfaces, more intuitive navigation, and sick animations that set a new standard for design and functionality.

Safari is certainly the standout, with a gorgeous tab view and disappearing buttons and bars that give websites more screen real estate than ever before, but even basic apps like Messages and Notes take full advantage of the new fonts and layered keyboards.

The star of the show, however, may be multitasking. Ever since iOS 4, we’ve been design with static icons and tiny X’s to switch between apps while our jailbreaking and Android friends flaunt fantastic full-screen multitasking interfaces. IOS 7 levels the playing field with a dramatic overhaul that transforms the tiny switcher tray into a carousal of screens that glide and fly around the screen. Critics have taken Apple to task for “copying” Android, but in our experience, the iOS 7 implementation is far better than the one Jelly Bean offers, with smooth scrolling and swiping, and screens that clearly show the latest images. Once again, Apple has shown that it’s not when you get to the party, but what you do when you get there.

But the best part of iOS 7 is its tremendous potential. Much like OS X all those years ago, iOS 7 is simultaneously the present and the future, a re-envisioning of what our iPhones and iPads can do. And we can’t wait to see what comes next.