The new design of iOS 7 designed by Jonathan Ive completely left everyone speechless. We never expect a distortion so the net "style" which has always differentiated the Apple brand. But what are the guidelines that followed the historic hardware designers, and now software, Cupertino to deliver this product totally original and unexpected by many? A page of the Apple website reveals anecdotes and philosophies behind its creation.
The underlying concept, repeatedly expressed by Steve Jobs, is that design is not just a purely aesthetic factor, but also and above all a factor. "If one thing is designed to work beautifully, will tend to be visually beautiful". In other words, "you realize that a good design is when you start to use". No iOS 7 element was created "just to look beautiful," this would lead to a bad result. The goal was to provide a "simpler, more useful and more fun".
The other is the keyword "simplicity". Yet "simplicity is actually quite complicated". Does not match the sheer minimalism, it is not enough to remove some decorating too to make a simple thing. Means "offer the right thing, in the right place, right time". In a nutshell, how Steve Jobs liked to say, simplicity is the one thing he does say "It just works!".
It was hard work that the designers of the Carthusian Cupertino had to do to get rid of deposits are always on iOS, to become "pure representation of simplicity". Jony Ive had to discard any intrusive element from useless buttons and bars for unnecessary ornaments that added no value and overwhelmed the main purpose of a software: its content.
A question that arose immediately was whether the general public can remain baffled by such a change, after using a graphically different OS for a long time. The promise that Apple makes is that the new design will appear immediately, will not require new knowledge but just a bit of intuitiveness.
Another message that launches Apple is "technology should not interfere with human nature". The example is the weather application: "the interaction is dynamic", "movie" are animations, background changes depending on the time showing snow, rain, Sun, etc. It almost seems that Jony Ive forbid say goodbye to skeumorfismo always supported by Steve Jobs: nature can meet technology, but cannot interfere with each other.
One thing that will jump immediately to the eye while using iOS 7 is the three-dimensional depth of the operating system. Its development is in fact thought hierarchically at several levels: the first is the background, animated rotating and using accelerometer, per second are applications of the springboard, and finally the new Control Centre, which takes the form of a translucent sheen. Everything is then animated by animations and appreciable enlargements only through its use.
Jony Ive keeps us finally to say that "no detail is left to chance." And we want to believe: we are confident that he and his colleagues have spent sleepless nights to finish even the slightest detail chart. But what are the details. Apple by a beautiful definition: "details are those things that you notice and that we hardly remember, yet are those little things that create the real pleasure". An example that has left us really surprised are the icons of iOS: at first glance seem almost sketches without any logic behind, but actually hiding perfect Symmetries and geometrical formalities.
