As I am making steady progress with the design of my PowerPoint killer app, I have become very interested in user interface design for mobile and big screen applications. Apple showed its new iOS7 design yesterday. (iOS7 is the operating system that runs iPhones and iPads). Some observations.
I love the flattening of the design, out with excessive shadows and fake textures. The use of transparency is clever, to get a sense of layers throughout any app you use on the phone.
But there are things that I think are less good. The color palette is very bright, almost screaming, and the home screen looks like a sparkling X-mas tree. The use of gradients is inconsistent, with different directions of light sources. Some icons have gradients, some have not. I am also no fan of the more pronounced rounded edges. Grids on some screens are not completely consistent. The thin font looks classy, but might be hard to read in glaring sun light. And finally, the look and feel is not consistent either across all applications (some apps look great, others less so).
In short, a big improvement over iOS6, but iOS8 might just iron out the current imperfections. Weirdly, I actually still think the minimalist design of Microsoft’s mobile platforms looks great in terms of use of grids, simple colours, and sharp edges.
But then, people say never to argue about taste...
The look and feel of PCs running Windows software has greatly influenced the design of PowerPoint slides. In the future, I expect the same influence from mobile platforms on the way the average amateur design will create presentation slides. Helvetica Neue Light will become a popular font.
I love the flattening of the design, out with excessive shadows and fake textures. The use of transparency is clever, to get a sense of layers throughout any app you use on the phone.
But there are things that I think are less good. The color palette is very bright, almost screaming, and the home screen looks like a sparkling X-mas tree. The use of gradients is inconsistent, with different directions of light sources. Some icons have gradients, some have not. I am also no fan of the more pronounced rounded edges. Grids on some screens are not completely consistent. The thin font looks classy, but might be hard to read in glaring sun light. And finally, the look and feel is not consistent either across all applications (some apps look great, others less so).
In short, a big improvement over iOS6, but iOS8 might just iron out the current imperfections. Weirdly, I actually still think the minimalist design of Microsoft’s mobile platforms looks great in terms of use of grids, simple colours, and sharp edges.
But then, people say never to argue about taste...
The look and feel of PCs running Windows software has greatly influenced the design of PowerPoint slides. In the future, I expect the same influence from mobile platforms on the way the average amateur design will create presentation slides. Helvetica Neue Light will become a popular font.
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