Up to now, the iOS operating system still maintains many design elements that were first introduced on the iOS 7 version released in 2013.
The design of emulating objects, floating blocks on iOS 6 (left) is replaced by a flat icon on iOS 7. Photo: Bloomberg.
"I think there's a deep and lasting beauty in simplicity," said Johnny Ive, who has been dubbed Apple's "design wizard," at the start of iOS 7's introduction.
The introductory video then reveals a completely different operating system from what users are used to seeing on the iPhone. iOS 7 changes the look and feel of nearly every app, removing the design that emulates real objects, in favor of a simplified icon design with lots of free space.
The design elements introduced in the 2013 release are still the foundation for what we see on iPhones today.
iOS 7 completely changed the main image of the iPhone. Flatter icons, lots of magenta, green and blue, making the home screen look brighter. The phone signal bar is also simplified to 5 round dots.
The 2013 version of the operating system was also the first time Apple added opacity in iOS, such as when opening multitasking or opening Control Center, creating a layered feel.
“A lot of the criticism surrounding iOS 7 focused on the first release: fonts were too thin, icons were inconsistent, animations took too long. But this is normal for any new design language, it takes time to perfect,” Janum Trivedi, design engineer at The Browser Company, told The Verge.
And Apple has refined many elements of the interface of iOS over the years, but overall, the core idea remains the same. App icons on iOS have so far remained fairly flat, with lots of white space inside and some translucent windows, like in Safari and Messages.
“Over the years, the design language has matured, and the novel elements of iOS 7 have become a fundamental part of all Apple designs today: opacity, vibrancy, interactivity, animation, depth,” says Trivedi.
iOS 7 also introduced new features that have become iOS staples, such as the Control Center. This feature was initially criticized by some users as cluttered, but through the redesigns on iOS 10 and 11, now the Control Center is an indispensable part for quick access to settings. used phone.
AirDrop, also a feature that first appeared in iOS 7, has now become a signature method for users to easily transfer files, photos, and videos between Apple devices. The Camera app on iOS 7 lets users switch between photo, square, panorama, and video modes for the first time with a swipe. This control method is still maintained to this day.
After more than 10 years, phone users have new needs, such as personalization. Some design applications in the style of simulating real images are starting to become popular again. With iOS 16, Apple has given people a number of options to customize the iPhone, but it still tends to be conservative and safe with iOS design, according to Enid Hadaj, an independent iOS app developer.
“After a decade, to this day, I still cannot believe that the design style of iOS 7 is still present in new versions of iOS. Sometimes I can't tell the difference between the iOS versions because they look so similar," Hadaj said.
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