As you can probably tell from the title, this is a contrarian opinion of Apple’s new minimalist mobile operating system, iOS 7, released September 18th. The scope of this post addresses just the visual design, color palette, font choice and the de-skeuomorphication of the icons. It does not dive under the hood to marvel at all the goodies therein.
Lock Screen
When the iPhone’s alarm goes off at 5am, I don’t want to squint at the time or when driving and want to see the time (I don’t wear a watch anymore), I don’t want have to pull it all the way out of my shirt pocket to actually see it. Perhaps it’s a marketing ploy to get you to buy the nonexistent-but-you-know-it’s-coming iWatch.
Passcode Screen
In three words, dull, dim and thin. And no carryover of the lock screen wallpaper. Of course, the iOS 6 example is ripples but it could have been your kid(s) photo.
Phone Dial
I know, I know, nobody uses smartphones to actually call anyone anymore but if you did, how about this dialer? Did they honestly think a circle is easier to hit than a square or the dialed number is now easier to read? Form over function, oh ya!
Weather App
I really don’t care about roiling clouds or other climatic animation, just look outside. I want clear, concise information and this screen isn’t even close to providing that. No visible update data, an anemic font and clouds that look suspiciously like an iCloud. I use WeatherBug myself, but can anyone really say this is better than the previous version?
De-skeuomorphication
The Newsstand is the strongest example of Apple’s crusade to rid itself of all skeuomorphs. This is better, really? The next screen is chock full of misguided and unnecessary “redesigns”.
Starting at the top:
• Could they have made the Date & Day any unclearer?
• How does a color wheel say Photos more than a sunflower?
• I admit the camera looks more like a Camera than the lens.
• Wow, Videos and Clock were a major redesign effort, not!
• What was really wrong with leaving Notes looking like a legal pad with a script font? I liked it. Now it’s just boring, but oh so clean, white. But catch this, hyperlinks are displayed in yellow, yes, yellow.
• Somehow, check marks reminds me a lot more about Reminders than colored dots, but that’s just me.
• Nothing screams Settings to me more than an electric stove element.
Personal Rants:
• What happened to the dimensionality? Everything is now flat. The battery icon used to be a nice green cylinder that looked, well, like a battery. Now it’s just a flat green rectangle. This is attractive? This is avant something? It’s ugly, period.
• Not only do they use these obnoxiously thin but oh so sexy fonts throughout the screens, in some, they rendered them in gray, gray, I kid you not. I don’t have a shot of the main mail screen but trust me, it’s unreadable.
• Oh, if you want to make a Voice Memo, don’t look for a microphone icon anymore, no, look for an oscilloscope. Makes sense.
Perhaps “The Most Valuable Person in Apple” Jony Ive should stick to the hardware, which is peerless. Simple, clean, minimal design that creates great hardware does not necessarily translate well in interactive visual design. Maybe Scott Forstall should be forgiven the Maps debacle and be brought back to add some meat to this thin stew.
I look forward to exploring what’s under iOS 7’s hood. I hope what’s under there is more functional than the sheetmetal.
Other opinions:
• “This Technicolor BS has got to go. Too much high contrast pastels. Is there anyway to change the palette?” ~ Brad, IT Systems Manager
• “I like it.” ~ James, Graphics/Website Designer
iOS 7 Compatibility:
• iPhone 5s, 5c, 5
• iPhone 4s – but no Camera app filters, AirDrop
• iPhone 4 – all of above exceptions plus Panoramic photos, Siri
• iPad 4
• iPad 3 “New” – but no Camera app filters, AirDrop, Panoramic photos
• iPad 2 – all of above exceptions plus Photos app filters, square photos and videos, Siri
• iPod touch 5th Gen
• Lastly, a heads up. Word is that the iOS 6 to 7 “upgrade” is irreversible.
Images courtesy of The Independent at http://www.independent.co.uk
DwM
FRIED RANTS 
Curious what phone/device you took your screen shots from. I’m finding much to hate about the redesign but, if my screens looked more like yours, they wouldn’t be as bad. I don’t get the “character indicators” on the passcode screen (showing me how many characters I’ve typed), which allows me to more easily screw-up entering my passcode.
I kinda hate most of the new screens. My eyes are tired. These screens are making them more tired.
Cara, the screen shots were from The Independent, a British e-zine. The link is at the bottom of the post. If your screens look worse, I’m really sorry. The character indicators ARE useless. My eyes are tired too but it’s not a bug, it’s a feature. I just realized one reason is the tiny, thin fonts are rendered in GRAY! I may have to make an addendum to the post to point that out. I really am an Apple “fanboy”, having had four iPhones and two iPads (one was stolen) but this is the worse piece of designing they’ve done. Thanks for writing, Dennis
The redesign is awful…washed out…the calendar is absolutely ridiculous and early unreadable, the calculator is white numerals on a black screen, as in the search, and th notepad was soooo much nicer before with actual lines on the paper. Email has blue icons on white ( unreadable) and some features are yellow on white ( I kid you not…pathetically almost unreadable). Who said thinner letters were better? Must have been high on something.
Sasa, I find it interesting that the tech publications love the avant-garde design while the commenters, like us, hate it as unreadable, unusable and ugh. Thanks for writing, Dennis
I downloaded the new version 7.02, 2 weeks ago and my thoughts are as follows. The new themes are schizophrenic and immature. While there is great benefit to using the minimalist approach, taking it to extreme with low contrast pastel colors which wash out in bright light thanks to their ultra-thin fonts indicates to me some engineers / graphic designers need to be taken out back and beaten. Did ANYONE attend their ergonomic design classes? The calendar is almost impossible to find your appointments on a day selected. The preview is gone and everyone is looking to different apps to accomplish what it did before the upgrade. Change for the sake of change is NOT good.
Please Fix it and let the user have the choice to how we want it to look.
I should have just let you write this post as I couldn’t agree more. I have a 5 and I swearthat the screen sensitivity is not what it was with iOS 6. More things I find to hate everyday. Thanks for your comments, Dennis.