apple, inc.

What happened with iOS7?

Did Apple fall victim to design by committee?

Today at WWDC, Apple released the much hyped iOS7 ‘flat design’ theme, and as a designer, I was very much looking forward to seeing what Jony Ive and his team would show the world.

I was surprised when the screenshots started showing up. Inconsistent look and feel. Harsh colors. No harmony. No core theme. Was this really the product of Apple’s world-famous design team?

Then it hit me. Apple is suffering from the same problem that Google once suffered from.

Design By Committee.

All of the signs are there. Unnecessary complexity, inconsistency, logical flaws, banality, and above all, no unifying vision. I believe Jony Ive did not lead the design team by example and vision. Instead, I believe Ive laid out key concepts and showed his design team a mood board of flat design examples, but told them to innovate. Then he let them loose as a committee.