I remember the day when I fell in love with iOS, it was the day when Apple released iOS 7, exactly same time of the year in 2013. Being a young graphic designer myself, I knew at that point that this was it – the most beautiful mobile operating system ever! (Android was still a Jellybean, KitKat was due, kindly note).

The one thing, the most important aspect of Apple for me has always been the fact that they put everything to create something so beautiful and so easy to use.

Fall of 2016 and 9 years after the first iPhone/iOS – we have come a long way since then with Apple releasing the most anticipated iOS 10. It’s time we review the new design, talk in-depth only about the User Interface (UI) and the User eXperience (UX) – the article talks more about the UI and UX aspects of the iOS, we will cover the other aspects in up coming posts, keep tuned.

Design

Apple really wants to say out loud that they are here for greater good and that they are BOLD in everything they do, this shows up everywhere – redesigned Typography, Improved Visual Delivery, no more ‘slide to unlock’, Rich Notifications and yes, no headphone jack!

I am in great favor for the change, change is good, but not everything is great, I will discuss this in detail in subsequent sections, do let us know what you think too.

Light/Dark Theme

I, like many anticipated a dark mode in iOS 10, but it seems like we have to wait for sometime, but I strongly feel that it will be released sooner than later, rumours state Apple has plans for AMOLED curved screen iPhone 8 in future – a dark mode on a AMOLED screen makes more sense, isn’t it?

Coming back to the latest release from Apple, iOS 10 – The overall theme of the operating system is still based on iOS 7 design guidelines revised over time through 3 generations, a light, white-tinted UI – still very elegant and beautiful as it can be.

iOS 10 has already hinted at the dark theme, Clock is the first one to undergo that change – no more ‘Classic/Analogue’ clock face, it is all dark and digital now.

This is where I feel a bit skeptic about Apple’s design approach, taking bold steps is great, but losing something really beautiful like a dynamic analog clock face (changed colors based on the time of the day in that particular country) and replacing it with a simple digital clock doesn’t make much sense to me, but I think I know the reasons for it.

Reason #1: The dark clock faces doesn’t fit the design aesthetics on a dark-themed Clock.

Reason #2: Clock app is mostly used in night by all, and Apple doesn’t want to have any UI element that can shine bright in the night?

I still think the old face will rock the dark theme, see below, what do you think? 🙂

Fonts

I must admit, I personally enjoy every details in everything and appreciate the most when it is subtle but enough prominent to serve a purpose. Apple has never failed me so far!

San Francisco and is the system font on iOS. There are two variants of this font: SF UI Text for text 19 points or smaller, and SF UI Display for text 20 points or larger.

Retina Display + SF UI = treat for eyes! But this time iOS has done something different, even though not many seems to care – I do – iOS 10 features a more BOLD typeface, I am not sure if I like it at this point of time, but I believe it will be for the greater good in future.

The Music app saw this change too, it’s quite a BOLD move, not sure if many like it – but Apple will most definitely understand the feedback, perhaps make it optional via Accessibility – something I really want Apple to revisit the design.

iOS 9.3 Music app iOS 10 Music app

Notifications

OK, this one had a major design change, for good? Let’s check the story.

Unlike any others who fail to execute in the details, under-estimate the design of UI/UX (forms and functions), Apple has always succeeded in those keys areas, this makes Apple products and services better than any others out there.

Notifications historically were designed to be simple, interactive – with inline replies and swipe actions. iOS 10 wants to take this experience to a new level with better, interactive, light-white notification bubbles.

Pros:

Notifications + 3D Touch = Bliss!

In-line reply now opens the entire conversation & stay on if you wish.

Consistent design across widgets and notifications.

Cons:

Consumes a lot of space for a single notification.

You can’t choose to group notifications anymore.

non 3D Touch devices have to swipe > tap to get the ‘real’ options.

Quick Reply feature was really quick!

Can it be better? Of course and I am sure Apple will try to do it sooner than later, but below is how I would like to see the notifications.

Widgets

Worth the wait! – Widgets – iOS 10 Widgets are more elegant, prominent and forms the integral component of the iOS 10 design and aligns to Apple’s Human Interface Design Guidelines.

They are quite powerful and in coming days we should see more full-blown support from other apps like the one below – CityMapper, I really love the way they have used the colors instead of white background, looks beautiful isn’t it? Just like notifications, they consume more space than required because of the header, something Apple should redesign you think?

Conclusion

iOS 10 is definitely one of the major releases to see a complete overhaul in the core UI design since iOS 7 and is definitely heading in the right direction as far as I can say – widgets, rich notifications, bolder UI theme, beautiful fonts – need I say more? Apple has definitely paved a way for the next generation iOS, whilst its beautiful as-is, I would love to see more features in future – dark mode, better UI customization, rich and interactive widgets, font size control etc. which I am pretty sure we will see them coming in future releases – if not iOS 10.x then iOS 11! 🙂

More Reading?

Apple Human Interface Design Guidelines

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