Yesterday I installed the iOS 6 beta to my iPhone 4S. The new maps are really fantastic, the design is very different from Google Maps but I’ve found them more readable so far. I’ve also noticed some more subtle tweaks to the general UI:
You’ll notice that Apple has ditched the “glass” look of the view header and replaced it with a standard linear gradient. They’ve also lightened the harsh bottom black line that separates the header from the main content.
They’ve also removed the grey top system bar and replaced it with a darker solid blue version. It’s like a colorized version of the black system bar you see in some apps. The grey bar seems to be gone system wide, which means you’ll no longer see any colored icons.
If you look closely you’ll also see tweaks to the striped background. The stripes have been reversed so that the wider stripes are light and the thinner stripes are dark. This lightens the background and gives the stripes a more muted look.
Overall I think the tweaks are a pleasing evolutionary step forward. What are your thoughts on the updated look?
I was glad to see the softer gradient on the title bars and inverted pinstripes, as well as the general removal of glassy effects in favor of more subtle ones systemwide. The blue system bar will take some getting used to; some apps use black system bars with the blue titlebar, some use the blue system bar, other apps like Clock use them both depending on which tab you’re on. I’m actuallly surprised they didn’t just go solid black everywhere for those. At first glance it keeps making me think that Personal Hotspot is active (because of the blue bar it adds), but I imagine I’ll get used to it (right as they tweak it before the public launch, undoubtedly).
They’ve also tweaked the weather app, darkening the background and adding a more distinct glow and lightening the font weight and made some pretty significant, but still subtle, changes to the music app, generally lightening it up. Agree with Matt that black would have made more sense for the menu header but there’s every possibility that will change prior to public release.
I think I’ll miss the colored icons.
PS: What a swish website! Nice comment form ;)
I cannot comment on whether the change is an overall improvement or leap forward but I can express my thoughts on the specific points.
1. The colored status bar was definitely better. May be it was not fitting well in the new look and that’s why it had to be changed. Particularly the batter indicator which would shuffle between red and green as it looked more alerting to the eyes. I don’t need to see percentages or read number but just see the color and know. Some might argue with me on this but I still think color on battery indicator helped. I think the status bar should have the same color across rather than white or black. It should be standardized. They could have gone all black as mentioned by Matt Thomas.
2. The glassy navigation bar was also good. The changed one looks like having a strong white gradient on top which is more than required.
3. The dark black line separating the content from the top bar will not be missed. A good change there.
4. The new striped background again has greater white than is required. It should accentuate the content on top by being dim itself. On that count, previous one was better as it was dimmer.