This isn't a great surprise to be honest. The gossip coming out of Cupertino has for years been saying that Jony Ive really doesn't like skeuomorphic design: whatever the opinions of Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall. Given that the latter two are now gone (for very different reasons of course) and Ive is in charge there isn't any great shock in seeing him imposing his views on the design:
With the grand unveiling of
Apple ’s next operating system for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch approaching, sources have provided detailed descriptions of what users and developers alike could expect from the software’s fresh look.As we reported in April, Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive has been leading a thorough overhaul for iOS 7 that focuses on the look and feel of the iOS device software rather than on several new features.
Sources have described iOS 7 as “black, white, and flat all over.” This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements.
The basic idea being described is that the operating system will drop a good deal of the look and feel of earlier versions. The "wooden" shelves in the Newsstand have gone, we might assume that the faux leather stitching (or is that faux stitching in leather?) and so on have gone from other areas.
There is more to this though than just a change in the design aesthetic. The change from one designer's vision to that of another. Skeuomorphic design definitely has its place. And that place is generally when there's a change in the way that we do some well known task. As an example, if we're moving from making notes on a notebook to making them on a screen, it aids us in preparing mentally for doing so if the application on the screen we're using to make notes looks like an old fashioned notebook. So too with a news stand: why not make it look like a traditional news stand to aid in orienting people?
However, as the new way of doing things becomes established then we don't need to hark back to the old way in our designs. It's a transitory stage if you like. Keeping it too long, after everyone's adapted to the new method, becomes just an anachronism, not an aid to mental understanding. Quite how long is too long is something beyond my ken: but then Jony Ive gets the big bucks to make such decisions, doesn't he? There is a certain logic to saying that iteration 7 of the software is long enough though. iOS 7 being the time to drop the skeuomorphic aspects of the design and provide a clean and "flat" conformity between all of the different design elements. We all rather know why iOS 5 or 6 didn't drop them but there's no great surprise in the company not waiting until iOS 8 to do it.
