The Feedback on iOS 14
The stepping stone to Microsoft Phone
Looks brand new. Feels like home.
iOS 14 brings a fresh look to the things you do most often, making them easier than ever. New features help you get what you need in the moment. And the apps you use all the time become even more intelligent, more personal, and more private. — apple.com
What exactly looks brand new, yet feels like home?
From 2007 to 2019, the Home Page consisted of the same app icons filled design. Along the upper edge of the screen, the status bar appears displays useful information about the device’s current state, like the time, cellular carrier, and battery level. Below the status bar, there’s a collection of app icons. Finally at the bottom edge of the screen, the tab bar appears with four system apps, like the phone, mail or messaging, internet browser, and music.
Again, what looks brand new?
User experience is turned upside down after 12 years of incremental user interface design. iOS 14 has the most dramatic design change since the origin of the mobile operating system in 2007 with the ability to have widget(s) on the Home Screen.
The previous iOS app icons had a very restrictive ux/ui guidelines. The notification badge is always on the top right of the app icon. The size of an app icon is the same for every app. The app icons fit into one nice familiar grid pattern. The name of an app is always centered below the app icon. There’s no app icon that shows real time information other than the two Apple exceptions of the Calendar and Clock. Tapping on an app icon opens the application. Tapping and holding goes into edit mode. Very familiar actions that have been implemented for over a decade.
The widget breaks all the guidelines of an app icon. The widget can be available in 3 different sizes. The widget displays real time information that can be organized is numerous ways. There’s even a need for place holder image during loading time. When the widgets were self contained in a widgets page, there wasn’t much ambiguity. Opening the widgets up to the Home Page increases the complexity of a simplified phone OS, which goes against everything Apple.
Looks familiar. Feels like Microsoft phone.
The widgets on the Home Page resembles the Microsoft Phone OS. The complexity in the user experience had a hard time to convince developers as well as customers to continue to stick with the OS. We’ll see if the same fate is in for the iOS, but I think this is a very big pivot in the wrong direction.
Final thoughts
I like the concept of widgets and the benefits it brings in the fast-paced era. I think the Apple philosophy of minimalism that Sir Jonathan Paul “Jony” Ive pioneered has left with him. I know there’s other features that was added with the iOS 14 update, but I focused on the ux/ui design. I’ll leave the other features to others to critique.