You know, a lot of these features are so mindlessly piled that for an existing iPhone user it does not feel like cognitive overload.
But my mom used the newest iPhone last week -- she used iPhone 4 as her full time phone back in the day -- and she could not navigate Safari properly. That's how unusable the iPhone is now even for a legacy iOS user. Whatever happened to days when toddlers could figure out iPads? Is this really the company that brought sliding, tapping, pinching actions to touchscreens?
I think when it comes to Flat UI, Apple seriously lost the new design wars to Google. To add function, you need corresponding forms. Previously, Apple could hide the new function in the skeuomorphism wrapper and it didn't feel like too much on the plate. Form wasn't needed as it mimicked real world. With 7.0 and beyond, they tried to use the z-axis, but willingly chose form over function over and over again, and it shows! Google, on the other hand with their material design and paper element succeeded in wrapping together functionality in 3 dimensions, widgets (paper elements) and feedback based animation in such a way that the usability endpoint is very static to interact with the various functions. If you can use the Phone app on Lollipop, you can use anything.
And all this while Apple managed to put in yet another dimensions to somehow preserve their z-axis to two layers to make sure integrity of Flat UI is preserved. iOS' UI isn't just flat, it's also congested -- just like my flat table.
But my mom used the newest iPhone last week -- she used iPhone 4 as her full time phone back in the day -- and she could not navigate Safari properly. That's how unusable the iPhone is now even for a legacy iOS user. Whatever happened to days when toddlers could figure out iPads? Is this really the company that brought sliding, tapping, pinching actions to touchscreens?
I think when it comes to Flat UI, Apple seriously lost the new design wars to Google. To add function, you need corresponding forms. Previously, Apple could hide the new function in the skeuomorphism wrapper and it didn't feel like too much on the plate. Form wasn't needed as it mimicked real world. With 7.0 and beyond, they tried to use the z-axis, but willingly chose form over function over and over again, and it shows! Google, on the other hand with their material design and paper element succeeded in wrapping together functionality in 3 dimensions, widgets (paper elements) and feedback based animation in such a way that the usability endpoint is very static to interact with the various functions. If you can use the Phone app on Lollipop, you can use anything.
And all this while Apple managed to put in yet another dimensions to somehow preserve their z-axis to two layers to make sure integrity of Flat UI is preserved. iOS' UI isn't just flat, it's also congested -- just like my flat table.