Editorial note: I wrote this a few weeks ago (before WWDC) but didn’t publish it because it seemed a bit ranty. Now Apple has revealed iOS 7 and its icons and the hipsters are still yak yak yaking about them. How about we wait until iOS 7 is released and we all have a chance to use it and experience the new look and behavior for ourselves? I predict that when we do, most people will be just fine with it. As for me, I’m just happy that the faux leather is gone.
Most everyone who knows who Jony Ive is agree that he is an absolute master of the design arts. Even the anti-fan boys admit that few can bear the comparison. It’s strange, then, that the hipsters over at Wired are offering Ive advice on what he should do. It’s really more offensive than that; the article is entitled It’s Not About New Icons: What Jony Ive Needs to Do for Apple’s iOS. Really? Have you looked at the Wired site lately? They’re the last ones who should be offering design advice.
Actually, the whole article is premised on the idea that Ive is simply going to get rid of the skeuomorphism favored by Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall but that that’s not enough. The problem is that no one (outside of Apple) actually knows what the design will look like. Wired’s Mike Senese admits this and then goes right on assuming the premise is true. Like many, I’m not a fan of faux leather calendars so I hope it is true but also like everyone else, I don’t know.
Then there’s Maggie Hendrie who appears to think that design isn’t that important (odd given that she’s Chair of Interaction Design at Pasadena, CA’s Art Center). Ben Thompson over at Stratechery notes with amusement that Hendrie thinks Apple is missing the boat by not being more like Microsoft and Nintendo. She says that, “The very fact that we’re talking about who’s going to design the icons, who’s going to design the applications and the operating system is a little bit of a concern.” Of course, Apple isn’t talking about that. She and Wired are.
I’m sorry that the hipsters are bored by, say, the iPhone 5 but you know what? Actual users seem to like it just fine. Just as they’ll doubtlessly like iOS 7. That remains to be seen, of course, but maybe we should wait to see what it actually looks like before we declare it and Apple dead.