iOS 9, thoroughly reviewed

Apple gives the iPad a lot of love as iOS goes back into spit-and-polish mode.

Read the whole story

 

[stormbeta]

I like the features, but I really, really wish they'd ditch this awful UI design language they introduced in iOS7/8.

iOS is finally at the point now where, feature-wise, I could seriously consider the iPhone a viable alternative to Android. But their UI design just makes my eyes bleed.

The fonts are too thin, and using plain undifferentiated text as interactive elements is UI Design 101 fail, but the real problem is the excessive use of muddy translucent gradients as the backgrounds to everything.

It makes the whole UI look like a pile of mud, and ruins the contrast between elements. Material Design blows it out of the water of course, but even the older iOS style was more usable (if somewhat dated looking).

 

[stormbeta]

SraCet[/url]":qtgzhnk8]

SPCagigas[/url]":qtgzhnk8]
I disagree. Their continued insistence on the all-caps keyboard was a clear case of form over function -- which we've been told over and over is anathema to Jonny Ives.

I'm not sure that it is.

It wouldn't surprise me if people could type faster with the all-caps keyboard vs. the one that switches.

The switching might distract people and slow them down. And if they hunt for keys, having the letters take two possible shapes might slow down the hunting process.

Of course both effects might be very small but something that might still show up in a scientific test.

And then I would argue that this case-switching is a case of form over function and not vice versa.

I couldn't disagree more. The static all-caps keyboards forced on users was one of the #1 reasons I avoided iOS, because it drove me bonkers. Having the keys not match what would actually get typed was far, far more distracting and annoying than having them switch.