Don’t get me wrong – there’s a LOT I love about the new features in iOS 7. It solved a lot of my problems, like easy access to my Bluetooth settings through the Control Center, and how easy it is to quit apps.
And I do like the big, bright airiness of the new visuals, with increased font size, and animations. But what I DON’T LIKE is the flatness of the graphics, and especially, that there are no “buttons” on the screen.
There’s no visual distinction between your content and the device’s controls.
Now, when I’m doing trainings on new features, one of the first things I always tell people is that it takes some time to get used to new things. That once the shock value wears off, you’ll soon know exactly how to get around and your speed will pick up.
But iOS 7’s new approach really is a big step back in consumer usability, not because of my personal preferences, but because of cognitive science.
The way the human brain reads words is more than just putting letters into words into sentences. We actually look at the SHAPES of words when we read, to help us interpret their meaning.
When’s the last time you actually READ the word, “the”? I’m pretty sure you haven’t thought, “t, h, e, that spells ‘the'” since you were 5 years old. Instead, your brain sees the shape the three letters make in a row – medium-height, tall, short – and it automatically encodes the meaning based on the shape, instead of the letters themselves.
This cognitive function of our brains when we read is completely circumvented when we type in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS because all the words have the same square shape. We actually have to read what’s there to understand what’s being said, because THE has the same rectangular shape as CAT. That’s why ALL CAPS is considered shouting. We actually have to make our brains work to read it. “THE” is harder to read than “the”.
So how does this relate to iOS7? Apple has removed all the 3-D graphics that helped focus our attention, that let us know there was a “button” to tap. There are no longer outlines around the action items.
Instead, we now have to look at and read every single item on the screen to choose our next action. Our eye is not lead to its destination. There’s no emphasis. It’s like driving without roadsigns to tell us where to go; all we can do is stumble across what we’re looking for.
As a result, it now takes us longer to perform actions on our iPhones and iPads. Part of it can be attributed to not yet knowing where to look, but much of it is because now we HAVE to look.
Apple’s designers have ignored Human Factors Engineering and Cognitive Science with this update, making our brains work harder to do what used to be obvious.
I want my ovals back.
