Apple has introduced a lot of changes with its new iOS 7, especially in design. The interphase is completely different from that of iOS 6, and its icons are already a huge subject of debate.
For app developers, the design changes in the new iOS 7 may have some significant effects. The visual front of your app on the app store is your app icon, when it comes to marketing. With little effort and some cost effective changes, your app icon can make a huge impact. The news everywhere is that iOS 7 has gone flat with none of the shiny, 3D looking icons or graphics present anymore. Looking at the user interphase of the iOS 7, it is clearly visible that there are harder, thin lines, less depth and fewer soft edges. For an icon to fit into this design trend, it would be wise to incorporate some of these design cues into the app icon.
Another thing to consider is being able to use your typeface into the app icon. Apple is adapting a font called Helvetica Neue UltraLight as their primary font, which is more or less skinny and a little sensitive. Again, if the icon is to fit in, adapting a similar skinny font would be a good idea. All the default icons that come pre installed in Apple Devices seems to have had a major facelift. There are no more chunky brushed metal, shiny borders. In fact, there are no borders at all. So for app icons that utilize a border, this is another thing that may have to be changed or reconsidered.
Apple is really going after the clean and simple style, with minimalistic approach of iconography and symbols in the icons which is reflected throughout the UI. To complement the flat and skinny look of the iOS 7, Apple’s primary color schemes have also been updated to blue, white, red, black and even pastel. Some apps even use extremely saturated and low contrast colors. The redesigned phone icon appeals to majority of the people till now.
Keeping in mind all these changes, app developers may want to re-design their app icons to compliment the new design, as well as give them edge enough to stand out.
The first iOS 7 beat is already available to the registered users of Apple and people are filled with both praise and complaints. Strikingly different from its previous version in terms of design, not everybody is happy with the redesigned home screen icons in iOS 7. The new version of the operating system has received a lot a mixed response from blogs, critics and Tweets, but it seems to be slowly winning people over. In any case, iOS 7 is still fresh and very different, but with time Apple lovers will certainly develop affinity towards its design.
