He is here in the translucency, the diamond-cut chamfered edges, the exquisite materials of the GUI, and the exceptional thinness and portability, all hall-marks of the best tech on the planet.
You can still see his touches in the rounded corners of the pre-2020 models iPhone, iPad and Apple watch, and in the operating systems which represent Apple tech to the world. Yet, gradually, his influence is slowly receding, being obfuscated by a new design ethos at Apple.
Unfortunately, this new paradigm represents a rather murky and unpleasant sea-change.
Windows still offer a hint of what lays behind them, but rather than a pane of frosted glass which conveys a wonderful sense of depth, windows now offer a blurred and uninviting hint of background colours, giving no sense of depth, and no invitation to see what is behind.
Icons in general follow the clearer and cleaner theme of iPadOS, but Messenger looks more like a copy of WeChat than something from Apple, and Battery and Sound look like copy-paste errors from Android, circa 2013. Notifications is, a, um… thing…? Whatever it is, perhaps the shading was applied by an intern with a hang-over. Er ma gerd! Screentime looks like an orb from DS9.
Astonishingly, Apple seems to be following in the footsteps of MS. This hap-hazard melange of artwork certainly recalls the hideous regurgitation that was Vista, with its absolute clusterfk of Windows 98, ME, 2000, and XP icons and interfaces.
On the plus side, Big Sur – hereto-forth to be known as BS – seems much more reliable and easier to manage than previously. I suspect the entire OS was rewritten and/or tidied up in preparation for Apple’s stunning M1.
I do hope that the upper echelons can stop choking on how rich they are, for just long enough, to notice their GUI resembles Android and Windows. THIS IS NOT A COMPLIMENT.
So here’s Jony Ive, saying good-bye, as his stunningly beautiful translucency is gradually obscured by tacky cheapness. Bye~!