At Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference in June we will see the first major redesign of iOS since the original iPhone's release in 2007. Senior Vice President of Industrial Design Jony Ive has been also been given the role of leading the human interface software teams at Apple. He has been working on the UI of Mac OS X 10.9 and iOS 7, and reports say he has given iOS 7 a redesigned user interface that will be "very, very flat."
According to sources, iOS 7 will do away with the rounded, high gloss and shiny UI that the platform began with and will take on a flat interface design. Some people believe that Apple has included a "hint" of the changes to icons and system fonts that will appear in iOS 7 in its WWDC 2013 logo.
Sources claim that iOS 7 will have a have a "level of flatness seen in Microsoft's Windows Phone Metro UI." It is also believed that while iOS 7 will look different, it will still be very easy to use and has been described as:
"There is apparently no new learning curve in the same way there was no learning curve when the iPods went color. While iOS 7 does look different, its core apps and system fundamentals (like the Lock and Home screens) mostly operate in a similar fashion to how they do today."
iOS 7 is expected to have an all-new icon set (possibly the new shapes are in the WWDC logo), newly designed toolbars and will also feature polarizing filters that will make it harder for people to look over your shoulder and see what you're viewing on your iOS device. It sounds like Apple is trying to make iOS more secure with this rumored feature, and it is also widely believed that Apple will be including a biometric fingerprint sensor on the Home button to make the iPhone 5S more secure as well.
The sources also claim that Apple has been testing ways to add more "glance-able" information and system options. An example of how this would work is that Apple would add new panels accessed by swiping from the left and right side of an iOS display for quick settings and other features using gestures. It sounds like Apple is really taking some inspiration from rival mobile OSes like Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10, when designing iOS 7.
While these are all rumors at this point, 9TO5Mac has a great track record when reporting Apple leaks. If this is any indication of what we can expect in iOS 7, it sounds like new and current users of the platform are going to be very happy with what Apple has in store when it shows off iOS 7 at WWDC in June.
