Apple changed everything, again

I remember iOS 7. I installed it day 1. My phone suffered all summer from bugs. My battery life dropped faster then a brand new iPhone during a cidada brood.

But I loved it. It was a drastic shift—moving away from skeumorphic design into something new.

As an illustrator I was relieved, but a small part of me wanted to keep making the detailed pieces of art I’d grown to love.

With AirBnB’s tiptoeing into dimensional icons, I’m excited to see Apple blasting that door back open.

It’s similar to the skeumorphism of yesteryears, but in a different way. That’s how design fashion goes. And I’m here for it.

As with iOS 7 during that crazy summer, I’m guessing we’ll see changes from now till the fall. When the minimal design first shipped you could barely make out a button from text, and the font was incredibly thin. Over the ensuing months they tweaked things.

My first impression of Liquid Glass is excitement followed by concern about readability. I have to imagine Apple will dial things back a bit from the announcement to final release—or at least include accessibility options to shift from transparent to opaque glass. During the Keynote I felt distracted at times by how much the background shone through the buttons.

That aside this feels like a fun new time. It’s nothing like the shift from iOS 6 to 7. But it’s the second biggest design change we’ve had since the launch of the iPhone.

I’m excited to dive in and play with everything. It’s a welcome distraction for us to dither over, fuss about, amidst the bigger issues plaguing Cupertino.