Designer of the Original Mac Icon Praises iOS 7, Other Critics Chime In

Susan Kare, the woman who originally designed the Mac icon and thousands of other icons for clients, has given iOS 7 praise. When asked on her thoughts about the new design, Kare responded:

Generally a good direction–am a fan of simple, meaningful symbols that fill a space, such as Music and Weather. It’s better — more iconic, less illustrative.

iOS 7 has been radical change that many seem to love or hate. Noted designer Cap Watkins believes we are missing the bigger picture regarding iOS 7.


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Today, Apple pressed the big reset button on their entire OS and aesthetic. Sure, the functionality is still, largely, there. But they’ve essentially taken the last six years of tweaking, touching-up, honing, and revising and wiped it all away to begin again. To learn again. To hone from a new, unknown place.

For the last couple of years we’ve all complained, jeered and teased our phone-maker-of-choice for not totally revising their UI. For using felt. For using leather stitching. They’re falling behind the times, we said. They need to revolutionize their interface.

And now we’re complaining that this completely revamped, new, version one interface isn’t perfect. Isn’t polished. Isn’t honed. We asked for a revolution and were delivered one which, all complexities considered, amounts to more than any one of our best first launches.

It will get better. It will be honed. They’ll spend the next six years polishing this interface until we’re complaining that it’s not real-looking enough. Not directly-connected-to-our-brains enough. Not whatever enough. And they’ll revolutionize it again. And we’ll complain.
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It seems that the general consensus among critics is that it is indeed a good start/refresh, however more tweaking and changes will be needed. Reportedly, we could see changes in icons before the final release, which seems to be the biggest area of complaints among users.

Read More via CultofMac
(CapWatkins Blog)