If there's anything the internet has waxed poetic about wanting—nay—needing to see on the upcoming iOS 7 release, it's a general flat design overhaul. But while that's a completely valid demand, we've yet to hear too much about how Apple might address specific features in need of major functionality tuneups—until now, that is.
Brye Kobayashi, a student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, has stepped in with a beautiful, much-improved concept for iOS 7's music app that we can only hope won't be too far off from whatever Jony Ive's been cooking up.
Kobayashi's concept does, of course, incorporate flattened elements, but it's by no means taken to the extremes we've been seeing in other mockups, which makes it a far more realistic vision. Regarding his vision for iOS 7's design, Kobayashi explains:
There's nothing wrong with shadows or gradients—our eyes don't see in 2D. We just need to find the balance between Metro and Skeutomorphic.
And while certainly leaning more toward the Metro side of the scale, he does manage what seems like a fairly plausible final product.
Both the scrubber at the top and the playback controls finally make use of a (previously underutilized) center space with a larger, cleaner layout. But one of the most thoughtful features Kobayashi added is the swipe-up track listing, a far more intuitive alternative to the app's current, tiny button.
Overall, the tweaks may be small—but they add up. The music app did, admittedly, just get a major redesign with the release of iOS 6, but the changes were almost entirely superficial. We've yet to have a major improvement to the app's overall experience. So as wonderful as our new, flat phones may be, let's hope they come with the functionality to match. You can see the rest of Kobayashi's vision for a better music tomorrow over at his blog. [Brye Kobayashi via Tech Bloch]