Greg Christie, a longtime Apple engineer who spearheaded the design of the iPhone’s slide-to-unlock feature, is apparently leaving Apple after repeated clashes with Apple senior vice president of design Jony Ive. 9to5Mac’s sources say that Christie’s departure as Apple’s human interface vice president means that Ive has now taken complete control over the design of iOS and that this represents a major shakeup to the iOS design team.
So what does this mean for the future of iOS design? Well, 9to5Mac’s sources say that Ive actually circumvented Christie during the iOS 7 design process, which means the changes that Apple made to its mobile operating system last year are definitely here to stay. 9to5Mac also says that this portends big changes for OS X, which “will be revamped with a flatter look that loses the textures that Christie utilized to make the iPhone the most popular gadget on the planet.”
So it looks like skeuomorphism is completely out at Apple and the flatness favored by Ive is in for the foreseeable future. It will certainly be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months.
