WWDC 2022 – key observations for iOS 16, macOS Ventura, iPadOS & watchOS

article title with apple logo

This year’s WWDC 2022 Keynote was full of inspiring news and announcements, just like the ones we used to watch. Special effects made us feel like in a sci-fi superhero movie. Craig’s haircut was perfect, as usual. However, the most important things were the announcements made during the event.

Grab the mug of your favorite coffee, and let’s dive into them!

iOS 15

New Lock Screen – ultimate customization

The way to customize it reminds me of watchOS mechanisms implemented to change watch faces.

Forget about changing just the background. Now you may change the colors and font and even add widgets too!
Widgets added from the gallery to the special area make the lock screen much more functional.

You may choose from dozens or hundreds of pre-generated lock screen setups.

It is worth noticing that all notifications all displayed from the bottom. You may also hide them under one label.

Live Activities – feature present on the lock screen. They are something like living notifications combined with a widget. They allow us to track meal orders, play music, and various other things.

 

ios 16 lockscreen

Link Focus

The feature is all about filtering – you may filter messages, tabs, and notifications depending on context – work, personal life, etc.

iOS clearly integrates even further with apps. Developers get more APIs (Shared with You, SharePlay, Live Activities, etc.).

To conclude, there are lots of new elements in the lock screen, app integrations, and native apps. However, when it comes to iOS 16 UI, it looks almost the same as the previous version. No significant changes were made, only some liftings.

Next generation of CarPlay

New CarPlay goes far beyond just displaying multimedia and navigation. It brings the integration of your car & iPhone to the next level. All information may be passed to CarPlay. It may replace the default car display and show all driving information.

Just like with iOS, you may customize it with information, colors, and layouts – super cool.

 

new carplay widgets

 

What do iOS 16 updates mean to us – designers?

For years Apple has stood for a unified UI experience. Now we see the change – users are allowed to customize more and more elements. Personalization trend may be a hint for us – make your app experiences feel more personal!

Live Activities will allow us to stay in the loop. Think outside of the app and integrate the experience of your project into the system area. Help users track the progress and update them in real-time without sending a load of notifications.

Link Focus helps users deal with distractions. Curation that depends on specific context was present before, but also here, it is worth considering designing for that now.

CarPlay shows how to transition the experience from one device to another. It’s great to observe how the information is passed and displayed on different devices.

watchOS 9

Just like in previous editions, users get more and more customization. New banner notifications, improved Siri, and rich complications. There are updates regarding sports activities etc. I didn’t notice anything exciting that may become a trend when it comes to the design (or maybe I missed something – if so, let me know in the comments).

Seem like an evolution than a revolution, but the improvements will surely be noticed in daily use.

macOS Ventura

First, we received M2 chip and can’t wait to get a device with it. Greater performance, higher efficiency. This for sure will help us to work faster… and the new MacBook Air is gorgeous, but what’s new for macOS?

 

macos ventura summary

Stage Manager

macOS Ventura brings more vivid colors as the background. What is worth noticing is that multiple window workflow Stage Manager adds some 3d effects (for the apps in the background) that help us to focus on the main task but also keep other apps close.

Is that breaking news for our workflow? Will see. Looks interesting.

Spotlight

Someone said that the command line is coming back with a more human approach. The new capabilities of the spotlight is a proof of this trend.

By the way, on iPhone, you will find a spotlight at the bottom of the screen (below the icons). Much easier to reach.

Continuity

You may notice lots of improvements there, but here is the biggest thing: You may use iPhone as a webcam now!

The good quality of the video is very important since many of us work remotely.

 


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iPadOS 16

Let’s think of it as the first big release of this platform. It is clearly more like iOS and, at the same time, more like macOS.

Collaboration

You may work seamlessly with others through various apps (for sure, system ones like Pages, Keynote, Numbers, Safari, etc.). What’s important, you may connect with the current working group through messages and facetime almost immediately.

We may bring collaboration to our apps with Collaboration API.

Free form – Apple’s Figjam?

The collaboration will come with an interesting solution to improve brainstorming and remote workshops. Looks almost like Figjam – should we consider switching to that tool later this year?

 

collaboration app

Other apps

Plenty of big and tiny enhancements to the native apps will make us more productive. Thanks to Stage Manager with overlapping windows, similar to the one presented in Ventura, the experience feel much closer to what we see in macOS. By the way, now you may even customize the toolbar of many apps!

General thoughts

There are some things I observed during the conference:

  • Undo everything – from announced iOS to macOS features, we see that ability to edit on remove already sent messages is a thing
  • Forget passwords – With Passkeys, Apple wants us to forget the passwords, not our passwords, but all passwords, and change them with devices we have to sign in
  • Continuity – we already heard of the omnichannel concept, but with a new generation of CarPlay and Continuity on macOS, we got new inspiration on how to make it more intuitive

These are not graphical UI changes but the things that will shape the experiences of solutions we design. Pay attention to them too.

 

apple devices

Summary

Hard to remember all the new stuff presented during the Keynote, but this summary should help you with gathering the most important things for us – designers.

What do you think of these updates? Do you enjoy the new iOS & macOS (or watchOS)? How will it impact your design work?

Thanks for reading!

 

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