As I watched the keynote on Monday it struck me how different everything in iOS 7 looked. I don't mean different from iOS 6 – that's obvious and expected – I noticed just how different each app in iOS 7 looked from its brethren. Check out the buttons below for the new/updated Safari, Photos, and Music apps in iOS 7 (you can see full app screenshots for yourself at Apple's iOS 7 page).
Which is it? Wireframe, shaded shapes, text, no text? Have the people who made each of these apps met? Apple is pushing out an entirely new design scheme to developers, encouraging them to comply with the New Way Of Thinking About Buttons™, and yet Apple can't even internally agree on what these elements should look like.
Yes, I get that Apple only showed us the first beta release, but third-party developers – the people who make the apps you and I use every day – have limited time to start getting their apps ready for the iOS 7. That means they need to know today what their apps should look like. They need guidance from Apple, not just in terms of documentation but also by example as to how this stuff is supposed to look and work.
And it seems like Apple hasn't even decided yet.
A year from now this won't be an issue, so perhaps that also means it doesn't matter now, but I think it does. Hopefully developers at WWDC in the labs are asking Apple these same questions, and hopefully Apple will provide some clear guidance to all developers Real Soon Now™.