Monday 5, June 2017, Apple’s WWDC Conference opened its doors in San Jose California, and the expected happened. The company unveiled the next major update to its mobile operating system, too loud applause. With it comes many fixes to annoying problems that iOS 10 didn’t fix or created. However, one important fix seems to have gone unnoticed, and that’s the inclusion of a new iOS 11 Volume HUD.
Hurray For A New iOS 11 Volume HUD
Not sure what the fuss is about? Go to your iOS 10, or older firmware running device and toggle the volume up or down. Now, it’s possible that you have become accustomed to seeing it, but the volume HUD you have dominates the display. As such, it has long been a source of irritation for iOS users.
As for how this finicky little issue has affected users the world over for years, there are many scenarios. Plus reasons for Apple to make a change here, imagine watching a YouTube video and altering the volume, the volume HUD blocks a user’s view. In fact, as you can imagine, it affects every aspect of iOS use.
Fortunately, Apple’s design team has finally/at long last, taken notice, and decided to change it. It must have realized that from a design and usability perspective a volume HUD that covers the screen isn’t good.
What’s Changed?
To start with, the iOS 11 Volume HUD doesn’t cover the screen; instead, it’s placed towards the top-rightly of the display. Furthermore, its much smaller, meaning, it won’t get in the way in its new position either. As for how positive a change this could be? It could mean that as the day’s and weeks go by, we discover more, small, but important changes in iOS 11. The kind of changes that will make Apple’s mobile OS a fundamentally better OS to use than previous.
Previously, third-party application, such as YouTube and other streaming apps have forgone the volume HUD for their solutions. And it is moves like this by such prominent app developers, that has often led to users wondering why Apple didn’t do this earlier. Surely, having some of the biggest apps in the App Store overriding features of your OS is an indication there’s a problem?
Why has the iOS 11 Volume HUD been changed? We don’t know; however, it’s likely to fit within the design change as a whole. Meaning, it’s probably not to solve the irritating problem of it getting in the way.
Final Thoughts
How will the iOS community respond to this change? We don’t expect to see thousands of blog posts or tweets about it. But, it will instill people with the hope that, Apple is again focussing on what makes iOS great and not just money earning projects.
