iOS 10 was released a couple of days ago, and has finally made it onto my carry phone. Although I’d been using the betas on a secondary phone for a couple of months, I’ve only felt most of the changes over the last couple of days.
By and large, I think iOS 10 is a great step forward. I quite like it. There is however, one part of it that I think is a pretty big step backwards: Control Center.
If you’re not sure what Control Center is, it’s the thingamajig that pops up when you slide upwards from the bottom of your iPhone. It looks like this in iOS 10:
The iOS 10 review on MacStories has an excellent image of how Control Center has evolved since iOS 7:
Notice that in iOS 10, audio playback controls no longer feature in Control Center. They’ve been pushed to the second page.
Viticci argues for the decision in his review. I recommend reading it first. I’m paraphrasing here, but his argument boils down to the fact that the iOS 10 version is more spacious, and does separate jobs better. I don’t disagree. The iOS 10 version is definitely a lot less cramped (especially on the non Plus sized phones). I don’t disagree with the decision to paginate Control Center. I do like that the iOS 10 media playback page now shows artwork.
However, I do disagree with the ordering of controls on those pages. I use the media playback controls in Control Center several times a day. I may have used the AirDrop, and Night Shift controls a grand total of once, when the features were first debuted. I do use the AirPlay control from time to time, but a lot less frequently than I use the media playback controls.
Perhaps I’m in the minority here with my usage pattern. Perhaps Apple has data to back this up. But, I find that hard to believe based on anecdotal observations of friends and family using their iPhones.
The new design requires me to swipe one extra time, to do something I do multiple times a day, in order to give me the ability to do things I hardly ever do.
In my opinion, this was a bad design decision.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can find me on twitter: I’m @gopalkri.