Inside Apple’s Redesign of the iOS Lock Screen

Lance Ulanoff, in a detailed interview with Craig Federighi and Alan Dye regarding the new lock screen features in iOS 16:

“From a Design Team perspective, our goal was to create something that felt almost more editorial, and to give the user the ability to create a Lock Screen that really … ends up looking like a great magazine cover or film poster but doing it in a way that’s hopefully really simple to create, very fun, and even with a lot of automation there,” said Dye. [...]

Instead of a set collection of filters you can apply to images, Apple is using that segmentation knowledge to offer up a bespoke set of looks.

“These styles are so much more than filters,” said Dye. “We’re actually using segmentation, tonal values, all of our scene understanding to really help us determine how we can intelligently offer a variety of treatments for each photo. Which is also really cool because it’s very much Apple at its best. Design and engineering technology all working together to offer something, really, I think, quite beautiful.”

Instead of eight or a dozen set filters, you might only be offered two styles for a photo, and they’re unlikely to be the same two if you chose a different Lock Screen photo. Dye told us that if the system doesn’t think the photo will look great, it won’t suggest it, a point of care and attention that helps guide the user towards more visually arresting Lock Screens.

It’s rough in developer beta 1, but I’m pretty sure this is my favorite new feature in iOS 16.

★ Monday, 13 June 2022