I think that you answered your own question here the UI buttons in iOS 7 apps all have a tint colour assigned to them to differentiate between the two (in case you haven't noticed). And even if you want the borders, there's an option to turn them on in 7.1. But really, I wouldn't like that because it looks bad.
Thinner letters are better because they make it look sleeker, at least to my eyes. Yes, a lot of people say it's more difficult to read. But theres an option to thicken fonts in settings. But to people who have a normal vision, they can really appreciate having thinner fonts.
As the poster above pointed out, "sleeker" text is not automatically better. It is harder to read, especially at a distance. Also, in situations where there is low contrast between the text and the background it is presented on (a problem that is RAMPANT in iOS 7), thin fonts make the text even harder to read. Finally, if all these changes are so fantastic, why has Apple begun including options to turn them off?
Now let's look at how they've made it easier to focus on content:
- Grouping photos in the photos app
![PhotosApp.png]( "PhotosApp.png")
Yeah, it's definitely WAY easier to find my photos when they are grouped like this at 4px by 4px resolution. Good job Apple.
This is a half-improvement. Yes you do get a little extra content on screen at a time. But, it's not actually that much more than in iOS 6. In iOS 6, the address bar (120 px) disappeared completely when you scrolled down, and the bottom bar (88 px) with all the navigation and tab controls remained persistent. That left 1008 px (1136 - 88 - 40 for the status bar) for your content. Now the bottom bar disappears completely and the address bar/status bar area shrinks to 80 px, leaving 1056 px (1136 - 80) for your content. That's a gain of a whopping 48 px (or 4%) of screen height for viewing content. But, in exchange, you now lose the persistent navigation controls. While you can now swipe left/right to go back or forward, you now have to either tap the top bar or scroll up in order to access your bookmarks or other open tabs. That's not a clear improvement (it's a wash at best). Personally, I would rather trade the extra 48 px for the ability to access my other tabs more quickly.
- Animated weather backgrounds
I agree the animated backgrounds are
pretty. But here, your "content" is the useful information a weather app is supposed to provide, like temperature and forecast. How does having an animated background help me focus on that information? I would argue that the unnecessary motion in the background actually distracts from reading the text on the screen. Furthermore, when it's cloudy or foggy outside, the background becomes a light grey, leading to yet
another iOS 7 low contrast situation (this time it's white text on a grey background). In this case, it is definitely harder to focus on your content. In iOS 6, the current conditions were just presented with a simple (if photorealistic) glyph and the background was ALWAYS either a dark blue during the day or a dark purple at night. Now we have an inconsistent background that always has some sort of motion going on. Seems to me that it's the iOS 7 weather app that is full of unnecessary ornamentation that apparently is the root of all evil from the iOS 6 days.
- Removal of unnecessary glossiness in the lock screen, so the wallpaper is at focus
I'll give you this one. It's a large improvement over the old look. Though, you do encounter some cases where the clock is very hard to read (it depends on the background). Having the glossy bars did ensure the clock was always easily legible.
- Removal of green felt in game centre, so again, the content is more in focus.
Umm...I guess the big glossy bubbles are an improvement over the green felt and glossy wood bars from iOS 6. I don't really use this app though, so I don't care either way.
