14 DAY TRIAL // Opinions are divided on the topic of iOS 7 and its radical UI overhaul, but there’s one particular annoyance that we could all do without: the incredibly confusing Shift key.
The virtual keyboard is one of the most used functions across the entire operating system, yet Apple’s UI designers somehow managed to mess this one up big time. With the release of iOS 7.1, the Cupertino company changed the behavior of the Shift key to take on a white color when pressed and a gray color when inactive.
Anyone saying “I wouldn’t chalk it up as a big problem” either never types anything on their iPhone / uses a different smartphone / is Rainman, because more than a month into the release of the software update, almost every iOS-using soul on the planet is having a hard time figuring out when the key is active and when it’s not.
The biggest problems arise when you backspace at the beginning of a sentence, or when you decide to use upper case in mid-sentence. But designer Geoff Teehan thinks he has the solution.
He says Apple should implement the Android-style where the entire keyboard layout changes to lower-case when you hit the Shift key, as shown in the animated GIF image above. He also took the liberty of fixing the color issue by actually making the key appear as held down. What do you guys think?