Inside Apple, Jony Ive is pushing designers to rethink iOS, the software that runs on the iPhone and iPad. Apple’s new direction? Like Microsoft, which has distanced itself from skeuomorphic design, Ive has been pushing “flat design” in Apple’s mobile products. But just because Apple and Microsoft are embracing flatness, don’t let that fool you into thinking the future of mobile user interface design will also be shallow.

THE KEY TO FACEBOOK’S NEW MOBILE PARADIGM IS DEPTH.
To wit: Yesterday, at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook Home, the company’s next-gen mobile product. Built on top of Google’s Android platform, Home is all about layers of immersive content. Instead of forcing users to jump in and out of apps, Facebook’s new experience integrates services on top of one another, enabling users to slide seamlessly from one piece of content to the next. There are no separate home windows or lock screens to enter or exit. What you see on your screen–whether a status update, news feed, or Instagram photo–is Home. Facebook has woven traditionally disparate content and services together into a single, unified experience. “We’re building something much deeper than an app,” Zuckerberg said.