Polls find users prefer iOS 7 design to iOS 6, fingerprint scanner to replace passwords

An online poll conducted by Polar compares key user-interface elements from iOS 7 to the iOS 6 counterparts. Despite the outpour of criticism from some of iOS 7, these results show that an overwhelming amount of poll responders prefer the design of iOS 7 to iOS 6 and other previous iOS versions…

Provided to 9to5Mac by Polar

The polls compared critical interface elements such as: the on/off switches, date picker, alerts, status bar, sliders, keyboard, icon set, sharing, the Lock screen, and Notification Center.
Results in favor of iOS 7 were present for each comparison in the poll. Above is a chart detailing the results. The left side of the chart shows how many votes each version of the interface element received. The right side shows a percentage breakdown. In total, iOS 7 received 72% preference compared to 28% for iOS 6.
Some “landslide” preference for iOS 7 interface elements include Notification Center, the Lock Screen, and Tab bars. The iOS 6 interface elements that seem to still be preferred the most (albeit less than iOS 7 – according to this poll) are switches, the status bar, and tool bar.
iOS 7 launches this fall with a completely new design that focuses on user-content, rather than on heavy, flashy user-interface elements. Polar previously conducted a poll of iOS Home screen icon set, and even though the iOS 7 icons have been highly criticized by many, many of the iOS 7 icons were preferred over their iOS 6 counterparts.

Polar also has started a poll in light of recent evidence and reports regarding a fingerprint sensor coming to the next iPhone. While it seems likely that Apple is planning to implement a biometric sensor in the new smartphone, the use-cases are so far unclear. We have heard that the purpose will focus on unlocking the device, rather on a payment system (as some have claimed), and this new poll put overall “added security” head-to-head with using the sensor in place of a passcode and a login.
While this poll is still new, it seems that users would prefer such a sensor due to added login/passsword convenience (170 votes thus far), rather than for just tightening security and authentication in general (68 votes thus far).
Of course, these unscientific, online polls are just the opinion of a minuscule slice of the hundreds of millions of iOS users. However, the user base of hundreds of people who participated in the poll is potentially a fair indicator of the overall market’s opinion.