OS X Concept Imagines A More IOS 7 Style Mac Operating System [Pics]

Over the past year, the number of designers trying their hands at mocking up digital renders of what they would like see in Apple hardware and software has increased dramatically. Such an increase in volume has a tendency to build up the noise. Thankfully, this does have a positive effect.

It makes the really good ones stand our more. One of the best, and most realistic concepts I’ve seen to date comes from Edgar Rios. The artist has come up with his idea of what OS X could look like if Apple decided to take the iOS 7 approach with Macs.

Above is the Finder window design. Which – instead of featuring translucent bars – features a translucent background to the entire window. The main body is less opaque than the side bar, and it definitely has an iOS 7 feel to it.

Even the small, click-able ‘x’, ‘-’ and ‘+’ icons in the top left corner have been given a new splash of color to make them more vibrant. Across the whole concept Rios has changed the coloring to match the vividness of iOS 7, and changed the default app icons to match.

Perhaps my favorite feature is the redesign of Notification Center and the addition of Control Center.

I love the usefulness of the ‘Today’ view in Notification Center. And much like it did with iOS, it moves Notification Center from being a never-visited UI, to being one of the most used elements of the platform.

I love the features included in Control Center in the concept too. Having a translucent bar come in to shot at the left side of the screen, featuring screen brightness settings, AirDrop and AirPlay would be fantastic.

I’ve highlighted a couple of key design features in this article, but you really should check out the entire concept over at Behance.net. It’s easily one of the best concepts I’ve seen, and one which I could imagine becoming a reality.

Sadly, just because I can imagine it, doesn’t mean it will ever be a reality. Apple has been moving some features from iOS to Mac over the past 2-3 years, but, I don’t think it’ll ever blur the lines so much that the two become indistinguishable.