ColorOS 13: the importance of design-centric software

On August 18th, 2022, OPPO officially released ColorOS 13, one of the world's first mobile operating systems based on Android 13. By the end of this year, the latest software update will be available to most of  OPPO’s smartphones, reaching as many as 160 million users in more than 60 countries and regions. With ColorOS 13, OPPO is building on the design experience of ColorOS 12, launched last year in October. The previous version of the company's mobile operating system won the company a series of coveted accolades, including a Red Dot Award for Brands and Communication Design.

OPPO is now taking its design-first approach to software engineering one step further. ColorOS 13 introduces Aquamorphic Design, an entire new design language that shapes all the interface elements and the way they all seamlessly interact with each other. As the name suggests, OPPO's Aquamorphic Design is inspired by how water acts (and reacts) in nature. The UI is therefore built to be fluid and vibrant, adapting easily to the users' needs and expectations.

"To counteract this feeling of fatigue and to bring some more vitality into everyday life, we've refreshed ColorOS 13 with an amazing design inspired by one of the greatest gifts from nature... water", explains Xi Zheng, OPPO's Director of Software Design. "Water is seen as a symbol of hope and vitality in every culture. And water, as it turns out, is just how we envision our technology: peaceful, vibrant, all-pervading, but silently impacting our life." Having water as an elemental inspiration doesn't mean that the new design language has to be formless. Instead, it's adaptable and modular and features illustrations, palettes, and animations inspired by the interactions of water in nature. The software engineering team at OPPO has revamped the system theme color selection and has included smooth animations and adaptive layouts to accommodate all the different devices that will receive the new update in the next few months. The goal was to offer the user a concise and human-centered experience.

The new system palette, for example, was inspired by the change in color that happens between sunrise and sunset at sea level. At the same time, the shapes of ColorOS 13's windows, cards, and input boxes “reflect a sense of water-like fluidity to symbolize the vitality of life,” as OPPO aptly put it. Moreover, the new system fonts of ColorOS 13 improve the visual experience of Latin & Cyrillic and Arabic numerals. For example, the slightly wider font face will enhance the typography, adapting it to many different languages and offering users worldwide a vastly improved reading experience, regardless of their language. 

The design upgrade extends beyond the redesigned lock screen and always-on display to improve the look and feel of the entire home screen. OPPO's design team has revamped all of the app icons to make them more recognizable and easier to read, especially for people with visual impairment. After all, another tentpole of ColorOS 13's Aquamorphic Design is inclusivity, both to support people with different levels of abilities and with different cultural backgrounds. Empty State illustrations in the system settings menu are a good example of this inclusive approach. They feature a series of characters with diverse cultures and backgrounds, which will help users understand the meaning of the specific option they're navigating.

The vivid and recognizable new app icons also improve the general ease of use of the device. Based on the acrylic style of ColorOS 12, icons in ColorOS 13 sport a stronger color contrast, so even users with visual impairments can easily read onscreen prompts and instructions. On top of that, a series of new home screen management features help users customize their display experience as they see fit. ColorOS 13 introduces Shelf, Widgets, and Large Folders, which all boost the efficiency of display real estate management on a wide array of devices with highly variable screen ratios and sizes. Last but not least, the home screen is easier to customize with completely new widgets supporting multiple apps such as Clock, Weather, Albums, Spotify, Google Calendar, and many more.

ColorOS 13 also comes with a series of improvements to the always-on display. Brand-new animations feature animals and nature, revealing gradual changes in different habitats, and how daily temperature changes are impacting on the wildlife. It's a way to gently focus the users' attention on prominent issues such as climate change and the effect of our human activity on the planet we all share.

Another intelligent feature that will prove very popular among tech-aware users is Blossom Wallpaper. The dynamic wallpaper shows the growth of a plant on the screen, based on the amount of time users spend on their phones. To activate it, the user just has to set a daily time limit for phone usage. The sprout unfolds as the user keeps using the phone, reaching a full bloom when the threshold is reached. If the user goes over the daily time limit, the plant will morph into a metallic piece of art, while the plant's color changes dynamically to match the palette of the most used app in the last hour.

The Blossom Wallpaper, while just a detail among many others, proves how ColorOS 13 is the epitome of OPPO's design-oriented approach to software development. It's a simple and elegant idea that creates a strong visual metaphor, communicating with the user in an aesthetically pleasing yet meaningful and unobtrusive way. Along with the many references to the elemental nature of water, it's also a testament to OPPO's vision of their technology: peaceful, vibrant, and all-pervading, yet capable of silently impacting our lives in a positive way.

ColorOS 13 will be available initially on OPPO's FindX5 Pro and Find X5 flagship smartphone. In September, it lands on the company's brand new Reno8 Pro 5G and last year's top-of-the-line smartphone, FindX3 Pro. Additional models will receive the update in the following months.