Whatever happened to Nokia’s Pure UI? | by Abhijit Nayak | Sep, 2023

A promising design project that wasn’t meant to be

The design team at Nokia unveiled a new UI design system in March 2023, likely designed for Nokia’s B2B / enterprise software interfaces across multiple devices and screen sizes.

Focusing on a clean, minimalistic and clutter-free look, the system was rightfully named ‘Pure’. The system obviously took inspiration from the new Nokia logo launched a month earlier in February 2023 (Nokia’s first logo change in over 60 years!). The Pure design system even won the IF design award.

The Vision?

As per Nokia, the Pure design system focussed on creating a simple, flexible and future-proof design language. Of course, just like Material, we expected to see newer iterations as the system evolved, with the overarching vision and direction remaining consistent.

It’s a shame the Pure UI was never intended for Nokia-branded mobile devices. But it was planned to be rolled out for all software UIs developed by Nokia, including apps like Nokia WiFi. The new UI was to be used across multiple devices, including mobiles, laptops, smart wearables & digital assistants.

The company hasn’t released any official statement on what happened, but the Nokia Pure page went behind a ‘Coming soon’ screen a few days after being launched, and it hasn’t been live since. Currently the address is still registered to Nokia but it shows a 404 Error.

Did the company bin the entire launch plan? If yes, was it the increased complexity and cost of updating all systems (in a world of unstable geopolitics & economics) that motivated this decision? Or was it because there were disagreements on if/how Nokia Mobile could eventually use it? In the absence of an official explanation, these are just speculations in thin air.

#1. A new typeface

The UI uses a new custom typeface, also called Nokia Pure, which is a sans serif typeface.

#2. New variable-thickness icons based on geometrical shapes

The icons incorporate the same minimalistic feel. The thickness of strokes can be varied as per the look and feel desired, and the screens which they are intended for. The icons feature smooth outlines (and not filled shapes), keeping the minimalistic design intact and rendering a subtle feel.

#3. Nokia also included a series of minimalistic ‘Pure illustrations’ for designers.

Being an enterprise-oriented solution, a number of components for making complex web-based dashboards were crafted as well.

Minimalistic design is often looked as an ongoing design trend, but personally I look at it more as a design philosophy or an outlook towards design rather than a trend. Why make things feel more complex than they need to be? Simplicity has always drawn us, and minimalism is too broad a tangent be reduced to a design trend. That doesn’t mean it will apply to every context. Nothing does.