Get a First Look at macOS Tahoe's Design and Spotlight Changes

[mxrider88]

Have you considered that Apple plans products years ahead? I think the reason for larger UI elements will become apparent in a few years when they introduce new touchscreen products.

I simply asked if they made the UI elements bigger.

 

[chabig]

I simply asked if they made the UI elements bigger.

Yes, they are bigger.

 

[tomtad]

This is underneath a pointer!

View attachment 2521199


We don't the totally superfluous, view distorting and honestly in the way "Magnifying thing".

Personally I like the bubble, it's a fun touch and very reminiscent of Aqua. One thing I'm not so keen on is the Control Centre itself, yes I see they're going for consistency with iOS but the large buttons are designed for touch, not a pointer. It needs to be shrunk down a little. You could also fit in more controls that way as well.

 

[mxrider88]

Yes, they are bigger.

Thanks for confirming. I thought it was an issue caused by running it in a UTM virtual machine.

Too big if you ask me. I understand it might work for touchscreens, but I find it very unpleasant to use.

 

[jayducharme]

I’m psyched for that clipboard feature. I’ve tried 3rd party solutions but found them clunky. This looks simple and really useful.

 

[jchurchill]

I just hope there is a way to turn it off, much like Windows XP could be changed back to look like Windows 2000.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Sure, things like Control Center get the Liquid Glass look, but how is this an improvement on readability?

[Edit: I fixed the even grayer overall cast in the image I posted here earlier, that wasn't present in the original image above]

 

[nathansz]

The menu bar is now invisible so there's more available display space at the top of your Mac

um, nope

there just isn't a tint along the menu bar

you still can't use that space, no extra space has been made available

how does such an obvious error make it in to the article?

 

[nathansz]

I am curious, only because I have never needed a clipboard history of more than many 5 or 6 things...why do you need a clipboard history of so much? As I said, just curious.

I could see a use case for it

I use a quick note for when I have to copy and paste multiple things over and over again

 

[nathansz]

did they make also all the UI elements bigger?

yes

 

[johnsawyercjs]

there just isn't a tint along the menu bar

you still can't use that space, no extra space has been made available

how does such an obvious error make it in to the article?

Yup. But unfortunately that's how Apple has been billing it. I just reduced transparency and increased contrast, and now I've got a normal white menu bar again.

 

[nathansz]

Yup. But unfortunately that's how Apple has been billing it. I just reduced transparency and increased contrast, and now I've got a normal white menu bar again.

I use ice anyway, which gives me tint behind items and blank in the middle

either way it doesn't explain how such an error made it in to the article

 

[nathansz]

Have you considered that Apple plans products years ahead? I think the reason for larger UI elements will become apparent in a few years when they introduce new touchscreen products

Yeah no. They already have more than one touch screen os

macOS isn’t one of them

 

[nathansz]

I just hope there is a way to turn it off, much like Windows XP could be changed back to look like Windows 2000.

There won’t be

 

[turbineseaplane]

Sure, things like Control Center get the Liquid Glass look, but how is this an improvement on readability? (Preview made this grayer than it actually is, but you get the idea):

View attachment 2521239

Horrendous.
Absolutely awful.

 

[WinstonSmyth]

I’m absolutely disgusted by those enormous rounded window corners. I thought the ones introduced by macOS Big Sur were bad enough. The rest looks okay.

All this rounded corners and buttons looks like something that Fisher Price would use for a kids toy.

 

[exodiusprime]

It's interesting how UI designs went from flat (80s/90s) to 3D (late 90s/2000s) to flat (2010s/early 2020s) and back to 3D 🤔 Let's see if 2030 will bring us back to flat designs again 😆

 

[richinaus]

It's interesting how UI designs went from flat (80s/90s) to 3D (late 90s/2000s) to flat (2010s/early 2020s) and back to 3D 🤔 Let's see if 2030 will bring us back to flat designs again 😆

no wont be a UI where we are going.....

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Horrendous.
Absolutely awful.

Yeah, I normally keep transparency reduced and contrast increased, which returns things almost back to normal, but I briefly turned on full transparency and turned off increased contrast today just to get that image.

I also found I couldn't produce that image by taking a partial (using crosshairs) screenshot of the Control Center using Command-Control-Shift-4 (maybe a macOS Tahoe/26 bug?), even though I got the crosshairs, since this didn't save a screenshot file to my Macbook's SSD despite my repeated attempts, so I had to take a photo using my iPhone instead. That rigmarole increased the overall gray cast of the image I originally posted. I fixed that by opening the image in Photos (since Preview can't make this fix) and exporting it as "More Compatible", but this shouldn't be necessary (this bug pre-dates Tahoe/26). The actual image, now posted in my original comment, is still terrible.

 

[YodaATmac]

I get it change is hard. We like what we are used to. But that doesn't make change a bad UI design. Sorry. Modern visual science has shown that hard corners demand attention and draw the viewer's eye to specific points. If an image is filled with many hard edges, the viewer's eyes can be constantly drawn to multiple points, potentially leading to visual fatigue. Is what it is. When the original 128 k Mac came out with squared off windows optimized for crampness which you seem to prefer, the screen dimensions were a puny 512 x 342. These days standard is 1920 x 1280, literally 14 fold more pixels for UI engineers to work with. With all the concern about visual fatigue from working with screens all day, it's about time UI engineers move from cramming things in to optimizing for easing visual fatigue. Thats the Macintosh way. Always has been, always will be (hopefully).

Everyone's entitled to opinions, but don't think thats the only comment.

I do not really understand the "change" here with the liquid glass thingy. We already had this stuff in mac os 10 in 2001 kiddos...#aqua and it was abandoned in 2013/14. what reason that might be... hmmm.

 

[antmarobel]

I want my Launchpad back! I don't like Windows Aero.

 

[navaira]

um, nope

there just isn't a tint along the menu bar

you still can't use that space, no extra space has been made available

how does such an obvious error make it in to the article?

Oh phew. I was alarmed there for a minute. I don’t want a disappearing menu, same as I never use the disappearing Dock.

All this rounded corners and buttons looks like something that Fisher Price would use for a kids toy.

I’m surprised it has taken them so long to round everything – the screens themselves have round corners on all devices by now, doing the same to windows only makes visual sense. Does it make practical sense? Let’s not get ask for too much… but it looks purdy while less useful, especially on a 14” screen. On my 28” external display (which doesn’t have rounded corners) it’s just going to look, uh, weird.

 

[jonnysods]

Sure, things like Control Center get the Liquid Glass look, but how is this an improvement on readability?

View attachment 2521264

[Edit: I fixed the even grayer overall cast in the image I posted here earlier, that wasn't present in the original image above]

Wow that is breaking my brain my eyes do not like that! Is it bigger than the current control center? Without the rectangle surrounding it it's hard to tell.

 

[nathansz]

Wow that is breaking my brain my eyes do not like that! Is it bigger than the current control center? Without the rectangle surrounding it it's hard to tell.

It is bigger

Virtually every ui element is bigger

Meanwhile it adds nothing usability wise and I. Fact is a huge step backwards to implement a giant gimmick that looks like it was stolen from a kde theme

I didn’t realize sequoia would be peak macOS

I’ll be sticking with it as long as all of my apps continue to work

 

[turbineseaplane]

Virtually every ui element is bigger

Meanwhile it adds nothing usability wise

This is my issue with it.

Are they actually building towards touch support on macOS eventually?

Otherwise, I don't understand why everything keeps getting larger and more spread out on an on OS that works only with pointing devices.