What I would love to see, frankly, is the original, undiluted, un-gremiumed, un-f*kd-with concept of Apples design team. This feels like something that was a good idea gone through too many compromises, meetings, «neat» additional ideas by executives, last minute hasty edits due to complaints during the beta phase... it is, in itself and between the various platforms, uneven, not as unified as it should be, not as simple and easy as should be Apples «Dieter Rams»-esque approach would be, a weird mix between the simplified design of iOS 7+ und the skeuomorphism before that. I personally feel that an OS should be as invisible and unobtrusive as possible, which the glas interface is not. The shiny rims on the app icons and buttons, the constant Swarovsky magic fairy dust shimmering... I get that Apple maybe had to get out of Jon Ives Braun-era simplicity, at some point you have reached maximum simplicity and can (should) just leave it at that. You do that, your customers call you «boring» and «lazy», so you have to change things up, but you cannot go to more simplification at some point, so you have to bring back visual complexity.
The idea to use water and glas as metaphors for an interface is elegant and simple when you have give up on the reduce-to-the-max-aesthetics. But 26 feels like... well it feels like any design project that started with a good idea and got FUBAR by the client or the decision-makers. So I would love to see, beyond the WWDC-vids, what the actual design idea in its purest form would be like.
In the end, what would be nice is to keep much of the Liquid Glass for interface and smooth transitions/animations, but reduce the icons again, get rid of the glossy rims on everything, make it more realistic and simplified, a shape-shifting smart interface that reacts before you even notice, that feels natural and easy and (as liquid at its best does!) fun.
