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For me it's the terrible blur or whatever it is on icons in the Dock. Makes them look fuzzy, unclear. Here we are paying top dollar for high-end screens and we're brought six steps backwards with blurry icons! Pathetic.
When the initial beta came out on iOS, I wasn’t sure if the blurring was a bug or intentional. The blurring was reduced some in later builds, but I think it makes icons look like the pre-HiDPI days. If I were a developer I’d be annoyed that my icons were being messed with.
 
Sort of nukes the whole “retina” thing when they’ve gone and made stuff blurry … on purpose?
That's an excellent point about Retina dislpays. That point also applies to all flat design: What is the point of having a higher-resolution Retina display if there is going to be flat design instead of skeuomorphism? Skeuomorphism was graphically rich and benefitted from higher resolution screens. Skeuomorphism took advantage of higher resoultion screens. Flat design is graphically minimalist and looks like a throwback to pre-GUI interfaces. MS-DOS is the ultimate in flat design user interfaces.
 
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IMO everything since iOS 7 has almost been like a wireframe. And MacOS has been a bit frankensteined somewhere in between. To me this seems to bring back some type of consistent design language. Just installed macOS Tahoe and have been pleasantly surprised.

Having followed Apple design history (look up went into making original rounded corners of MacOS way back when), and then everything from the aqua to the chrome interfaces, I have to think this had been on a Jobs whiteboard at some point, and we now have the compute and horsepower to make it work.
Yep you're right. The icons do look like something drawn on a whiteboard.

The ones in Sequoia look like they were made by real graphic designers. I particularly like seeing the use of lighting and shadow to convey depth. Almost like MacOS is a premium operating system deserving of a premium look.

Screenshot 2025-09-16 at 6.39.44 PM.png
 
I think the new UI has a really good texture and feel. At first, when I was just looking at the demo images, it didn’t really strike me. But after actually installing it and using it for a while, I found it quite refined. Rather than calling it “glass,” I’d say it feels more like a piece of translucent candy—thin, with a frosted, crystalline touch, almost like a shard of ice. What’s interesting about this UI is how well it pairs with background images.

In the past, no matter how nice your wallpaper was, it would pretty much get blocked by widgets or app icons. This time, the design comes with a trade-off: if you want to really bring out its charm, you definitely need to choose the transparent option. And here’s a tip—use the eyedropper to match the transparent color with the lightest part of your wallpaper, and the whole thing will form a very harmonious tone.

Overall, I really like this design and find it hard to put down. Of course, I think there’s still room for improvement in some details—it feels like something designed by a very young designer—but the flaws don’t overshadow the good parts. If you’re not fully satisfied with the overall style, try experimenting with a few different wallpapers. I think you’ll likely find a setup that feels comfortable and well-balanced. And of course, if you still don’t like it, that’s fine too—stick with what works for you.
 
What’s interesting about this UI is how well it pairs with background images.
When I choose a Desktop Picture, I choose one that won't be distracting while working. I find it weird that people want to stare at their wallpaper. Don't you have work to do?
In the past, no matter how nice your wallpaper was, it would pretty much get blocked by widgets or app icons.
Yes, just like a real wallpaper or the paint on your wall for that matter. Do you take the photos of your family off of the wall and instead put up transparent pieces of glass?
bring out its charm, you definitely need to choose the transparent option
By making the app icons all squares and transparent, they have literally made all the app icons identical. There is no charm. Your statement makes no sense because what Apple is doing is removing the charm of each icon and instead giving us some vague transparent box with what appears to be some Vaseline smeared on it.
 
When I choose a Desktop Picture, I choose one that won't be distracting while working. I find it weird that people want to stare at their wallpaper. Don't you have work to do?

Yes, just like a real wallpaper or the paint on your wall for that matter. Do you take the photos of your family off of the wall and instead put up transparent pieces of glass?

By making the app icons all squares and transparent, they have literally made all the app icons identical. There is no charm. Your statement makes no sense because what Apple is doing is removing the charm of each icon and instead giving us some vague transparent box with what appears to be some Vaseline smeared on it.

I can tell you’re pretty upset, and it seems like you think my opinion carries enough weight that you need to oppose every single word. I guess maybe you’ve got nothing better to do—same as me.
 
disagree, as i like the new GUI (which, agreed, still needs work). but wondering where you get your info: "Apple should have assigned 1.. or 10 developers *per official app* to iron out UI bugs, but they refused to"...

if it's just your theory, or opinion... that's cool. we're all entitled to our opinions 👍
Because the very, very obvious visual bugs, at *first glance* tells me they did not. If they did, they were all on paid vacation.
 
I love the Liquid Glass aesthetic-- they hit it out of the park with this one. Is the OS buggy? Yes. But the UI is clean and MUCH less distracting than it used to be. It's gorgeous. And if you don't like it, you can customize.
 
It is what it is, and eventually we have to install it. Hopefully, it will look better by then. I'm holding it off a bit anyways, I don't need Tahoe, so I can wait for the big bugs to be squashed.
 
Yep you're right. The icons do look like something drawn on a whiteboard.

The ones in Sequoia look like they were made by real graphic designers. I particularly like seeing the use of lighting and shadow to convey depth. Almost like MacOS is a premium operating system deserving of a premium look.

View attachment 2550284
The whiteboard reference was to the idea of a liquid glass interface as a whole. Not sure about the granular design analysis of a specific individual icon blown up like that, but the interface as a whole I am enjoying. Just opening up and interacting with Safari (for example, tabs, buttons, menus, etc.) looks polished and a pleasant improvement over Sequoia.
 
Haven’t made the move to IOS 26 yet. My daughter did and showed me the interface. My first, off the cuff spontaneous reaction was « oh, so we’re going back to black and white TV »

As for people « hating change ». That statement presupposes that ALL changes are a step forward. Not always the case. Some people don’t get it and have a right not to like it, and say as much.
 
I don't like transparency. My world isn't transparent...I don't read transparent books, I don't use transparent monitors, the paperwork on my desk isn't transparent..

I don't interact with anything transparent except windows (the physical objects, not the OS), which don't convey information except what is on the other side.
Correct, and this is part of the core issue in that, by trying to do something fancy and different, they are actually forcing an environment that is quite unnatural to us humans. Most things are opaque. It's what gives objects tangibility. Now, a little bit of transparency can soften things up, improve depth perception and layering, but the key thing is 'a little bit'.

There's another thing going on here though which is breaking things - translucency. Objects behind 'glass' are distorted (similar effect to frosted glass but clear) and this is totally distracting and unecessary.
 
Was flat design really that outdated and terrible?
It is more or less still flat. They only changed some elements to have transparent and glass-like behavior. Otherwise it is same, old, dated iOS 7 look, which was always cheap and I believe they even said it is made to be simple so developers will be able to easily replicate it.

I start to believe this design was made in a big rush because their Apple Intelligence is still not ready, so they needed something as a bid distraction.

A so-called "redesign" that was made for every OS simultaneously. Back when they rolled iOS 7 it was only for iPhones at first, and only in a year it was added to Mac OS X and other platforms
 
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For me it's the terrible blur or whatever it is on icons in the Dock. Makes them look fuzzy, unclear. Here we are paying top dollar for high-end screens and we're brought six steps backwards with blurry icons! Pathetic.
Sort of nukes the whole “retina” thing when they’ve gone and made stuff blurry … on purpose?
Lol I thought it was something with my eyesigth or that it was matte screen protector on a device I was testing it. It was definitely some sort of blur! Apple had used similar technique but for font readability back in the days of non-retina MacBooks, but I don't really get the idea of applying it on top of icons or graphic elements... Interestingly it behaves similar to this old technique - it seems to be not visible on screenshots, only on actual displays. Awful, rushed update indeed
 
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