Liquid Glass - A must read critique

[fisherking]

I must say, I enjoyed this critique. The conclusion really nails the bigger problem of Liquid Glass: that beyond simply being new, there is nothing inherently improved about it.

The Beta phase cannot be used as an excuse for poor design choices. Bugs and oversights will get fixed, but the fundamentals of liquid glass are in place now, and they’re not changing.

Watching the developer videos is a good insight into how misguided Alan Dye and his team (we assume). They provide rationale for each of the primary design features, but what’s telling is that almost none have a clear benefit to the end user.

For instance, in the video concerning app icon design they repeatedly discuss criteria for good and poor choices when it comes to layering ‘glass’ elements, but by the end there is no clear explanation as to why an app icon must conform to principles of glass layering. I am not a UX designer, but I don’t need to be one to know that you’re stifling originality and personality by forcing a design to be made from ‘glass’, and thus limiting how distinct it can be.

Mail.app is a clear case in point. It’s an absolute abomination of an app icon, not just in terms of composition, but is self-inflicted by forcing a ‘glass’ material onto an object that is the last material we associate with being glass. It looks completely at odds with an Apple experience and in no way improves upon the current Sequoia icon.

Many of us here are long time Mac users, myself included, and we’ll be reminded somewhat condescendingly that not everyone can be made happy when a new experience is released. This is true only to an extent; Liquid Glass isn’t subjectively bad, it’s objectively a lesser experience when user interface elements are less clear and thus more difficult to interact with.

Mountain Lion was easily peak-MacOS design when it came strictly to the usability of the interface, and Aqua was a world away from this self-absorbed “look what we can do” nonsense that exists purely from the back-slapping culture that sadly has eroded any sense of taste and integrity that I once associated with Apple.

Platinum, Aqua and Late-Aqua were user-focused, Liquid Glass is not.

you typed 'objective' where you probably meant 'subjective'. an opinion (yours, mine) is just that; an opinion.

i don't love everything about the look, but am smart enough to adapt, wait for possible refinements, and get on with my life, as opposed to imagining that apple will change everything because some people on an internet forum complained.


disclaimer: i am spending too much time on this forum 🤣

 

[appleguy123]

The article seems to be more about the author's depression than any actual substantial argument about design.

 

[nathansz]

We'll see later this year.
But even if it's running, looking and feeling great, there will always be folks who won't like it. 🤷‍♂️

It won’t be looking and feeling great.

It will run the same, it’s an almost entirely cosmetic update this year

 

[nathansz]

Those of you who say it will stay this way and not get better in the official release. But what if it is? Will you say, you ranted to soon?

If they correct the terrible UI decisions that they made then I will applaud it.

That’s not going to happen though

 

[nathansz]

What is your claim based at? The early developer betas or something else?

The look isn’t going to change

Betas aren’t for testing aesthetic ideas

What it looks like now is what it’s going to look like

 

[DENZIE]

It baffles me, that people seemingly STILL don't understand it's in early beta and things can and will change.
Especially for visuals, I would wait for a (near) final build to give judgement.

But if one waits to a near final build to give judgment then it’s certainly too late to accomodate any critique

 

[tkermit]

The look isn’t going to change

I wouldn't expect any sweeping changes, but there certainly will be adjustments to the look that may affect legibility etc. Obvious showstoppers, such as black lines appearing at the bottom of inactive Safari tabs, have yet to be fixed, as mentioned in the release notes. Not to mention that the look has already changed between Beta 1 and Beta 2, albeit in subtle ways.

 

[GrassShark]

It's wild to see the number of people brushing these issues off as "oh, it's just a beta". It's too late for major sweeping changes, this is largely what the stuff is going to look like in the final release. There will be small tweaks here and there, but a lot of these aren't simple problems with a quick fix, they're decisions Apple designers made on purpose. The problem isn't just that the design is broken, it's that they made it that way, stood back and looked at it, and went "yup, that looks great, I don't see any issues with this".

 

[Bungaree.Chubbins]

I agree with the critique of the obfuscation of the title bar making it harder to move windows, that has started to mildly bug me lately, but the rest of it doesn’t ring true to me.

macOS FisherPrice is how it looks and feels to me.

toyOS

I guess it fits nicely with their childish obsession with Genmoji

Aqua fits these descriptions better! It was great in its day, but hasn’t aged amazingly.

Going back and forth between my iPad Air with 18 and my iPad Gen9 with 26–a couple of days with each—I find the visuals of 26 very off-putting. Distracting, actually. They do not enhance my experience one bit.

Some will say that I’m resistant to change. Nonsense. There are times that engineers and artisans perfect a design and later, someone from marketing says a new look will boost sales. IMHO, that’s Liquid Grass.

I don’t know what iPadOS 26 is like, but I’ve spent a bit of time with the iOS 26 beta on my iPhone 14, using it since the dev beta dropped. I seem to be in the minority because I really like it. Having watched WWDC, and Apple’s videos about Liquid Glass design guide, and accessibility, it is clear it isn’t quite finished yet, and there are dev beta bugs in it still, but overall I’m loving it, and I’m excited to see how it evolves.

 

[GrassShark]

I agree with the critique of the obfuscation of the title bar making it harder to move windows, that has started to mildly bug me lately, but the rest of it doesn’t ring true to me.


Aqua fits these descriptions better! It was great in its day, but hasn’t aged amazingly.


I don’t know what iPadOS 26 is like, but I’ve spent a bit of time with the iOS 26 beta on my iPhone 14, using it since the dev beta dropped. I seem to be in the minority because I really like it. Having watched WWDC, and Apple’s videos about Liquid Glass design guide, and accessibility, it is clear it isn’t quite finished yet, and there are dev beta bugs in it still, but overall I’m loving it, and I’m excited to see how it evolves.

I definitely don’t think the fisher price jabs really fit for Liquid Glass, that seems to have just become a thing people parrot when they don’t like how something looks regardless of whether it makes sense or not.

I can definitely see Apple’s vision for this design system, but even in their design showcase video, which should really show it in the best possible light, it’s filled with legibility issues. I’m not against new designs, in fact I’m usually excited for them, but this current change seems to give up so much just to have a new look.

While liquid glass and the translucent look aren’t to my personal taste, I use a ton of things that aren’t my personal taste. I just want them to fix the objective usability issues, the subjective issues I can live with.

 

[klasma]

Shouldn’t we save any criticism until it’s out of beta?

The longer we wait with criticism, the less chance there is for anything to change. The present criticism also isn't just about details of the execution that are still likely to change, it's about the whole concept and approach.

 

[nathansz]

We've got some morning comps between High Sierra & Tahoe from STS


Reminders:


View attachment 2525863View attachment 2525864

Calendar:


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the better comparison would be with sequoia no?

 

[turbineseaplane]

the better comparison would be with sequoia no?

100% would be -- I didn't create those ... just was sharing what a Dev had shared on mastodon this AM.

I think the thought was to show a comparison back far enough to "before iOS-ification" really got going.

 

[nathansz]

100% would be -- I didn't create those ... just was sharing what a Dev had shared on mastodon this AM.

I think the thought was to show a comparison back far enough to "before iOS-ification" really got going.

ahh I see.

honestly the sequoia windows look more like HS than Tahoe for both of those apps. just a little more streamlined and rounded in sequoia than HS.

 

[turbineseaplane]

ahh I see.

honestly the sequoia windows look more like HS than Tahoe for both of those apps. just a little more streamlined and rounded in sequoia than HS.

Yea ..
I'm not at all excited about this Tahoe update right now.

 

[antiprotest]

It baffles me, that people seemingly STILL don't understand it's in early beta and things can and will change.
Especially for visuals, I would wait for a (near) final build to give judgement.

I agree. More people need to know what beta means.

I am a lawyer. I recently defended a serial killer who murdered 45 people. The prosecution had ample evidence on each of them. Based on evidence, I had no case.

So from what I learned from MacRumors and the Apple community (it seems no other tech community needs to appeal to beta nearly as much so I didn't learned it there), I did a Hail Mary and tried a beta defense: "Members of the jury, don't you know what beta is? My client is in beta!" The prosecution spent two months making their case. I spent 5 seconds.

The jury came back within 10 minutes and found the guy not guilty on all charges. It was a good day.

Try it next time you want to defend something indefensible. Just call it a beta and instantly you have the moral and intellectual high ground and you make everyone who disagrees look ignorant. And before you criticize me for saying all this, just know that I'm in beta too, so don't be ignorant.

 

[Charlesrfinal]

Early betas are always full of issues. Anyone and everyone in tech knows this.

Before passing judgement on software I always wait for the X.1 release.

 

[Tozovac]

i don't care much about the finder icon. i have work (& play) to do. and i have adapted to the look of tahoe (& ready for whatever fine-tuning is to come before official release).

... want to use my mac, not complain about it.

But why some leader would let it get in this direction of New Vagueness at all is what’s beyond many of us.

I myself want my mac to just work, not be suddenly perplexed or distracted by it.

 

[Shirasaki]

What's extra sad to me is when you look at the product line up (software and hardware) and how tiny the updates are, everywhere.

...and then see all this effort being spent on a visual change that is a mixed bag and really not needed.

Apple is accomplishing so little these days if one really looks closely at what actually gets worked on & released.

Bro, innovations don’t need to be seen visually. Under the hood change and enhancements are also very welcome. This whole “liquid glass (aka aero glass, sue me)” shenanigans however… sigh.

Still, just because you don’t see much of the changes visually doesn’t mean there’s no change under the hood. It could be Apple is slowing down appealing new and existing customers with visual stuff and focus on delivering better products elsewhere.

At least that’s what I hope.

 

[G5isAlive]

Louie Mantia has posted a superb critique on the Liquid Glass situation.

Link: https://lmnt.me/blog/ive-got-better-things-to-do-than-this-and-yet.html

Some highlights (or lowlights I suppose)

Titlebars which were merged into toolbars years ago are now imperceptible.
Who knows where it’s safe to drag a window around now?

Almost every icon has an unfortunate concession to fit into this Liquid Glass model.

But what I can’t help but notice for 12 years now is that without visual effects serving to differentiate one control from another, we’ve lost immediate recognition of different UI elements. Title bars merged with toolbars. Toolbars merged with tab bars. Is this icon an action or a tab? Will it open a menu or switch the view? It’s anybody’s guess.

...makes me think someone doesn’t understand there is a difference between these kinds of UI elements.

Some edges are awfully sharp. Apple is hitting HDR levels with their brightness, but the clipping or masking in some apps for these buttons seems a little crunchy.

Every time I see an issue, I ask, “What problem is this solving?” And every time, there is no answer. There is seemingly no benefit to any of this.

I’m watching a video. I don’t need a big honkin’ pause button in the middle of the window, you know?

But wait a minute, why is there a big honkin’ pause button in the middle of the window anyway? That’s not how it used to be.

Going back to when UI was more visually separated from something like your photos, that puts the focus on the photos, because it differentiates the content area from the UI. Whereas now, it conflates the two.

...an over-the-top circular glass pause button that sits on top of a playing video.

At the point when you have to blur the content area to make the UI stand out from it, how can you possibly argue that it gets out of the way? It makes no sense.

It’s not just bad taste. It’s bad judgement. It’s bad design.

Nothing makes some people happier than complaining. I personally like liquid glass, but change doesn’t scare me.

 

[purplefox]

Some people always hate change.

I hate unnecessary change.

 

[G5isAlive]

Apparently a few of you have no idea who Louie is.

“Louie Louie, oh no, you take me to where ya gotta go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, baby
Louie Louie, oh baby, take me to where ya gotta go”

The kingsmen … now that’s showing some class. I bet they would have like liquid glass.

 

[Shirasaki]

View attachment 2525919

No sir, there will always be one and only plasticOS.

Well I guess pre Windows XP should be called concrete OS?

 

[turbineseaplane]

Bro, innovations don’t need to be seen visually. Under the hood change and enhancements are also very welcome. This whole “liquid glass (aka aero glass, sue me)” shenanigans however… sigh.

Still, just because you don’t see much of the changes visually doesn’t mean there’s no change under the hood. It could be Apple is slowing down appealing new and existing customers with visual stuff and focus on delivering better products elsewhere.

At least that’s what I hope.

Hope you're right!

That said -- I'll take the under on that bet.

For the most part, this is a lemon squeezing operation these days.

 

[nathansz]

Nothing makes some people happier than complaining. I personally like liquid glass, but change doesn’t scare me.

Change is fine.

I very much dislike screen real estate being stolen by purposeless shadows and other over-sized cosmetic effects