macOS Tahoe: A Pattern of Poor Usability and Design Regression

[Kal Madda]

But where are the glassy highlights? There's no contrast, no highlights and everything has soft edges. There's nothing Liquid or Glass like about it.

They look clearer in person, looking at my screenshot, I noticed it makes the border less visible in the screenshot vs on the actual display. But as I said, I wouldn’t be opposed to a change like that. 👍🏻

 

[tkermit]

Ok so I got carried away while the forum was down haha.

LiquidMetal for dark mode anyone?

Reminds me of what Sebastiaan de With (who's now at Apple) came up with.

 

[TumbleDryer]

Reminds me of what Sebastiaan de With (who's now at Apple) came up with.

Yeh I said in a previous post the problem with Tahoe at the minute is there is no contrast to the UI. His concepts have contrast because he hasn’t placed the elements on pure white then tried to fix it with shadows. He knew to place the elements on an off white so the pure white highlights pop. That’s what I’ve done and made the shadows sharper and also made things a bit more ‘liquidy’ than his (I think so anyway). I was picturing water on a microscopic slide. Mixing liquid and glass in essence. 🙂

 

[Kal Madda]

Ok so I got carried away while the forum was down haha.

LiquidMetal for dark mode anyone?

I could see Liquid Glass evolving more towards that kind of look. It’s already very close to that. And we’re still really early into the 26 update cycle, and Liquid Glass will undoubtedly be iterated on over the next so many years, just like every other visual design Apple has introduced. 👍🏻

 

[Kal Madda]

Yeh I said in a previous post the problem with Tahoe at the minute is there is no contrast to the UI. His concepts have contrast because he hasn’t placed the elements on pure white then tried to fix it with shadows. He knew to place the elements on an off white so the pure white highlight pop. That’s what I’ve done but made things a bit more ‘liquidy’ than his (I think so anyway). 🙂

I wouldn’t have any problem with Apple making white elements more off-white. I’ve never really liked the bright white of Light Mode on iOS anyways. But then again, I use Dark Mode, so I don’t really have any skin that game. 🤷🏼‍♂️. But I’m sure Apple will continue to iterate on this, and may do that. It may be worth submitting feedback and suggesting they tone down white elements. Another idea is they could add a theme toggle that would make background white UI elements an off-white/very light gray in Light Mode, and a dark gray in Dark Mode rather than full black. So you could choose that, or the bright white/dark black colors as well. I wouldn’t really be opposed to that. 👍🏻

 

[Kal Madda]

Yeh I said in a previous post the problem with Tahoe at the minute is there is no contrast to the UI. His concepts have contrast because he hasn’t placed the elements on pure white then tried to fix it with shadows. He knew to place the elements on an off white so the pure white highlights pop. That’s what I’ve done and made the shadows sharper and also made things a bit more ‘liquidy’ than his (I think so anyway). I was picturing water on a microscopic slide. Mixing liquid and glass in essence. 🙂

Also, to be fair, they do use an off-white, it’s just slightly different off-white from what you’re using. 👍🏻.

I don’t know why, but when I take a screenshot, there’s a noticeable difference in the buttons vs the way they look in the UI. It’s like the screenshots don’t catch some of the highlighting of the buttons. I don’t know what’s causing it, but it definitely looks a bit sharper in person than in the screenshot. Maybe I’ll have to tinker with my screenshot settings.

 

[Wolf1701]

Michael Tsai - Blog

 

[Kal Madda]

Michael Tsai - Blog

And? They fixed it. Sometimes changes have to be made for new OS versions in code. I don’t think that’s that big of a deal. 🤷🏼‍♂️

 

[TumbleDryer]

Also, to be fair, they do use an off-white, it’s just slightly different off-white from what you’re using. 👍🏻.

I don’t know why, but when I take a screenshot, there’s a noticeable difference in the buttons vs the way they look in the UI. It’s like the screenshots don’t catch some of the highlighting of the buttons. I don’t know what’s causing it, but it definitely looks a bit sharper in person than in the screenshot. Maybe I’ll have to tinker with my screenshot settings.

The difference in what you're seeing as compared to what the screen shot shows is likely colour profile mismatch. Your screen might be P3 but a JPEG or PNG may default to sRGB on export (or the forum is forcing compression that includes removing colour information - maybe both). This is another reason why having greater contrast in the UI will help to cater for everyone's (mostly) different screen set ups. Having next to no contrast will make some elements almost invisible on certain screen calibrations which is what a lot of people are complaining about. I have to use dark mode because in light mode there's practically no differentiation from the Finder Window and the buttons floating on top of the window. Basically pure white on pure white with the very slightest hint of a very soft shadow.

You should know about screen calibration if you're a designer. 😉

 

[Kal Madda]

The difference in what you're seeing as compared to what the screen shot shows is likely colour profile mismatch. Your screen might be P3 but a JPEG or PNG may default to sRGB on export (or the forum is forcing compression that includes removing colour information - maybe both). This is another reason why having greater contrast in the UI will help to cater for everyone's (mostly) different screen set ups. Having next to no contrast will make some elements almost invisible on certain screen calibrations which is what a lot of people are complaining about. I have to use dark mode because in light mode there's practically no differentiation from the Finder Window and the buttons floating on top of the window. Basically pure white on pure white with the very slightest hint of a very soft shadow.

You should know about screen calibration if you're a designer. 😉

Yeah, I didn’t think about MacRumors possibly changing the color profile or compressing it, that makes sense. And yeah, the screenshot is probably different from the system color profile as well. But I fiddled around and discovered my screenshot settings were set for SDR, but switching to HDR retained mor of the original detail, so that’s probably part of it as well. And yeah, I’m familiar with display calibration, so that does make sense thinking about it. 🙂👍🏻

 

[Sniper08]

I’m glad that helps for understanding my position. I understand that not everything that works for me also works for everyone. Though I think that’s exactly why Apple offers options to adjust such things. And I wouldn’t be against improvements to Liquid Glass that make contrast better for others. I just don’t agree with the “throw the baby out with the bathwater” sentiment of some here. I’m sure Apple will continue to improve and refine Liquid Glass. We’re still really early in, we’re only on 26.2. And I also don’t think it’s the worst update ever. I’m glad to see the moves Apple is making to create greater visual unity and congruence between iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. That’s not to say it can’t or shouldn’t evolve and improve. As I said before, I’m sure that Apple will iterate on this design and refine it more.

Honestly, this sentiment is one that I hold that I feel like I can explain pretty well.

Historically, Apple has been the top game for good looking, functional, and well-thought out UIs and design decisions. Some were silly in hindsight, like stainless steel and linen .pngs everywhere, but it was done very well (Thinking from OSX 10.4 onwards, not familiar with prior OSX versions).

I personally didn't like the look of Snow Leopard to Ventura, but it never bothered me because the functionality was mostly preserved (except from Front Row, still mad). In general OSX and MacOS were very reliable, fun, and easy to use.

Now software updates are expected and continuous. They're also buggy under the idea of 'we can fix it in the next update', except the next update also introduces new features and bugs and it begins stacking. It's not about rejecting modernity or aesthetics, it's about embracing functional modernity/aesthetics. iOS7 had a very pretty lockscreen with ultra-thin super-modern text that didn't make it out of beta because people couldn't read it.

So when you're saying 'we're only on 26.2', my expectation from a trillion dollar company demanding a premium price for their locked down product is to not make my computer harder to use and harder to see compared to the previous version. That shouldn't have made it out of Alpha, let alone to a public release. I don't care if they eventually fix it in 26.4 or 27 or whatever else comes out, it doesn't give me back the hours of wasted time I had to spent to undo their poor update.

Not necessarily everything, but I don’t see any reason why most things shouldn’t. I see no problem with the Now Playing bar on Tahoe. 🤷🏼‍♂️. A. If I’m thinking of the right thing, then it’s moveable. B. Now playing is also in Control Center at the top of the display. Where an app window is placed on the screen doesn’t really make any difference in whether it’s cursor optimized or not. Is the App Dock non-cursor optimized because it’s at the bottom of the display? I really don’t get the argument that having a clickable UI element near the bottom would be a problem or less cursor optimized… 🤷🏼‍♂️

Personally, I prefer greater consistency between the devices, it makes it a lot nicer in my opinion. 👍🏻

Edit: Wait, are you talking about the music playback controls within the Music app? That makes total sense for the controls to be at the bottom. Every other music app I’ve ever used houses those controls at the bottom. That’s the way MP3 players were laid out. So why on earth should the controls be anywhere else? Placing them at the top would be needless unintuitive. If that’s what you’re talking about, I definitely disagree. 🤷🏼‍♂️

MP3 players were laid out like that because they were physical controls that you had to hold. It's not intuitive to put the controls for the music at the very bottom of the screen infront of content when window controls, the menu bar, and menu icons are at the top of the screen. Your mouse cursor spends more time up there than at the bottom of the screen, except for using the dock.

You said you're a designer (I think), but if you like everything or its just 🤷‍♂️ to you, then do you have any preferences that aren't just about matching UIs or whatever apple puts out?

And? They fixed it. Sometimes changes have to be made for new OS versions in code. I don’t think that’s that big of a deal. 🤷🏼‍♂️

This is a basic error in the default file management system that is at the core of the OS. It's a big deal because if something this minor was overlooked, then it makes the rest of the system untrustworthy. If it was programmed improperly, then it wasn't caught by their internal beta testers. Waiting until 26.3 to fix your core software is indicative to me of triaging very serious bugs. I wouldn't take my car back from the mechanic if it was missing its floor mats, and I would wonder what else is missing.

 

[TumbleDryer]

A little Fisher Pricey but definitely more clarity. Tried not to stray too far from what Apple have done even though im not a fan. Aligned things for clearer layout, added contrast and the menu bar back. Traffic lights need tweaking. Even kept the massive corner radius but I’ve aligned things better so it’s it’s not massively offensive anymore (for me anyway). 🤣

 

[CrabQueenInc]

A little Fisher Pricey but definitely more clarity. Tried not to stray too far from what Apple have done even though im not a fan. Aligned things for clearer layout, added contrast and the menu bar back. Traffic lights need tweaking. Even kept the massive corner radius but I’ve aligned things better so it’s it’s not massively offensive anymore (for me anyway). 🤣

I like the general idea here. Your design applies key UI concepts and leaves breathing room for controls and tabs. The sidebar sitting flush is similar to how it was situated in the Finder during the brushed metal era. Your design also solves one point that grates on me: lines that thoughtlessly extend into the sidebar. If the lower corners were less round, I could maybe live with this for a release or two if needed.

My one critique of the buttons, and this critique applies to Apple’s own icons, is the edges make the icons look tilted or slanted.

 

[Kal Madda]

Honestly, this sentiment is one that I hold that I feel like I can explain pretty well.

Historically, Apple has been the top game for good looking, functional, and well-thought out UIs and design decisions. Some were silly in hindsight, like stainless steel and linen .pngs everywhere, but it was done very well (Thinking from OSX 10.4 onwards, not familiar with prior OSX versions).

I personally didn't like the look of Snow Leopard to Ventura, but it never bothered me because the functionality was mostly preserved (except from Front Row, still mad). In general OSX and MacOS were very reliable, fun, and easy to use.

Now software updates are expected and continuous. They're also buggy under the idea of 'we can fix it in the next update', except the next update also introduces new features and bugs and it begins stacking. It's not about rejecting modernity or aesthetics, it's about embracing functional modernity/aesthetics. iOS7 had a very pretty lockscreen with ultra-thin super-modern text that didn't make it out of beta because people couldn't read it.

So when you're saying 'we're only on 26.2', my expectation from a trillion dollar company demanding a premium price for their locked down product is to not make my computer harder to use and harder to see compared to the previous version. That shouldn't have made it out of Alpha, let alone to a public release. I don't care if they eventually fix it in 26.4 or 27 or whatever else comes out, it doesn't give me back the hours of wasted time I had to spent to undo their poor update.

OSes are more complex than they used to be way back when. It takes longer to incorporate and update things, especially UI changes. And you think it’s “buggy” and “harder to use and harder to see”, but I and many others disagree… I haven’t had any issues using macOS Tahoe, it’s been running smooth as butter for me on my M1 base spec Mac Mini, and I find everything to be plenty visible.

Just because Apple’s a successful company doesn’t mean they can always create perfect completely bug-free software… I think that’s a very unrealistic and unreasonable standard. Furthermore, Apple’s pricing is pretty similar to competitors… 🤷🏼‍♂️.

MP3 players were laid out like that because they were physical controls that you had to hold. It's not intuitive to put the controls for the music at the very bottom of the screen infront of content when window controls, the menu bar, and menu icons are at the top of the screen. Your mouse cursor spends more time up there than at the bottom of the screen, except for using the dock.

Every other media player uses playback controls at the bottom. And have for many years… It makes zero sense for the Apple Music app to be any different…. Especially when the media playback controls in the app are at the bottom on all of Apple’s other platforms… I’m glad they moved the playback controls where they actually make sense and where basically every other media app places them…

You said you're a designer (I think), but if you like everything or its just 🤷‍♂️ to you, then do you have any preferences that aren't just about matching UIs or whatever apple puts out?

Yes, I have preferences. And no, I have not liked everything Apple ever put out. I thought macOS Catalina and prior looked fairly hideous… I hated the odd shaped app icons at funky angles, some circles, some square, some other random shapes. I customized them to the squircle iOS versions of icons for Apple’s apps, and ones I modified myself for some third-party apps that didn’t have iOS icons to match them, and I never really bothered to customize anything other than basics like wallpaper in my OSes before…

And in Tahoe, I’m not really a fan of the new Apps page. I like Launchpad better. But life moves on. And I found a third-party alternative app that essentially replicates Launchpad and gives it an iOS and iPadOS style App Library page as well, which I really like. 👍🏻

I have preferences, they just apparently don’t seem to align with yours… 🤷🏼‍♂️

This is a basic error in the default file management system that is at the core of the OS. It's a big deal because if something this minor was overlooked, then it makes the rest of the system untrustworthy. If it was programmed improperly, then it wasn't caught by their internal beta testers. Waiting until 26.3 to fix your core software is indicative to me of triaging very serious bugs. I wouldn't take my car back from the mechanic if it was missing its floor mats, and I would wonder what else is missing.

The issue they were describing was a UI code thing in their third-party app. So no, not “default file management system”… Some person’s third-party app isn’t “core software”… 🤦🏼‍♂️.

And as I already said, sometimes things take some time to incorporate and fully roll out… Ever tried maintaining a complex OS? No? Though so. So I think we can cut developers who are doing so some slack… 🤷🏼‍♂️. It’s difficult to create a simple app and try to reduce bugs, let alone a full complex OS… And I wonder which of Apple’s competitors is making this perfect bug-free OS you speak of and seem to expect? 🤔

 

[Kal Madda]

Maybe this is just me and someone will point out something obvious because I don't use Music app because the UI is terrible but here is another completely random unintuitive WTF moment from Tahoe...

I opened Music today. It's not often I do because the UI is terrible and Id rather just listen through another app. The following kind of backs that up. Anyway... I opened it up and saw the almost ubiquitous but still completely ambiguous 'tick' button at the top. No idea what it's for. What am I confirming? I've literally just opened the app!

As a test I sat for a minute or so seriously trying to guess what this 'tick' would be used for in the current context. Seriously wracked my brains. No idea so I finally clicked on it and got the attached. Bear in mind I've literally just opened the app. Nothing is selected apart from the Playlist, no songs within the playlist are selected and I've not downloaded ANYTHING from Apple Music in over 20 years! All music that is within the app is local so what download is it on about?!

There's no clue as to what the tick does then no clue as to what download it refers to when you dare to click on it. Seriously no thought goes into Apples software these days.

Also why when I send sound output to my HomePod through the Music app does my keyboard sometimes control the internal Mac speakers and not the HomePod and then other times it controls the HomePod speakers as you would expect?! The Music app is an absolute lesson in how not to make an app.


View attachment 2601496

I looked it up earlier. As I said before, I’ve rarely ever used Apple Music. But apparently that button has been in Apple Music on iOS for many years. It means that the currently selected playlist is downloaded and available for offline play. You can also use the button to offload local music. I hope that helps. 🙂👍🏻

 

[Wolf1701]

And? They fixed it. Sometimes changes have to be made for new OS versions in code. I don’t think that’s that big of a deal. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Apart from the fact that it is a link to a blog containing several interesting articles with multiple opinions and sources... I certainly did not expect it to appeal to those who, in dozens of posts, do nothing but say ‘it doesn't matter’. It was intended as a contribution to the discussion and, in fact, it was not a reply to anyone in particular.

 

[TumbleDryer]

I looked it up earlier. As I said before, I’ve rarely ever used Apple Music. But apparently that button has been in Apple Music on iOS for many years. It means that the currently selected playlist is downloaded and available for offline play. You can also use the button to offload local music. I hope that helps. 🙂👍🏻

Thanks. It just has no context whatsoever?!

 

[TumbleDryer]

I like the general idea here. Your design applies key UI concepts and leaves breathing room for controls and tabs. The sidebar sitting flush is similar to how it was situated in the Finder during the brushed metal era. Your design also solves one point that grates on me: lines that thoughtlessly extend into the sidebar. If the lower corners were less round, I could maybe live with this for a release or two if needed.

My one critique of the buttons, and this critique applies to Apple’s own icons, is the edges make the icons look tilted or slanted.

The slanted thing is an optical illusion that will happen to anything when you add specular lighting. Especially blobs of water. I’ve only refined Apples idea of Liquid Glass but I’m not a fan of the concept as a whole.

 

[CrabQueenInc]

The slanted thing is an optical illusion that will happen to anything when you add specular lighting. Especially blobs of water. I’ve only refined Apples idea of Liquid Glass but I’m not a fan of the concept as a whole.

I understand that and appreciate your take on the buttons. I, for one, would enjoy seeing your take on these buttons without the specular highlights.

 

[Sniper08]

OSes are more complex than they used to be way back when. It takes longer to incorporate and update things, especially UI changes. And you think it’s “buggy” and “harder to use and harder to see”, but I and many others disagree… I haven’t had any issues using macOS Tahoe, it’s been running smooth as butter for me on my M1 base spec Mac Mini, and I find everything to be plenty visible.

Just because Apple’s a successful company doesn’t mean they can always create perfect completely bug-free software… I think that’s a very unrealistic and unreasonable standard. Furthermore, Apple’s pricing is pretty similar to competitors… 🤷🏼‍♂️.

Every other media player uses playback controls at the bottom. And have for many years… It makes zero sense for the Apple Music app to be any different…. Especially when the media playback controls in the app are at the bottom on all of Apple’s other platforms… I’m glad they moved the playback controls where they actually make sense and where basically every other media app places them…

Yes, I have preferences. And no, I have not liked everything Apple ever put out. I thought macOS Catalina and prior looked fairly hideous… I hated the odd shaped app icons at funky angles, some circles, some square, some other random shapes. I customized them to the squircle iOS versions of icons for Apple’s apps, and ones I modified myself for some third-party apps that didn’t have iOS icons to match them, and I never really bothered to customize anything other than basics like wallpaper in my OSes before…

And in Tahoe, I’m not really a fan of the new Apps page. I like Launchpad better. But life moves on. And I found a third-party alternative app that essentially replicates Launchpad and gives it an iOS and iPadOS style App Library page as well, which I really like. 👍🏻

I have preferences, they just apparently don’t seem to align with yours… 🤷🏼‍♂️

The issue they were describing was a UI code thing in their third-party app. So no, not “default file management system”… Some person’s third-party app isn’t “core software”… 🤦🏼‍♂️.

And as I already said, sometimes things take some time to incorporate and fully roll out… Ever tried maintaining a complex OS? No? Though so. So I think we can cut developers who are doing so some slack… 🤷🏼‍♂️. It’s difficult to create a simple app and try to reduce bugs, let alone a full complex OS… And I wonder which of Apple’s competitors is making this perfect bug-free OS you speak of and seem to expect? 🤔

I never said perfect stable bug free software. I said 'Apple has been the top game for good looking, functional, and well-thought out UIs and design decisions.' So far the functionality of Tahoe has suffered relative to Sequoia for some people, myself included.

I could not care less about every other media player. It makes zero sense to put the controls on the bottom when the majority of interaction with the mouse is on the top. What advantage do we get from putting controls in front of content on a music player? There's a pinned thread on this subforum you can peruse if you're interested in understanding why some people don't like it.

Yes, we have different preferences, but something being harder to read is not a preference or something to disagree about; it's me telling you my experience with Tahoe. You can't say 'Don't trust your eyes' when it's my report of my experience. I'm not saying it should be blurrier for you, or that you are wrong, I am saying that switching from Tahoe to Sequoia made text on my computer hard to read, and switching back to Sequoia made it easy to read. Do you understand that me expressing my experience is not telling you that you should feel the same?

So far your entire argument as to why Tahoe is an improvement to some people is that it's 'modern' and 'aesthetic', and that it duplicates common layouts from other applications. If that is your standard for how you spend your money, that's your choice.

As for the blog post, it was discussing MacOS Finder, not a third party piece of software: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/01/15/tahoe-broke-resizing-finder-columns-view/

 

[Kal Madda]

I never said perfect stable bug free software. I said 'Apple has been the top game for good looking, functional, and well-thought out UIs and design decisions.' So far the functionality of Tahoe has suffered relative to Sequoia for some people, myself included.

Key word: “for some people”. And I’m sure some people thought Sequoia was worse for some reason or other, and vice versa. Every new version there will be some who believe the prior one was better, or, even more common in forums like this, a far distant “holy grail” of “perfection” such as Snow Leopard was better…

I could not care less about every other media player. It makes zero sense to put the controls on the bottom when the majority of interaction with the mouse is on the top. What advantage do we get from putting controls in front of content on a music player? There's a pinned thread on this subforum you can peruse if you're interested in understanding why some people don't like it.

Well, most people presumably don’t want to have to use an entirely different layout just because some arbitrarily decided to make it different. Most people are used to looking to the bottom for playback controls, as that’s where they almost always are, not at the top… Music playback controls at the top looks stupid, ugly, and is unintuitive. So I’m glad that Apple decided to unify their design, and actually place the controls where most would expect them to be…

Yes, we have different preferences, but something being harder to read is not a preference or something to disagree about; it's me telling you my experience with Tahoe. You can't say 'Don't trust your eyes' when it's my report of my experience. I'm not saying it should be blurrier for you, or that you are wrong, I am saying that switching from Tahoe to Sequoia made text on my computer hard to read, and switching back to Sequoia made it easy to read. Do you understand that me expressing my experience is not telling you that you should feel the same?

And your experience isn’t universal is the thing… Many like it and find it to be better than Sequoia. And many have zero issue reading text…

So far your entire argument as to why Tahoe is an improvement to some people is that it's 'modern' and 'aesthetic', and that it duplicates common layouts from other applications. If that is your standard for how you spend your money, that's your choice.

Yes, it is modern and aesthetic. But it is also more unified with Apple’s other platforms. And that is the biggest aspect. Because it was needlessly different and weird in so many different areas before. Now it’s much closer and more streamlined for newcomers to the platform, and makes switching between Apple devices more fluid and removes a lot of needless friction. It’s a major step forward for usability, though there are still yet some steps needed to fully modernize macOS and remove some of the legacy cruft that makes it less approachable and intuitive. For example, the Finder app icon should be replaced with the Files icon, it actually communicates the purpose of the app, unlike the smiley face… I’m happy to see Apple actually modernizing macOS, because aside from much better aesthetics, it also makes macOS far more approachable, congruent with Apple’s other platforms, and more intuitive…

As for the blog post, it was discussing MacOS Finder, not a third party piece of software: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/01/15/tahoe-broke-resizing-finder-columns-view/

This link is different from the one referenced before. That one linked to a post about a third party app for sorting movies I believe… And this link is talking specifically about combining a specific view format in Finder with the “show scrollbars: always” accessibility setting. The person’s complaining the scroll bars block stuff, even though they set them to always be open, and hence block stuff… 🙄🤦🏼‍♂️ Besides, honestly, I don’t take a blog with that poor of design and layout seriously… What was it, made in the 80s? It looks ugly and cluttered… 🤷🏼‍♂️. Yet they want to complain about macOS Tahoe supposedly being cluttered… 🙄🤦🏼‍♂️😂🤣. Maybe they should fix their awful blog “design” first…

At the end of the day, macOS Tahoe makes great strides forward in unifying the design of Apple’s platforms, bringing greater congruity, and making the system more approachable and intuitive for new users. Beyond the greater congruity and intuitive design with macOS Tahoe, we also get some great new features. Like the enhanced Spotlight. It’s quite a big improvement for productivity. We get the Phone app which is very convenient. We can create more capable Siri Shortcuts that can tap into Apple Intelligence. Live Activities is nice. We get the Journal app. And we’re going to get the more advanced Siri with Personal Context. There are tons of benefits to macOS Tahoe. 👍🏻

 

[CrabQueenInc]

Yes, it is modern and aesthetic. But it is also more unified with Apple’s other platforms. And that is the biggest aspect. Because it was needlessly different and weird in so many different areas before. Now it’s much closer and more streamlined for newcomers to the platform, and makes switching between Apple devices more fluid and removes a lot of needless friction.

Respectfully, nothing is modern about the current systems. New? Yes. Modern? No. We already had blinding white in 10.0 and 10.1, but at least then, the pinstripes reduced the harshness of the white elements and buttons were clearly defined.

There is nothing more unified about the UI of the current systems than in decades prior. The only exception is iPadOS is finally adopting some of the more powerful features from macOS. Previous versions of iOS and iPadOS have almost always had similar UI elements to their macOS counterparts. Pre-iOS 7 was heavily influenced by the OS X aesthetics of the time. Early versions of iOS that ran on iPads also borrowed from OS X, in no small part because the iPad was mostly a large iPhone. macOS moved towards a more flattened look following in the steps of iOS 7. iPadOS26 has started using macOS UI concepts going back decades such as minimize/maximize buttons and a menubar at the top, but iPadOS can’t even multitask like a computer from the mid-2000s.

These operating systems are built for different devices and should have UIs designed to the strengths and use cases of those devices. Good UI demands far more than SF Symbols wrapped in a squircle with a smattering of drop shadow applied across all systems. Or, as is the case with macOS and iPadOS, rounded corners everywhere despite one set of devices having screens with square corners (when accounting for the menu bar).

Personal computers have been widely used for decades. Modern smartphones have been ubiquitous for at least a decade, if not more. One can hardly image someone using a Mac for the first time and grokking it just because its windows have cartoonishly rounded corners like its less feature-rich siblings.

 

[amaze1499]

Why did apple made so poor, silly design decisions with most of their apps in tahoe? I am using Macs for over 20 years, but this release is by far most the silliest, stupidest design I have ever seen and was forced to use. Misimprovement at its finest. Music and Photos. Just look at those.

Apple, at least give me the choice to keep using the old design. I don't want to change, what's good enough.

 

[TumbleDryer]

I understand that and appreciate your take on the buttons. I, for one, would enjoy seeing your take on these buttons without the specular highlights.

That's not really possible as they are built purely from light and shadow while I just play around.

 

[star-affinity]

No, I don’t have any issue with the top corner. I don’t think it cuts too close, I can still clearly see it and use it. 🤷🏼‍♂️

That all looks perfectly visible and fine to me... 🤷🏼‍♂️. I think that is intended behavior, not a bug, and looks quite nice to me. 👍🏻

It's not about legibility here, it's that the spacing from the F to the rounded corner is too tiny.

Proportionally spaced fonts has been a thing for ages in graphics design, but now in the latest GUI design trends we sometimes seem to think tiny margins are okay all of a sudden? I don't agree. 🙂

I can't believe you think those buttons are fine! 😀
I talked to two professional designers here where I work (digital design studio) and both think it looks bad and unclear.

I do however have to point out the screenshots were from my non-Retina OLED display (4K 16:9 at 32-inches), but still. The contrast isn't good on those buttons!

I’m not opposed to an off-white for Light Mode, but I wonder why one wouldn’t move to Dark Mode if Light Mode were a problem? Personally, I’ve used Dark Mode on all of my devices for years, so I guess perhaps I’m just biased toward Dark Mode. But I never really liked Light Mode in the first place. 👍🏻

It should be clear in both modes, no?

Oh, and I aimed my camera directly at a ceiling light with my iPad and with my iPhone to overlap that camera flip button with the light in FaceTime. Both were perfectly legible… 🤷🏼‍♂️

Those examples aren't too bad (mine was worse), but still – especially when those icons are small (which they are on an iPhone) the design of the icons merge too much with the background in too many situations. I think the thumbnail of the first screenshot you posted shots that the icon blends into the background quite a lot.

Mayne you have eyesight that is different from the rest (most?) of us? 🙂