Which Finder window do you prefer?

[tenjikuronin]

I've been using Tahoe on a 24" iMac, and still have Sequoia on my other Mac. I spend a lot of time in Finder and my goodness the UI is killing me in Tahoe. Safari too. Something about Sequoia just feels so clean and sharp and Tahoe all these floating UI elements, app icon redesigns having a bit of blurry look to them, ughhh. Pains me every time I use the iMac to do a bit of work.

As a (not very good) UX designer/instructor, Finder's new toolbar buttons are killing me. The way they pop-out is really distracting and (to me) breaks the visual hierarchy of a Finder window.

I'm definitely holding back my final opinion until the OS releases, but in terms of visual hierarchy, contrast, and legibility, Tahoe seems like a step back to me, so far.

 

[fisherking]

I'm not to happy with sharing the same first name as Alan Dye.

macOS Tahoe looks even more white and difficult to read than when Big Sur entered the stage.. just add a touch of grey - like with Yosemite.. what the hell is all this GUI updating for.. Mavericks, Yosemite, Catalina and Mojave was great.

Just build on that. jeez. Menu bar heighten, icon rounding, UI slightly adjusting. Not this gimmicky looking UI

this is the very thing i appreciate about apple; that they keep moving forward (and yes, sometimes backtrack on a change); but ppl who say 'if it ain't broke, why fix it' miss the point; when is the time to stop? should we still be running os9 on powerbooks?

it's apple's OS. & change should not be feared, but embraced and enjoyed (and yes, that's just my opinion)

 

[shijan]

I don't like Big Sur+ UI as well as Tahoe and here are few examples why.
In addition i also hate that QuickLook adds rounded corners to all images and so became useless when browse small sized images. Problem could be fixed, but only on Apple Silicon machines.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I don't like Big Sur+ UI as well as Tahoe and here are few examples why.
In addition i also hate that QuickLook adds rounded corners to all images and so became useless when browse small sized images. Problem could be fixed, but only on Apple Silicon machines.

View attachment 2528086
View attachment 2528085

Excellent post with great explanations.
🙏

I agree with you completely, on all of it.

 

[basdeninard]

macOS Tahoe looks even more white and difficult to read than when Big Sur entered the stage.. just add a touch of grey - like with Yosemite.. what the hell is all this GUI updating for.. Mavericks, Yosemite, Catalina and Mojave was great.

Yes, it's far too white. It feels like the light theme in macOS Tahoe will give some users a migraine...

the problem is that the new UI is that it is distracting and steals screen real estate. the gimmicky effects cause the navigation elements to literally overshadow actual content

Have you tried macOS 26 in dark mode? I tried both Beta 2 and Beta 3 in a virtual machine on UTM. I was expecting the worst, but I was pleasantly surprised at the look and feel after enabling Dark Mode, and setting the dock and folder icons to a single colour. Having a dark wallpaper with the dock/folder icons being set to orange felt very smooth on the eyes, even more so than the current version of macOS.

However, the light theme in macOS Tahoe is just... unpleasant. I can only describe it as Fisher Price UI, but on a whole new level of sadness.

 

[maxoakland]

eventually we'll all get used to whatever tahoe looks like when it's finally released (just as we've always adapted). meanwhile, i find it amusing that ppl won't update because of the look of the OS, regardless of how well it may run 🤷

You've missed the hundreds of examples of terrible legibility and distracting interface mistakes?

Design is how it works

 

[basdeninard]

I think Snow Leopard is peak, but Tiger would definitely be a ton better than anything they've released since.... well, since Snow Leopard.

I love the refined metal finish of application windows in Tiger, and with the introduction of Spotlight and other features in that release, it felt like a highly polished (and stable) release of Mac OS X by the time the last point update was shipped. When Leopard was introduced, it felt to me like Apple was slowly going in a different direction with the design language. By the time Lion was released, the UI seemed to be Aqua in name only, right?

Long live the Aqua scrollbars. 😞

 

[rampancy]

I prefer this one

View attachment 2519220

Metal Finder: The Mac OS UI, as God truly intended.

 

[basdeninard]

Metal Finder: The Mac OS UI, as God truly intended.

Ah, a wonderful nostalgia attack.

 

[maxoakland]

Metal Finder: The Mac OS UI, as God truly intended.

To be honest, I always hated that look. One thing I liked about Leopard was it unified the appearance. I would've preferred a unification around Tiger's lighter metal style, though

 

[Wieslawo]

eventually we'll all get used to whatever tahoe looks like when it's finally released (just as we've always adapted). meanwhile, i find it amusing that ppl won't update because of the look of the OS, regardless of how well it may run 🤷

There is no breakthrough in Tahoe. Even Spotlight is only nice to have. Perhaps only for one year, like with the Photos.app.

 

[fisherking]

There is no breakthrough in Tahoe. Even Spotlight is only nice to have. Perhaps only for one year, like with the Photos.app.

if you say so 🤔

 

[turbineseaplane]

Quite the evolutionary story being told here

 

[CasualFanboy]

Quite the evolutionary story being told here

View attachment 2536182

Look what they did to our boy.

It's a cryin' shame.

 

[fisherking]

Quite the evolutionary story being told here

View attachment 2536182

so, you're saying that, in it's current iteration, it's best? 👍

 

[tomekwsrod]

Sequoia. Still a mess, but more UX friendly mess, more readable.a

 

[maxoakland]

Quite the evolutionary story being told here

View attachment 2536182

It’s funny that the first version of OS X had icons that literally looked like liquid glass while the Liquid Glass version has the same completely flat buttons you can see on almost 50% of the windows in Mac OS X versions

 

[turbineseaplane]

It’s funny that the first version of OS X had icons that literally looked like liquid glass while the Liquid Glass version has the same completely flat buttons you can see on almost 50% of the windows in Mac OS X versions

We must think alike .. I noticed the same thing and thought:

“how odd that the LG refresh didn’t bring in glassy buttons?”

 

[Yamcha]

Honestly, I prefer Sequoia's Finder. Everything is a little too large on Tahoe.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Honestly, I prefer Sequoia's Finder. Everything is a little too large on Tahoe.

I really have no clue why they keep making the macOS UI elements larger and more padded.

It's not a touch UI (at least not at this time) .. it's a huge waste of space.

 

[tomtad]

OK I'll say it

TAHOE

 

[Macbookey]

We must think alike .. I noticed the same thing and thought:

“how odd that the LG refresh didn’t bring in glassy buttons?”

Like humans, it seems many elements of macOS look better the further back in time we go. Aqua with Liquid Glass would blend so well. The flat needs to go. It mash potatoes the design and pays homage to Mr. White Room for no reason. Axe it. It’s almost as if  had it right in the first place, and was the foundation for iteration and not the clearing of the decks that came post iOS 7. The flat stoplights are so out of place. Look at the circular Lock Screen controls on iOS 26, and fill them with the colour to make the stop lights.

 

[maxoakland]

We must think alike .. I noticed the same thing and thought:

“how odd that the LG refresh didn’t bring in glassy buttons?”

Yeah I don’t get it. The design is so inconsistent. So much of the flat design remains, unchanged

 

[fisherking]

Like humans, it seems many elements of macOS look better the further back in time we go. Aqua with Liquid Glass would blend so well. The flat needs to go. It mash potatoes the design and pays homage to Mr. White Room for no reason. Axe it. It’s almost as if  had it right in the first place, and was the foundation for iteration and not the clearing of the decks that came post iOS 7. The flat stoplights are so out of place. Look at the circular Lock Screen controls on iOS 26, and fill them with the colour to make the stop lights.

so subjective, all of this. i find the newer looks better balanced...

 

[CasualFanboy]

Yeah I don’t get it. The design is so inconsistent. So much of the flat design remains, unchanged

I honestly don't believe Apple has retained the talent necessary to make a good, appealing UI. They once had it, but probably not anymore.

Plus, it's obvious their focus is heavily weighted toward phones now. So much that everything in the real computer OS is the result of taking the phone design and shoe-horning it into the Real Computer OS.