With iOS 26, Apple seems to be leaning harder into visual design and decorative UI effects — but at what cost to usability? At first glance, the system looks fluid and modern. But try to use it, and soon those shimmering surfaces and animated controls start to get in the way. Let’s strip back the frost and look at how these changes affect real use.
↫ Raluca Budiu
I have not yet used Apple’s new “Liquid Glass” graphical user interface design, so here’s the usual disclaimer that my opinions are, then, effectively meaningless. That being said, the amount of detailed articles about the problems with Liquid Glass – from bugs to structural design problems – are legion, and this article by Raluca Budiu is an excellent example.
There are so many readability problems, spacing issues, odd animations that don’t actually convey anything meaningful, performance issues, and tons of bugs. It feels like it was made not by user interface specialists, but by marketeers, who were given too little time to boot. It feels incoherent and messy, and it’s going to take Apple a long, long time to mold and shape it into something remotely workable.
Is it too early to say that the art of making UIs that have bling (for example glass effects) without sacrificing legibility or looking tacky is a lost art? I am talking UIs like the ones featured in Windows Vista/7 or MacOS Lion.
Much like after brutalism and modernism became the cool new thing in buildings, traditional architecture became a lost art. It can be imitated but not replicated with the harmony and attention to detail it had back then.
I’m not thrilled about it. Increased Contrast got rid of the weird shiny edges. So that helped.
Still miss BB10 on my Z30. Every. Friggin. Day.
I use my phone as a phone. And one thing they did totally pooch was that. Just getting back to a call I put on a hold is an absurd exercise. Features like this should not be messed with. If so, for the love of science, let me switch back.
“Liquid Glass” is so far the worst UI decision Apple has made.
It is just terrible. No way to sugar coat this.
It is really terrible on the phone as well as on the desktop.
I am waiting desperately for some solutions to reverse it.
I have no idea how this could pass quality control – Steve Jobs is rotating in his grave and he would have probably fired the whole team if he was still alive and in charge.