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.
It depends on who is messing with the “guidelines”.
https://medium.com/@bravo40/os-user-interface-design-guidelines-2018-37cd369f9d87
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/appuistart/-user-interface-principles
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22475521 (1995 PDF)
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.
@gorbie
Absolutely agree. My Z30 had better speakers, better call quality, better microphones, a nice user interface, and “the hub” has never been matched (even WhatsApp supported it).. Even unlocking the phone was a joy in comparison to the iPhone I have today.
I used to upload FLAC audio and MP4 video to my Z30 easily which I enjoyed while out of coverage in train tunnels on the way to work. And on road trips I even used the built in FM radio a few times. Never mind just having a having a headphone jack. It had HDMI!
Best phone and best mobile OS ever..
“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.
That was v1.0 of the grave. the current version no longer mechanically rotates because it is capacitive and has haptic feedback to replicate the feel.
It’s the way apple is going for carbon neutrality. Just hook Jobs’ corpse to a dynamo.
No worry, they will backtrack in 27, 28 and 29.
I have no doubt they will refine it over time, but I would agree it is the absolute worst UI design Apple has ever made. 100% puts stye over usability. Now, I’m someone who actually does enjoy a lot of little flourishes in a UI – there are many animations can make it easier to keep track of where things are and shadows, colors, etc, also really help keep things organized, in my experience. But Liquid Glass is not only terrible from a readability standpoint, but it’s MANY animations just seem to be in service of constant distraction. I still have a Mac laptop provided by the company I work for, and we just got this update approved last week. It has been terrible to the point that next year when we are scheduled for new machines I may just go with the Windows option… and I fricken HATE Windows!
Let me summarize the linked article for you: “Things are different and a bit more lively, and I don’t like that!”
You are welcome.
I’m glad that I’m going to skip this iteration. The 26.1 beta already has it toned down, and one of the apps my job uses doesn’t work on 26.x yet, so it’ll be a while before I switch from Sequoia
The main problem here is change, because it’s change for the sake of change without any clear purpose, this is the shinny new bling. I suppose it comes from a strong social desire to be different, unique, special, and yet the irony is not lost on me that as everybody moves to the change they all have the same different. We can of course be different by staying the same, but if you do that you’re out of the club. I could argue that I can see the same trends around Linux, Windows or even something like Neovim or Github.
Use Haiku, The UI has been the same since about 2 years before Alpha 1, and that change was basically a slight reshade of the existing UI elements. And even that was heavily based on BeOS R5 from about 2000
as I’ve said before, with the chips better graphics and the fast cpu, why can’t it do motion graphics for it’s UI interface? It’s pitiful. It can be fantastical and very interactive. but will it eat up power? cpu cycles? I hate the glass ui. Bring back Aqua!