Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 1001 posts

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#301

Post by candiddevmike »

nlarew wrote: post #268
andrepd wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is, once again, designing interfaces based on "vibes" instead of science or principles or used feedback, optimising for looking good on screenshots and marketing materials and not for actual usability or user friendly was. With "vibes" here standing for whatever some SV asshole thinks it's cool and modern. Alegria, flat design, pastel colors, or unholy amounts of whitespace. It's been the story of the last 15 year…

Do you really think that Apple, of all companies, did a cross-platform UI refresh based entirely on vibes without considering user taste, usability, accessibility, etc? You've already judged the system as only good for "looking good on screenshots and marketing materials" when you haven't even seen anything other than the announcement.

I think you're holding it wrong

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#302

Post by pentagrama »

I need to experience it more to have a clear opinion, but looking at those videos, these types of translucent UI layers with a magnifying glass effect feel so annoying when they move; it's distracting.

Knowing that people will be spending hours of the day with these animations, it could be overwhelming. I'm not someone who suffers from videos or video games with photosensitive content warnings, but for many people, this might feel similar, like a friend of mine who can’t play Quake 3 Arena because it gives him nausea. I’m sure there will be an option to turn it off.

I also suspect that Apple, for marketing reasons, felt the need to present something visibly new and eye-catching. They probably turned to flashy design resources meant to impress rather than serve real usability needs. It feels more like a UI concept made for a sci-fi movie than something designed with accessibility and productivity in mind.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#303

Post by timschmidt »

overfeed wrote: post #238
mrweasel wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> having those concepts matching to real world objects helped immensely A lot of those real world objects no longer exists, or are less frequently used than their counterparts, so I sort of see why moving away from that design language makes sense. I'll hold of judgement of "Liquid Glass" until I've seen and used, but I don't feel like it's necessary. It's certainly not "the biggest" design update ever. System 9 to M…

> A lot of those real world objects no longer exists Yep. What would the modern equivalent of the save icon - a cloud or an generic IC representing the soldered-on SDD? Hard drives, floppies, or any other user-controlled storage devices are now out of fashion.

USB flash drives are still quite universally used and a direct replacement for the floppy's functionality. I've seen a USB stick shaped icon used as a metaphor for saving in some places. But I agree with the sibling post that the text "save" probably has more staying power.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#304

Post by [deleted] »

ksec wrote: post #214

The whole thing is Windows Vista Aero Glass and iOS 7 all over again. Repeating all the SAME mistakes with 3D translucent design. Right now I really want skeuomorphism back. Much like iOS 7 they will have to spend another 2 - 3 years "tweaking" or basically walking back some of these design decisions. I believe the problem is when Tim Cook decided to merge "Design" under one umbrella. So the Design team now takes ove…

[deleted]

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#305

Post by 1718627440 »

afavour wrote: post #67
Klonoar wrote: post #60

Every Electron app is going to feel incredibly out of place. And for the few that aren’t okay with feeling out of place, the devs of those apps will now have to contend with shipping more macOS specific styles and workarounds. I’m not looking to discuss Electron performance/etc so please ditch that discussion before it starts. I just find it interesting how comparatively tricky this particular UI styling might end up…

I won't be surprised if we see a CSS filter that attempts to model this in Safari. Then it'll just be a question of whether Chromium (and thus Electron) get it.

Can't you access rendered elements from JS? Then this will be a massive security issue, because anybody can read all the content from behind.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#306

Post by kej »

wmf wrote: post #186
kej wrote: post #54

This feels suspiciously like the goals of Microsoft's "Metro" design from the Windows 8 era. It will be interesting to see if Apple can do a better job of keeping the same design without damaging the desktop experience than Microsoft did.

Do you mean Aero Glass from Windows 7? Metro is a flat design that looks nothing like this.

I was referring to the idea of having a universal design across mobile and desktop, which was one of the goals of Metro, rather than the specific visual style.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#307

Post by testfrequency »

cosmic_cheese wrote: post #184
microtonal wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so refreshing to get a tech event in 2025 where design is a huge focus and not just duck taping another LLM to everything. I don't want to make this an Apple vs. Google comment (Mac user since 2007, iPhone user since 2009), but Google spend a good chunk of time on their Material Design 3 Expressive redesign at the Android event a few weeks ago.

MD3 feels pretty tame in comparison, though. Mostly still the same flat look but with more roundness and louder colors. I think it’s going to end up dated looking much, much more quickly than MD1/MD2 did.

Tame is what Apple should have shipped instead of this liquid glass disaster.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#308

Post by agumonkey »

pentagrama wrote: post #302

I need to experience it more to have a clear opinion, but looking at those videos, these types of translucent UI layers with a magnifying glass effect feel so annoying when they move; it's distracting. Knowing that people will be spending hours of the day with these animations, it could be overwhelming. I'm not someone who suffers from videos or video games with photosensitive content warnings, but for many people, t…

Even the antialiasing is bad.. this is below Apple usual slickness.

Re: Apple introduces a universal design across platforms

#310

Post by ultrarunner »

thenaturalist wrote: post #266
dimal wrote: post #148

Oh no. It looks like every button and menu is now a translucent layer, so that any noise from the background shows through and muddles the text. This seems like an accessibility nightmare. Translucent layers generally make software unusable for me. In the video, I saw several instances that would be really really bad for me, where I’d be straining to understand the text. Looks really cool and futuristic though. Just…

Not autistic, but this is just so weird. Why would you design readability and visibility to depend on chaotic, highly varied and probably sometimes bad underlying backgrounds? I fail to see any systematic approach/ consistent design language at play here. Let's hope this does not survive for long.

I’ve noticed a recurring theme on iOS where interactions intended for an app get trapped by the OS (especially multi-window interactions on iPad). The OS is less and less a foundation to support what you actually want, and more the product itself. If the actual content of the phones matters less than the fact that iOS itself is “the latest” then this makes perfect sense and is in line with the general momentum over the past several years.
Post reply on HN