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Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

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Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#151

Post by hamburglar »

jjfoooo4 wrote: post #117
nomel wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also swipe left and right to switch tabs, in any state. But, as you suggest, you have to tap the url to "bring it up" so it can be safely dragged upward, which is annoying. If they polish this a bit, I think it will be very nice.

Just because it took me a second to figure out: swiping left or right works when done on the search bar , not anywhere on the screen

Swiping left or right on the screen is the special “please misinterpret my attempt to scroll as a ‘forward’ or ‘back’ command, eliciting a curse” gesture. I have searched for a way to disable this many times.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#152

Post by walkabout »

shermantanktop wrote: post #125
porcoda wrote: post #31

This update is one of the rare cases where I really dislike the new version. I’m usually happy with Apple updates, even ones the commentators dislike. This time I’m sorta agreeing with them: I don’t like the new iOS. Same with the Mac and iPad: other than being glitchy, I just don’t like the changes. It feels like my screen real estate isn’t as efficiently used, UI elements feel jumbled and the transparency makes thi…

Same. I'm just not someone with strong feelings about UX consistency or appearance, and tend to focus on functionality. But this...this feels like a symptom of something fundamental inside Apple going wrong.

The only time before this I've felt like Apple took a huge UX or appearance dive on an OS upgrade was iOS6 -> iOS7. People complain about almost every macOS upgrade, but the closest they've come to bothering me is that I hated the new tab styles in desktop Safari they introduced a while ago, but that was configurable so I just set it back to normal and that was that. I've disliked other things (the Touch Bar was never anything but a way for me to accidentally open Music—I basically had to disable it to make any of those MacBooks usable) but never really been bothered by an OSX/macOS update's appearance.

So, I didn't expect to mind this at all, despite lots of people apparently hating it.

Then I upgraded. And yeah, it's remarkably shitty looking, first time I've agreed with the "haters" for a macOS release. It looks like an above-average GTK theme, which is to say, awful. Plus they found a new and different way to make Safari's tabs look like crap (and I'd swear tab manipulation is super laggy now, where it wasn't before) and this time I can't fix it with a settings toggle. Like, that element specifically looks and feels like it's from a below average GTK theme.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#153

Post by wintermutestwin »

ano-ther wrote: post #32

Some of it (like hiding the Safari tab button in a menu) feels like Windows-11-stupid. Luckily, Apple is ok at supporting older phones, so I just have to be careful to not accidentally upgrade my SE to iOS 26. Makes me nostalgic for Apple's interface guidelines, which were very well thought through, based on evidence, and with clear principles. https://vintageapple.org/inside_r/pdf/Human_Interface_Guidel...

>Fortunately, the software capability to handle different text sizes can make it easier to support people with a vision disability. You can design your software with a “zoom” feature that increases the size of characters or graphics on the screen.

If only the iPhone "menu bar" designers took that to heart. It is insane that I have to put on glasses to read the time when there is plenty of room to increase the damn font, but no option to do so.

I am gonna be LMAO when all these youngster UI designers age up to the point where they have to wear readers to use their crap UI.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#154

Post by rayiner »

I thought people were overreacting. But this is rancid. I have an OCD reaction to rubber-banding in the UI (e.g. when a browser content area can’t keep up when resizing a simple page like HN). This has been a smooth operation since OS X 10.3? Tahoe can’t do it on my Mac Mini M1!

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#155

Post by geuis »

mfro wrote: post #5

Literally every change made in iOS 26 feels like a downgrade to me. This is the first time I have ever considered downgrading iOS.

I certainly won't be upgrading to this version. I already don't really like the current version and see no reason to inflict a Windows Vista-like experience on myself.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#157

Post by comrade1234 »

So far the most I've seen is that it's a bit annoying and not set up for working with fingers.

For example, I'm in safari and push the bookmark button and it and the neighboring buttons light up. But my finger is blocking the button I'm pressing so I don't know it's the brightest button. Instead I see the neighboring buttons light up and my brain thinks I'm pressing that.

It's been a few weeks now and you'd think I'd be over it by now but I'm not. I press the screen, a button I don't want lights up, oh no wrong button, oh wait never mind.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#158

Post by operator-name »

porcoda wrote: post #31

This update is one of the rare cases where I really dislike the new version. I’m usually happy with Apple updates, even ones the commentators dislike. This time I’m sorta agreeing with them: I don’t like the new iOS. Same with the Mac and iPad: other than being glitchy, I just don’t like the changes. It feels like my screen real estate isn’t as efficiently used, UI elements feel jumbled and the transparency makes thi…

From reading this thread I’m glad I’m not alone. It seems their “compact” mode has a bunch of invisible gestures that you’re just supposed to know about.

Luckily I’ve also discovered that you can revert back to “bottom” tab mode in the settings, which brings back something similar to the old UI.

Re: Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26

#159

Post by symlinkk »

jacobp100 wrote: post #110
symlinkk wrote: post #14

Made my phone immediately much laggier (iPhone 13 Pro) which is probably the intention

Every update slows your phone down temporarily, because there’s background processing that goes on for a while after. That’s always been the case

I’ve had it for days and it’s still slow
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