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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

#241

Post by torben-friis »

bicx wrote: post #79

2025 feels like a cardinal year for top-down decisions we all just have to endure for the present. The best we can do is bitch loudly and often, and hope the people at the top still feel threatened by consumers/constituents. This Liquid Glass decision is particularly challenging for my tiny startup. We have multiple platforms including iOS and Android. I was hoping to share much of our design language across iOS and…

honestly I'd wait for a while - betas are changing the design each time, which is its own issue. app devs don't have a fixed target to go for.

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

#242

Post by marcosdumay »

array_key_first wrote: post #229
rurp wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not surprised since I think most UI overhauls replace one system with another that is roughly equally good, except that nobody is familiar with the new system so everyone burns a bunch of time and attention learning the new one just to get back to par. The new UI often isn't worse in any objective sense, it's just not better and the whole exercise is a giant waste of everyone's time. Some subset of users like re-…

I think a lot of the time the UI is objectively worse. Less functionality, more clicks/swipes to do the same actions, less legibility, etc. It's just that people get used to bad software.

> It's just that people get used to bad software.

Or that it improves silently between several versions. Or that it just keeps getting worse, and people are justified every time.

I don't know a lot about Apple. Android seems to be partially at each of those camps.

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

#243

Post by t-writescode »

tcoff91 wrote: post #222
layer8 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trouble with Reduce Transparency on iOS 26 is that it also reduces contrast (irrespective of Increase Contrast).

That's absolutely wild.

Sounds like a bug. Probably worth reporting it to get it fixed. Historically, Apple’s accessibility features have been best in class.

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

#244

Post by torben-friis »

b_e_n_t_o_n wrote: post #228

I like it, but regardless of one's aesthetic opinions I think an important thing people are missing is the move towards UI elements being overlays on top of content instead of sandwiching or interleaving with content. This is very apparent on some apps like iOS Safari, Maps, etc. The general idea is your app content is a full screen/window canvas and your UI sits on top of it, which allows it to get out of the way of…

This intended effect is clearly not achieved when the final result looks busier, animates and shines to rob attention from the content and reduces visibility.

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

#245

Post by b_e_n_t_o_n »

torben-friis wrote: post #244
b_e_n_t_o_n wrote: post #228

I like it, but regardless of one's aesthetic opinions I think an important thing people are missing is the move towards UI elements being overlays on top of content instead of sandwiching or interleaving with content. This is very apparent on some apps like iOS Safari, Maps, etc. The general idea is your app content is a full screen/window canvas and your UI sits on top of it, which allows it to get out of the way of…

This intended effect is clearly not achieved when the final result looks busier, animates and shines to rob attention from the content and reduces visibility.

I don't agree with that assessment.

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

#246

Post by schrodinger »

Poor article.

Chose worst-case images to make Messages look as bad as possible.

Same with the stacked, floating UI items.

And the "search bar" change causing us to re-learn habits? NOT TRUE. The old way works too; but now there's a discoverable alternative.

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

#247

Post by bigyabai »

b_e_n_t_o_n wrote: post #228

I like it, but regardless of one's aesthetic opinions I think an important thing people are missing is the move towards UI elements being overlays on top of content instead of sandwiching or interleaving with content. This is very apparent on some apps like iOS Safari, Maps, etc. The general idea is your app content is a full screen/window canvas and your UI sits on top of it, which allows it to get out of the way of…

If this is how you're going to build your web UIs going forward, take note from Apple here - add an A11Y mode. These changes exclusively harm the overall contrast of the UI and it's unfair to expect visually impaired users to deal with your visual clutter for the sake of r/unixporn eye candy.

I think you'll quickly realize that static text content has a much more appreciable "reader mode" quality that isn't a slog to look at. There's oodles of colorslop in Liquid Glass that serves no purpose but to distract the user. Don't lose readers (or god forbid, conversions) just because you're trying to toe this line.

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

#248

Post by torben-friis »

nomel wrote: post #234
torben-friis wrote: post #37

iOS/macos 26 have me feeling isolated in a way I’ve never experienced in tech. Aesthetics aside (which I personally don’t like, but I can accept as subjective) I see extreme issues and regressions literally everywhere, from not being able to read the notifications in a half pulled curtain to memory leaks in half the native apps. Yet no one is raising their voice in the tech world. No bloggers, no YouTubers, nothing t…

> I see extreme issues and regressions literally everywhere I would claim this is mostly unrelated to 26, and more related to .0. All the tech people that I know, who have experience with Apple OS releases, wait until .1 release to upgrade, for this reason. .0 are always a shit-show, since my first Apple device over 10 years ago. I see .0 as a public beta, and that's what I expect whenever I do decide to install them…

.0 releases tend to have certain bugs, but not to this degree.

I've actually been part of public betas for many years, and this is the only one where I've felt launch day approach with growing concern, as it was clear nothing was remotely close to shippable.

There wasn't even a clear direction, as most of the fixes have just been reducing glass around the UI, and it's very telling that the only way they've found so far to make the new design language work is to roll it back as much as they can without losing face.

When friends ask in person I can just pull the phone and find bugs. Not ones that I previously know, new ones each time just by paying a bit of attention.

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

#249

Post by leakycap »

mnls wrote: post #236

Thank you Apple for this update. You saved me so much money because I won’t buy another Apple product. I find it unacceptable that people pay that kind of money for iPhones and iPads etc and have to deal with bugs, bubbles, readability issues with a theme that looks like a terrible 2011 android skin. And that’s a trillion dollar company. Staying on 18, till iPhone dies.

> You saved me so much money because I won’t buy another Apple product.

Same. iOS 26 and Tahoe completely rule out me purchasing. I cannot believe this shipped.

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

#250

Post by ollysb »

While I do find the new iOS a little more awkward to use than the previous version I haven't given up hope on the concept yet. It's a big change and I can see v2 making some big improvements. Whether it'll be worth it in the long run I'm not sure but I can't be too upset about them trying something new.
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