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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

#131

Post by llbbdd »

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…

I'd be ambivalent about it if it didn't ship broken. My Mac updated the other day and I don't think I've seen the glass top bar work correctly once. In fullscreen in particular it doesn't work at all, the background that it's meant to be blurring gets stuck and never changes, so it just looks like shit and is nearly unreadable. I'm not on any beta track or anything so this is what normal people get. I have no idea how they felt good shipping it.

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

#132

Post by archagon »

kevinsundar wrote: post #66
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...

You can actually swipe up from the search field at the bottom and that will show all tabs. (If anyone is reading this from apple, that animation should be sped up). However, this doesn't work if you've scrolled down already and the bar is minimized. It literally flashes as if to acknowledge your swipe and does nothing. Also if you miss by moving your thumb just slightly lower, you'll close the app haha. They thought…

That swipe sucks because it’s almost identical to the “swipe up from bottom” home screen swipe. You have to be precise, and the initial UI feedback looks very similar between the two.

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

#133

Post by random3 »

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...

Oh, so it’s hidden? I gave up several times without realizing. That is incredibly stupid

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

#134

Post by closetohome »

dewey wrote: post #64
Gigachad wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks worse in screenshots than it does to use. I saw a few images on reddit that looked quite bad, but then when I actually used it I saw those screenshots were taken in the middle of animations or transitions that last only a handful of frames.

Indeed, it's telling that the first screenshot they are using to illustrate the problem is a iMessage screenshot, with a high contrast background image, only one message and images in a similar color theme as the background image. If you want high contrast in your messages app...don't use a high contrast background image?

That picture just feels like a case study in why Apple drug their feet on features like that for so long. If you let people set a background and change the font, you're going to have unreadable purple comic sans over kittens within minutes.

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

#135

Post by paulbjensen »

If they had just increased the blur and made it contrast more.

Also I now have this instinctive feeling that every time I upgrade iOS on my devices, the battery is going to get hammered a bit more.

I would love it if they did for iOS what they did for Mac OS Snow Leopard - no new features, just performance improvements on the existing software.

Of course it might cannibalise iOS device sales, but maybe (just maybe), it would result in improved customer loyalty and commitment to Apple - not just for their hardware but also their software. A case of long-term gains over short-term targets.

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

#136

Post by frereubu »

I don't have accessibility issues, but even so I've been a fan of these settings for a few iOS versions now:

  Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Reduce Transparency
  Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Increase Contrast
  Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Differentiate Without Colour
  Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Reduce Motion
  Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Prefer Cross-Fade Transitions
To try and make my phone less interesting so I spend less time on it, I also use Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Colour Filters > Greyscale with Intensity turned up to max so it's black and white. If you set Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut to Colour Filters you can toggle this with a triple slick of the side button, in case you want to show someone a photo or something.

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

#137

Post by archagon »

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…

It looks pretty (sometimes) but I have not found a single usability improvement stemming from the new paradigm.

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

#139

Post by infecto »

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...

I was thinking of changing my iOS browser because of the safari tab change.

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

#140

Post by sorahn »

archagon wrote: post #132
kevinsundar wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can actually swipe up from the search field at the bottom and that will show all tabs. (If anyone is reading this from apple, that animation should be sped up). However, this doesn't work if you've scrolled down already and the bar is minimized. It literally flashes as if to acknowledge your swipe and does nothing. Also if you miss by moving your thumb just slightly lower, you'll close the app haha. They thought…

That swipe sucks because it’s almost identical to the “swipe up from bottom” home screen swipe. You have to be precise, and the initial UI feedback looks very similar between the two.

I gave up on the swipe for the same reason, but if you double tap the triple dot menu it hits the 'all tabs' thing.
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