May 22nd, 2025
Apple’s Liquid Glass is a UI nightmare
I am not impressed with the UI changes that Apple has been leaning toward lately, especially with their latest attempt at making their UI look interesting without doing much to improve it, and perhaps even making it worse for everyone in the process. In other words, they’re repeating the same kinds of mistakes they made in iOS 7, a version that they proudly reference in their presentation of the new interface. Such hubris and ignorance!
Pavel Samsonov — The Product Picnic
Apple’s Liquid Glass is a grim portent for UX
While the original Macintosh human interface guidelines were rich with human factors-derived insights, the Liquid Glass design pattern eschews accessibility for maximum luxury branding. Unlike Material 3, which at least bothered to claim that it was Google’s “most researched” Material update ever, Liquid Glass simply asserts that it is delightful, vibrant, and expressive. Did we want that from interfaces, over for example usable and accessible? I don’t get the sense that Apple asked.
John Carmack — X
@ID_AA_Carmack
Translucent UI is usually a bad idea outside of movies and non-critical game interfaces.
The early moments of joy are fleeting, while the usability issues remain. Windows and Mac have both been down this road before, but I guess a new generation of designers needs to learn the lessons anew. Sigh.
The “Liquid Glass” UI treatment is an accessibility nightmare. What a mistake. Yes, they can improve upon it, but they can’t do much else but improve, since they decided to premiere an obviously unacceptable interface design! They made glaring accessibility mistakes within their WWDC presentation: poor text contrast with the background; shimmering layouts that distract the eye; and too thin text, among other problems I observed. I don’t hesitate to say that this is the type of UI that I would’ve been begging my superiors to not present, at least without a massive caveat displayed everywhere the UI is mentioned. This was not ready to ship, not even at a beta stage. This UI diminishes Apple’s accessibility credentials and damages their reputation within the UI community.