Liquid Glass Could Be One of Apple’s Most Divisive System Designs Yet

Apple revealed a liquid Glass as part of his WWDC ad in June, with the entire pump generally reserved for the new brilliant equipment. The press release has promised a “delicious and elegant new software design” which “reflects and refracts its environment while dynamically transforming to bring greater concentration to content”. Today, it is globally embarking on compatible Apple devices.

If you haven’t met him yet, prepare yourself. Inspired by Visionos – The software supplying the Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset – Cliquid Glass infuses each Apple platform with a layer in layers in layers. This is associated with Gloopy animations and a fixing on the hiding place of interface components when possible – and display the content through them when it is not the case.

The reaction at the public beta program of the summer was a divider. And while some people simply hate change, Liquid Glass invites criticism. Instead of sharpening the focus, it also mouths it due to readability problems and distracting visual effects. On Mac, commands are too large, but on the iPhone, they are implacably eager to disappear in a new Apple version of the Hamburger menus, refusing users the possibility of building effective muscle memory.

Sometimes Apple even sees the parody. Its press release has spoken of “the establishment of greater harmony between hardware, software and content”, which often means more jamming of the line between the interface and the content and the strikes of huge rounded corners that echo the iPad screen on each Mac and iPad window. The result: cut content and confusing contempt for more conventional rectangles, the most effective form in the history of multi-window IT.

Apple’s own press images defend an office devoid of color, which makes it difficult to distinguish a row of icons of “engraved glass”.

Apple graciousness

Style on the substance?

Jonas Downey, hello Weather designer, does not entirely buy Apple’s height: “I dig Apple and strange flashy stuff and I am impressed by many execution details in the glass concept. But the new interfaces feel complicated and dominating, with Apple imposing its own ametic ideas on everyone. I could climb on board if there was an obvious advantage, ”he adds, but I have not seen a beyond the old addition that the user should not be satisfied in the happy way. It is a good principle, but liquid glass too often makes the opposite. »»

He wins a list of problems. Translucent components causing distraction. A low contrast, which makes it more difficult to differentiate elements. Excess shade and size on the buttons and tabs showing them more than the content below. That, he says, can train friction rather than to focus. “Liquid glass shares the difference between flat and skeuomorphic design, landing in a fragile average space,” he concludes. “Trying to become more floating and deconstructing, the system ends up more visually complex.”

For Ben McCarthy, creator of Obscura Camera, he is at least promising in the “liquid” part of the equation: “The dynamic island was rented for its fluidity – how it has extended and contracted as viscous ink. Liquid glass seems to be born from a similar reflection, in the sense that animations should be fun, dynamic and rooted in material behavior – and this aspect is extremely effective. ”

The “glass” part, however? Not so much. “Apple’s goal is to mix the interface and content to reduce distraction, but I think Liquid Glass reaches the opposite,” said McCarthy. “This creates distortions that attract your attention as content scrolling. There are problems with fundamental readability, as liquid glass cannot control what is going on behind. And as the system tries to adapt, turning between light and darkness to remain readable, which only adds to distraction. ”