6 ms·

Mac OS's UX design has been in free fall the last 5-10 years (ever since the "iOS-ify everything" zeitgeist took root). Sincerely hope that they one day revert

Mac OS's UX design has been in free fall the last 5-10 years (ever since the "iOS-ify everything" zeitgeist took root). Sincerely hope that they one day revert back, because the current UX is just godawful for any usecase I can imagine.

Reason077 6mo ago
I really hope they roll back some of the more obnoxious and pointless aspects of "Liquid Glass" in macOS 27. And the super-rounded window corners are high up on my list. Looks childish, wastes screen space, causes so many little annoyances...
- aucisson_masque 6mo ago
  I wish too but they can't just back up, that would be a very bad sign for investors.
  - blackhaz 6mo ago
    They'll just come up with round displays. Like on PDP-1.
    - GuinansEyebrows 6mo ago
      finally, we can run SPACEWAR on macOS as it was always intended to be run.
  - Towaway69 6mo ago
    Why? What happened to the magic bar? There are many things Apple changed their minds on. I won’t be surprised if there is a rollback in 27 (i’m hoping there will be - else going to buy a retro mac with a magic bar upon no tahoe runs).
    - duskdozer 6mo ago
      They can't frame it as a rollback at least. Have to sync it up with a new OS release or something as the "new" best thing
    - Reason077 6mo ago
      No need for a retro Mac. macOS Sequoia runs great on all but the very newest Macs, and is still getting maintenance updates. And unlike with iPhones, it's perfectly possible to downgrade Macs back to older macOS versions if you want.
marxisttemp 6mo ago
What is godawful about it? Tahoe is great. Spotlight shortcuts, LLM actions. “Design is how it works.”
- Ultimatt 6mo ago
  Because Spotlight now rarely finds your applications in search so you can't just quick launch anything.... from a launcher widget
  - marxisttemp 6mo ago
    I haven’t had a single issue with this. I’m guessing many people had this issue immediately after upgrading while Spotlight was still re-indexing and are just running with it since it’s cool to hate Tahoe right now.
    - threatofrain 6mo ago
      My search never recovered but I just didn't care to fix it, too many things to fix and my IDE has its own spotlight. I'm normally a vanilla-don't-touch-settings guy.
    - muro 6mo ago
      When I try to launch system settings through spotlight, it launches system info. They have the same prefix, but that's no excuse. Never happened since Tiger or so.
    - jasonvorhe 6mo ago
      No, if this happened to people 2-3 times right after upgrading this wouldn't be something they bring up because the indexing doesn't take months. It's broken. Spotlight used to work almost perfectly since it was introduced and it's been lagging and somewhat defunct since Tahoe.
  - andix 6mo ago
    They finally managed to get feature parity with the Windows start menu :) For around a decade typing "word"+return into the windows start menu search box usually opened Edge with a search result of "ord". Recently it opens Word most of the time.
bonesss 6mo ago
In hindsight, 90s through 2000s, I think we were coming up in an era of consistent UX refinement and improvement that we took for granted, and that improvement got nailed by mobile transitions (first to phone then to pad and now to AR). MS missed the web, then missed the phone. Apple surpassed them on the desktop but they also made the golden goose (iPhone), pulling focus and consistency away. I assume it’ll rectify in the vast future, but it’s weird to see regressions in core areas because the new hotness has made it so that these gigantic-corps can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
EdiX 6mo ago
> ever since the "iOS-ify everything" zeitgeist took root That started in 2010, a bit more than 5-10 years.
- nnwright 6mo ago
  How dare you remind me how old I am ;)
- trymas 6mo ago
  IMHO it started with iOS 7 [1] - year 2013. Uber flat, you don't know what's a button, what's a text. I dunno if I just adjusted to it or it actually somewhat got better up to iOS/macOS 15. Though with iOS/macOS 26 - it's iOS 7 moment yet again. NB: not sure about Liquid Glass - though I was recently (and weirdly) recommended to watch iOS 7 trailer on youtube[2]. Comments are overwhelmingly positive. Dunno if it's just people who were kids/teens looking through rose tinted glasses. Though I am not sure anymore, maybe people actually like such designs and it's just HN bubble complaining (IMHO complains here are 110% valid) about nothing. Maybe in 10+ years ordinary guy will praise iOS/macOS 26. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_7 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzLr7xSr-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzLr7xSr-g
  - andrekandre 6mo ago
    > Comments are overwhelmingly positive. Dunno if it's just people who were kids/teens looking through rose tinted glasses. idk, its a trailer so lots of beauty shots and also selection bias at work... i think also the previous ui though wasnt gods gift to ux either (thinking about that "oompaloompa skin" [0] calendar app lol) so there is a lot of "refreshness" that does look good (again that new calendar app looked slick). that being said also after release i remember everyone blasting it for super thin fonts and low contrast so im inclined to say rose-colored glasses.... as an aside: personally (and at $work in user tests) very flat design seems to lead to cognitive load increase and difficultly discerning interactive vs non interactive elements so i'd say we have one step forwards two steps backwards for sure... [0] https://osxdaily.com/2011/07/23/change-ical-leather-interface-back-to-aluminum-in-os-x-lion/ https://osxdaily.com/2011/07/23/change-ical-leather-interfac...
zombot 6mo ago
They just might do that, and sell it as revolutionary progress.
htk 6mo ago
"In 2015, Dye became the head of Apple's user interface design team" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dye https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dye
- vanc_cefepime 6mo ago
  "Dye also contributed greatly to the design language of iOS 7 in 2013. In 2015, Dye became the head of Apple's user interface design team. In 2022, he played an integral role in the creation of the Dynamic Island, a feature on iPhones and then in 2025, he led the design of Liquid Glass." Left for Meta in Dec 2025. Hopefully things normalize a bit? Wishful thinking, I suppose.
  - stock_toaster 6mo ago
    I imagine it will take a while to turn a ship this big, even if they are willing (yet to be seen).

Reason077 6mo ago

I really hope they roll back some of the more obnoxious and pointless aspects of "Liquid Glass" in macOS 27. And the super-rounded window corners are high up on my list. Looks childish, wastes screen space, causes so many little annoyances...

aucisson_masque 6mo ago
I wish too but they can't just back up, that would be a very bad sign for investors.
- blackhaz 6mo ago
  They'll just come up with round displays. Like on PDP-1.
  - GuinansEyebrows 6mo ago
    finally, we can run SPACEWAR on macOS as it was always intended to be run.
- Towaway69 6mo ago
  Why? What happened to the magic bar? There are many things Apple changed their minds on. I won’t be surprised if there is a rollback in 27 (i’m hoping there will be - else going to buy a retro mac with a magic bar upon no tahoe runs).
  - duskdozer 6mo ago
    They can't frame it as a rollback at least. Have to sync it up with a new OS release or something as the "new" best thing
  - Reason077 6mo ago
    No need for a retro Mac. macOS Sequoia runs great on all but the very newest Macs, and is still getting maintenance updates. And unlike with iPhones, it's perfectly possible to downgrade Macs back to older macOS versions if you want.

marxisttemp 6mo ago

What is godawful about it? Tahoe is great. Spotlight shortcuts, LLM actions. “Design is how it works.”

Ultimatt 6mo ago
Because Spotlight now rarely finds your applications in search so you can't just quick launch anything.... from a launcher widget
- marxisttemp 6mo ago
  I haven’t had a single issue with this. I’m guessing many people had this issue immediately after upgrading while Spotlight was still re-indexing and are just running with it since it’s cool to hate Tahoe right now.
  - threatofrain 6mo ago
    My search never recovered but I just didn't care to fix it, too many things to fix and my IDE has its own spotlight. I'm normally a vanilla-don't-touch-settings guy.
  - muro 6mo ago
    When I try to launch system settings through spotlight, it launches system info. They have the same prefix, but that's no excuse. Never happened since Tiger or so.
  - jasonvorhe 6mo ago
    No, if this happened to people 2-3 times right after upgrading this wouldn't be something they bring up because the indexing doesn't take months. It's broken. Spotlight used to work almost perfectly since it was introduced and it's been lagging and somewhat defunct since Tahoe.
- andix 6mo ago
  They finally managed to get feature parity with the Windows start menu :) For around a decade typing "word"+return into the windows start menu search box usually opened Edge with a search result of "ord". Recently it opens Word most of the time.

bonesss 6mo ago

In hindsight, 90s through 2000s, I think we were coming up in an era of consistent UX refinement and improvement that we took for granted, and that improvement got nailed by mobile transitions (first to phone then to pad and now to AR). MS missed the web, then missed the phone. Apple surpassed them on the desktop but they also made the golden goose (iPhone), pulling focus and consistency away. I assume it’ll rectify in the vast future, but it’s weird to see regressions in core areas because the new hotness has made it so that these gigantic-corps can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.

EdiX 6mo ago

> ever since the "iOS-ify everything" zeitgeist took root That started in 2010, a bit more than 5-10 years.

nnwright 6mo ago
How dare you remind me how old I am ;)
trymas 6mo ago
IMHO it started with iOS 7 [1] - year 2013. Uber flat, you don't know what's a button, what's a text. I dunno if I just adjusted to it or it actually somewhat got better up to iOS/macOS 15. Though with iOS/macOS 26 - it's iOS 7 moment yet again. NB: not sure about Liquid Glass - though I was recently (and weirdly) recommended to watch iOS 7 trailer on youtube[2]. Comments are overwhelmingly positive. Dunno if it's just people who were kids/teens looking through rose tinted glasses. Though I am not sure anymore, maybe people actually like such designs and it's just HN bubble complaining (IMHO complains here are 110% valid) about nothing. Maybe in 10+ years ordinary guy will praise iOS/macOS 26. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_7 [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzLr7xSr-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xzLr7xSr-g
- andrekandre 6mo ago
  > Comments are overwhelmingly positive. Dunno if it's just people who were kids/teens looking through rose tinted glasses. idk, its a trailer so lots of beauty shots and also selection bias at work... i think also the previous ui though wasnt gods gift to ux either (thinking about that "oompaloompa skin" [0] calendar app lol) so there is a lot of "refreshness" that does look good (again that new calendar app looked slick). that being said also after release i remember everyone blasting it for super thin fonts and low contrast so im inclined to say rose-colored glasses.... as an aside: personally (and at $work in user tests) very flat design seems to lead to cognitive load increase and difficultly discerning interactive vs non interactive elements so i'd say we have one step forwards two steps backwards for sure... [0] https://osxdaily.com/2011/07/23/change-ical-leather-interface-back-to-aluminum-in-os-x-lion/ https://osxdaily.com/2011/07/23/change-ical-leather-interfac...

zombot 6mo ago

They just might do that, and sell it as revolutionary progress.

htk 6mo ago

"In 2015, Dye became the head of Apple's user interface design team" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dye https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dye

vanc_cefepime 6mo ago
"Dye also contributed greatly to the design language of iOS 7 in 2013. In 2015, Dye became the head of Apple's user interface design team. In 2022, he played an integral role in the creation of the Dynamic Island, a feature on iPhones and then in 2025, he led the design of Liquid Glass." Left for Meta in Dec 2025. Hopefully things normalize a bit? Wishful thinking, I suppose.
- stock_toaster 6mo ago
  I imagine it will take a while to turn a ship this big, even if they are willing (yet to be seen).