Liquid Glass, or: the good, the bad and the ugly

Credit to @naundob on Twitter for... telling AI to generate this image. Wait, who is even deserving of credit for this? Bah! Humbug!

There could be none more perfect timing for the introduction of Apple’s new design language, Liquid Glass, at this year’s WWDC conference right as I am in the process of documenting the company’s rise and fall in software quality over the years. In the consumer world, Apple’s loyal fanbase is still going “ooh” and “ahh” with each new mockup of what shall probably become known as “Apple OS,” whereas, in the software developer world, the reception seems to be rather mixed. On one hand, the mockups we’ve seen appear to signal a definite wind of change from an operating system aesthetic that has remained virtually changed since the introduction of iOS 7 back in 2013. On the other hand, however, the design philosophy behind Liquid Glass seems to prioritize the convergence upon that very “aesthetic” at the cost of its functionality, with respect to its principle goals. Conversely, the principal goal of Apple as a company has proven to be nothing but money, honey. (I am of course being hyperbolic.) It should go without saying that Liquid Glass represents an attempt to appeal towards the nostalgic sentiment for “Frutiger Aero,” as the kids are saying nowadays, and some have jabbed at its similarities to Windows Vista for its excessive use of blur filters, especially in places that don’t necessarily benefit from them. But, then again, one must recognize that a design philosophy should not exclusively concern itself with functionality alone, and that certain aspects of design must be geared towards visually flattering the user. Liquid Glass turns flattery into flatulence with some of the questionable design choices being made in the latest preview of iOS “26”(?)

Oh, so apparently Apple is trying to unify the version numbering scheme across all of its operating systems. If they’re anything like Microsoft, they will surely reverse that decision in a couple of releases down the road. (Let’s count to ten: 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 … 10.) I’m sure that everyone will love explaining to their grandparents why their smartphone is suddenly eight versions out-of-date. What’s that, now, your grandparents are dead? So let them follow the course of action surely being taken by former Apple founder Steve Jobs—which is, to say, by rolling in their graves!