Shy U.I. ⇥ mastodon.social
Apple love to preach “the UI gets out of the way of your content” with each new redesign, but how true is that in practice? Let’s compare the total height of the Safari UI with a toolbar, favourites bar and tab bar visible, across the three latest Mac OS design languages – Yosemite, Big Sur and now Tahoe. I’ve added a red line for emphasis.
It sure looks to me like the UI is eating more into my content with each redesign.
I am still getting my bearings on even a first impression of Liquid Glass — for reasons good and bad — but this design goal continues to irk me.
In part, that is because the word “content” makes a little vomit come up in my mouth. Also, this does not seem like a worthwhile goal for human interface design in most applications. The kinds of devices Apple makes are largely interactive. It makes sense for a television set to get out of the way — what you want to see is a movie or a show, not the bezel, the manufacturer’s logo, or anything else. Regardless of whether you are using your iPhone or your Mac, you are probably doing something with what you are seeing. Even if you are semi-passively scrolling social media, you might tap on a profile or share a post. What you can do with what you are seeing onscreen should be evident; it should not recede to the point where it is unclear what is interactive.
The visual language Apple introduced to the Mac, in particular, with Big Sur was a significant regression in this area. I need to spend more time with Liquid Glass, but at least it is more clear that the monochrome icons in toolbars are actually clickable buttons, so that is a plus.