Comment by prng2021 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by prng2021 | Hacker News Reader

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Serious question, anyone have guesses on how such an awful set of UI changes could have gotten approved? Even amongst my non-tech friends, they all agree that based on screenshots, things are harder to read. The latest iOS 26 beta even makes the glass effect more opaque which to me is an admission they screwed up, but they also certainly can’t completely backtrack at this point.

Apple has consistently balanced beauty and function, from their hardware to stores to product packaging. They must have an army of experienced UX designers and well thought out user testing processes. Given all that, how in the world did this liquid glass idea even get past the preliminary mockup stage? Were/are they simply betting that the cool factor of the glass effect will outweigh the usability issues? And that Windows Vista’s glass UI went out of style simply because it wasn’t realistic enough?

> army of experienced UX designers

They do, which means they have an army's worth of officers all trying to jockey for influence and power and position with little pet projects and "suggestions" and so on.

Apple's best years in UX were well before the army arrived, when they had a single man with great taste ultimately green-lighting every decision.

Apple's air of "design excellence" is stale, and is purely marketing now, i.e., a lie.

> Apple's best years in UX were well before the army arrived

Couldn't agree more. Leopard, Snow Leopard, Windows Vista, and 7 were by far the best-designed OSs to date.

They probably want to move users away from the iphone and onto a new platform? probably AR glasses? There is a similar (kind of) conversation on how car design got worse so people will fall less in love with their cars and switch to electric.

This is complete nonsense. No one in charge of product planning - for consumer electronics or automobiles - thinks this way.

I think i meant electric and driverless

Been test driving the iOS beta, and as a designer, I like it. In fact, I think it's great. You could tell beta 1 was early, beta 2 already fixes many of the issues.

> Serious question, anyone have guesses on how such an awful set of UI changes could have gotten approved?

hiring became run by recruiters and HR. who filter for surface over substance.

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