Introducing Apple's Liquid (Gl)ass.

Disclaimer: This opinion is based on the current beta releases of MacOS 26 and iOS 26. Things might change.
I really hope they do.

What went wrong?

I’ve been using Apple products for most of my life. As a designer, I admired how Apple always balanced form and function, clean interfaces, visual clarity, thoughtful hierarchy. But with this year’s OS updates and their new design direction, something just feels fundamentaly broken. My UX designer heart is honestly bleeding.

It’s called Liquid Glass, and in theory, it should make things feel modern, fluid, alive. But in practice, it’s a blurry, glowing mess.

Visual confusion everywhere

Let me actually show you what I mean, because words almost don't do it justice. This is the new Finder UI on macOS 26:

• Why is the sidebar in the finder window floating?
• Why are shadows overlapping?
• Why does everything feel so cramped?

And on iOS, the effect is even worse:

I genuinely don't know where to look. It's all semi-transparent, over-saturated, and layered in a way that it doesn't feel like a cohesive UI. Of course it's an extreme example, but this could be reality though. So let's say you want to check out your important notifications and you have want to focus on the task of reading this.. good luck with that.

Control center becomes chaos center

This is the control center now. Nothing grabs your attention, or maybe everything grabs your attention. It's busy. It really looks like a playground of translucency without any real direction.

Where's the hierarchy?

Remember classic Apple UI? You knew exactly what to tap, where to focus. The visual hierarchy was always crystal clear. Now, it's just glow and blur competing for your attention. It actually reminds me of iOS 7 in its early, slightly chaotic days but somehow, this feels worse. Because this time, there's zero restraint. None.

Why this matters (seriously)

I’m not just nitpicking here. This isn’t about personal preference. This stuff directly impacts accessibility, usability, and overall clarity for millions of people. If your user interface looks "cool" but people can’t actually use it intuitively, then it’s just not good design. Full stop.

And here’s the thing: we know Apple can do transparent, glass-like UIs beautifully. Just look at VisionOS. That "frosted glass" look? It feels subtle, purposeful, and genuinely adds to the sense of depth and immersion without sacrificing legibility or hierarchy. It respects the content. So why does Liquid Glass in the new OS feel so... unrefined and overpowering? It's like they learned all the right lessons for VisionOS, then promptly forgot them for everything else.

Yeah, I know it’s a beta. Maybe this is just an early experiment that’ll get dialed back. Maybe Apple will actually listen and tone it down before it goes live.

I really, really hope so.