What should an Operating System provide in terms of design?
It changes from time to time based on targeted audience groups and the marketing strategy decided by the company to market the Operating System. But deep down it should be effortless in our day-to-day life while being easy and accessible enough to be used regularly for 7-8 hours.
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Operating Systems should not feel like a speed breaker while users perform daily tasks. But this is what Apple’s new Design Language system, showcased in Apple’s WWDC 25.
What is Liquid Glass? What does Apple mean by Liquid Glass?
Known for their good marketing team, Apple named their new Design Style as Liquid Glass. It sounds cool & simple. But what they really mean by this is, their new Design Language System will work like Liquid on a Transparent Glass.
It sounds kind of weird, as we all know normal glass is transparent, and so is Liquid. But what Apple did here is, they used both the transparent and translucent properties. Not only that, this new system is designed to act like liquid. Which means the components in the design system respond to touch with liquid-like animations & also support reflections and refraction of light according to background elements dynamically. Those reflections & refractions also rotate based on the rotation and tilt angle of the device.
Why a sudden change from their Flat style design?
This visual style change was really not that necessary right now. Everyone had noticed that when Apple updates their design style, the whole industry follows them slowly, except for 2-3 big players. This is not an issue for a general customer, but for big companies, it’s hard to differentiate & position their products when every other company has a similar style. Also, the flat design style seems to be overused and matured enough that it started looking boring.
This also indicates that their devices were getting powerful enough to handle these visual upgrades. Competitors like Google & Samsung have also started shifting to a different design style.
Then comes Vision OS which already had a different & futuristic style of UI. So by improving that style with liquid glass and using it for their other platforms, Apple is trying to improve the overall feel of its ecosystem.
Is it really an Advantage or Disadvantage for its users?
It’s pretty normal to see the reactions after Apple announced this change for its iOS, Mac, iPad, TvOS, Watch OS etc. So many people loved them while it was being presented and even when they tried. But now slowly a wave of hatred towards this design is also coming up.
Though there are advantages like:
- A sense of depth and dimension which makes the interface feel closer to the real world.
- Changing colour dynamically based on Light or Dark mode and surrounding contents to create a more aesthetic experience.
- Dynamic and Real world like behaviour of animations based on user input and context provides a more engaging experience.
But there are major functional disadvantages also:
- While the UI looks good, it doesn’t provide enough contrast to focus on a single element. Which is frustrating as a user, because now users really have to look at every button carefully before pressing.
- While its animations are good, there are many instances where components feel like an elastic to interact instead of glass or liquid
- If the background is really busy or text heavy, it makes some components almost invisible to look at with the overwhelming contrast of background and underwhelming contrast of the UI element.
- When we’re working with something or consuming content, we need the UI to be more subtle and less attention grabbing. But this whole design system feels like it’s designed to grab the attention of users. Instead of being subtle, it has become loud, even though it’s a translucentt system. It’s happening because instead of muting down the brightness of UI elements, it distorts the background, and it does have highlights present on UI elements.
Conclusion
While the new Liquid Glass System looks and feels really attractive, it comes withits own set of issues which Apple needs to correct. It’s still very early to comment if it’s good or bad until it’s been released as a Stable Update. But by looking at the User base and age group of its users, it currently seems far from polished, which Apple is generally known for. We all are currently using it’s Developer Beta & it seems Apple is serious about it, and with this, it ends an era of flat design for Apple.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is Apple’s Liquid Glass design system?
A. Apple’s Liquid Glass is a new design language introduced at WWDC 25, featuring translucent, fluid-like UI elements that respond dynamically to touch, light, and device tilt—creating a more immersive and realistic user interface.
2. Why did Apple shift from flat design to Liquid Glass?
A. Apple moved away from the overused flat design to offer a fresh, immersive experience that matches the power of its latest devices and sets a new visual standard for its ecosystem, including iOS, macOS, and VisionOS.
3. Is the Liquid Glass UI better for usability and user experience?
A. While Liquid Glass adds visual appeal and depth, it has usability concerns like poor contrast and overly distracting elements, making it a mixed experience for users focused on function over form.
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Top comments (1)
The old one is much descent look.