For just a few years now, one thing has felt off with Apple’s software program design. There’s been an excessive amount of emphasis on showy results and attention-grabbing animations, and never sufficient on creating intuitive experiences that really work for the person. However now that Apple’s design chief Alan Dye is leaving the corporate for brand new pastures at Meta, I’m hoping for a radical enchancment to iPhone and Mac software program–one which’s lengthy overdue.
I’m not pinning all of Apple’s software program woes on Dye. However as the corporate’s Vice President of Human Interface Design, he set the tone for Apple’s complete software program ecosystem, and in the end, the design selections circulate again to him. With him on the best way out, quite a lot of customers (myself included) can be hoping for a return to the design glory days of Apple’s previous. Right here’s what I believe went improper, and what I hope we may see change.
Apple misplaced its manner
Individuals wish to complain that Apple’s design has been going downhill, a lot in order that “what would Steve Jobs do?” has turn out to be a meme of types. However for long-time Apple followers, it actually does really feel that one thing has been amiss on the firm when it comes to design.
That doesn’t imply that every thing is improper. Apple nonetheless pumps out unimaginable designs which can be immediately and shamelessly copied by its rivals, the true signal that you just’re a class-leading act. The indication of a superb design is one which immediately feels acquainted, even in case you’ve by no means used it earlier than, and Apple remains to be able to doing that. I vividly recall feeling that manner in regards to the iPhone X’s swipe-based gesture system, which Dye helped to implement.
Apple
But for each design hit, it looks like Apple has been placing out simply as many misses. Take into consideration the Dynamic Island. Positive, it seems to be wonderful, and its animations are lovely, however are you able to say that it genuinely elevates your iPhone expertise? I’m unsure I can. Whereas I prefer it, I can’t assist feeling that that’s just because it’s extra practical than the dumb notch that got here earlier than it.
The clear app icons in iOS 26 are one other worrying indicator. Icons are supposed to immediately let you know what they signify, even from a split-second look or a look from the nook of your eye. When each icon seems to be similar and fully clear, you lose that very important performance, and your entire goal of an icon is undermined. That may be a transfer finished purely as a result of somebody at Apple thought it regarded cool, and the person expertise suffers consequently. Implementing it was an excuse to make one thing visually gorgeous with out there being a urgent want to take action.
However by far the worst instance of this “let’s do it as a result of we are able to” strategy, in my thoughts, is the brand new animation that performs if you use a Liquid Glass toggle in iOS 26. A toggle’s goal is to allow or disable one thing else–in different phrases, it’s ephemeral, one thing you utilize rapidly after which transfer on. That’s its design goal.
In iOS 26, the toggles are something however ephemeral. Faucet a toggle, and it jumps up because it strikes, slowing down the animation and distracting your eye. It transforms the toggle from a fleeting instrument that’s totally practical to an off-putting centerpiece. There isn’t any goal to that change aside from to make it look fairly, and in doing so, Apple has created a sluggish, extra annoying expertise. That’s not “design is the way it works,” that’s “design is the way it seems to be.” It could seem to be a small factor, however sweating the small stuff is what design is all about. On the finish of the day, getting that proper was Dye’s accountability. Getting it improper is symbolic of his legacy.
Foundry
Jobs versus Dye
That cuts to the guts of the matter. For years, Apple’s design staff has been led by somebody who, it appears, doesn’t perceive the central philosophy that underpinned Apple’s best design triumphs. How else can we clarify the complicated design decisions, irritating modifications, and new options that appear to be no less than partly motivated by superficial reasoning?
To be clear, I don’t suppose there’s something improper with making issues which can be fairly. Recall Steve Jobs’ quote on Mac OS X’s Aqua interface: “One of many design targets was if you noticed it, you wished to lick it.” But in addition recall one other Steve Jobs quote about design: “Individuals suppose it’s this veneer, that the designers are handed this field and instructed, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we predict design is. It’s not simply what it seems to be like and looks like. Design is the way it works.”
Within the view that Jobs was criticizing, good design meant making one thing that was all seems to be and glamour however no coronary heart and soul. That appears to be the best way Apple’s design has been going beneath Dye.
An actual warning signal was the Liquid Glass introduction video that Dye offered at WWDC in June 2025. The section was heavy on how Liquid Glass would supposedly make you’re feeling; Dye talked about it sparking a way of pleasure and delight on a number of events. However he was very mild on why precisely the brand new design system was a practical enchancment on what got here earlier than. The impression I received (I’m certain I’m not alone) was that this was being finished as a result of Apple was tired of how iOS regarded and wished a visible overhaul. The corporate appeared much less pushed by the necessity to enhance the person expertise and extra by an inner need to create a brand new search for the sake of it. For veteran Apple watchers, it was regarding.
Apple
Liquid Glass has continued to be extremely divisive months after its debut. Textual content is illegible when glass panels overlap one another or when writing is superimposed on prime of a picture. Animations really feel extreme and overwrought. Controls are complicated and obscured. All this appears to stem from the main target being put squarely on how one thing seems to be and feels. “Design is the way it works” isn’t just some empty adage. Liquid Glass is an instance of what occurs when Apple forgets what it means.
Turning the ship round
A few of this could really feel just a little inside baseball. However I believe we must always care in regards to the concepts that go into the best way our gadgets work as a result of most of us use them day-after-day. If we’re given merchandise that look visually gorgeous however are irritating to make use of, we’re going to go elsewhere for one thing higher.
Alan Dye was an odd alternative to go up Apple’s human interface staff as a result of he had no background in software program design. His previous work expertise contains vogue home Kate Spade and advert company Ogilvy, hardly the sort of resumé that signifies somebody obsessed over person interface and expertise.
Apple has already given customers the choice to tone down Liquid Glass in iOS 18.1.
Foundry
His successor, Stephen Lemay, appears to be minimize from a really totally different fabric. An previous hand at Apple, he’s seen as somebody who understands each Apple’s tradition and good software program design rules excess of Dye ever did.
Many designers inside Apple are completely satisfied at Lemay’s appointment, “if not downright giddy,” based on longtime Apple pundit John Gruber. He’s “deeply revered talent-wise,” and powerful reward has been given to his “consideration to element and craftsmanship,” the precise issues which have been uncared for beneath Dye.
I hope which means we see a return to the concepts that made Apple software program nice in years passed by. A stronger emphasis on person expertise, an obsession over small particulars, and a renewed ardour for interfaces and controls. An appreciation of the foundational concepts that helped Apple’s merchandise attain the top of software program design.
The change most likely gained’t occur rapidly. Apple is a giant beast that turns slowly, and it put an excessive amount of effort into Liquid Glass to rapidly abandon it. However with a designer on the helm who’s rooted in strong rules–evidently that’s the view of Lemay internally at Apple–there’s an opportunity Apple’s software program can get again on observe.
If that leads to a swift loss of life for the accursed Liquid Glass toggle, I’m all for it.