Liquid Glass doesn’t have a place on the Mac. Buttons floating on top of floating toolbars, on top of floating sidebars, on top of “your content” feels like it will be cluttered and distracting in practice.
Does Liquid Glass look cool? Sure. But Windows Vista looked cool in demos, too.
UI inspired by Apple Vision Pro being used on a computer or phone is not a UI I want to use. I do want to use it on Apple Vision Pro. It makes sense there. The transparency and depth makes sense when you’re seeing through the interface to the real world.
That logic doesn’t transfer to traditional computing.
- On Vision Pro, UI is layered over your real life environment.
- On Mac, UI is the environment.
- On AR hardware, transparent UI elements can add context.
- On desktop, transparent UI elements competes with clarity.
On a Mac, windows, panels, toolbars, and sidebars aren’t embellishments on the computing experience. These interface elements are the experience. You’re not looking past them to your content. You’re using them because you want to do something with your content. Reducing the number of available actions in a toolbar and making the ones available translucent or nearly invisible undermines the purpose of the UI of a lot of applications.
Sharing some design elements across operating systems to create a family resemblance is worthwhile. Kneecapping usability by forcing UI patterns from one platform onto another is not. Apple understood this with the original iPhone. It didn’t simply port desktop conventions, nor did it adopt the prevailing smartphone conventions of 2007 when it developed the original iPhone UI.
The Mac should be allowed to remain the Mac.