We're reaching a point in technology where practical innovation in terms of features is running dry. As a result, companies shift focus to AI and design. AI is whatever. There is some cool stuff, but most of it is just a gimmick. But design is the other main area.
Frutiger Aero Virus
The younger side of Gen Z suddenly became really interested in old design. Getting interested in designs from generations before you isn't a new thing, but with the rise of social media, it became big. Specifically, the cool thing is aero design. The kids are tired of flat design, they want skewmorphic, glassy design. To our children, Windows 7 and iOS 6 are pieces of technology created by gods.
I can't exactly pinpoint when this trend started, but the first I remember hearing about it was from a post on the zeth's aesthetics tumblr. Attached to this post are various screenshots of interfaces, most of which don't even share a consistent design style. But that doesn't matter. I recall a few months later seeing a bunch of slideshows on TikTok about frutiger aero. All these slideshows had nearly the exact same images but in a random order, and all featured a slowed rendition of yabujin's flash casanova.
Slowly after this, young people started to develop the sentiment that flat design was boring. In some cases it is, but I can at least appreciate its purpose. If only they were conscious for the transition from iOS 6 to 7. The kids wanted unique interfaces, and design started reflecting that. Google released Material You[1], Samsung did... stuff to OneUI (anything but making it look nice), and Apple released iOS 16, which let you change the color of the lock screen clock. There's no evidence that frutiger aero becoming popular and new design are linked, but they feel related. However, none of these are aero.
Instagram definitely tried, a little. When introducing the ability to add notes to post, they added a little bit of sheen to the note bubbles. Same with the hearts when a friend likes a reel. Additonally, Airbnb recently released an aero inspired refresh, including creating a new video file format to go along with it. I'm sure all the 16 year olds planning a vacation are going to love it. I knew that aero was going to become the next boring style, I just didn't know when it would happen.
"The Future of Design"
Rumors started spreading that iOS 26 (they skipped 8 numbers for this version) would include a system visual redesign, inspired by visionOS. Granted, rumors were coming out like this every year, but this year it seemed different.
Apple has been greatly losing the AI war. Their models suck, a feature announced last year that has been marketed still hasn't come out, and their features that do exist aren't even useful. Because of this, Apple going all in on design seemed like something they would do. Apple has always been a design company, as well as the company that sets design trends, so whatever they did was going to become the next big thing.
That brings us to June 9, 2025. World Wide Developer Conference, where Apple announces everything coming up in the next version of iOS. And the new design was revealed, and let me just say... it sucks.
The whole operating system now uses this glassy look, and while it looks somewhat nice in screenshots, it feels like it would be a pain to use daily. Additionally, it creates a bunch of accessibility problems due to contrast and motion.
Legibility
A problem with using glass effects in user interfaces is that things can be behind glass. Glass is unpredictable. You can get around this by making the glass effect subtle, but that can ruin the effect.
iOS 26 gets everything wrong about the glass effect. They use realistic, transparent glass with little to no blurring. Guess what happens when white text appears on a white background:
This wasn't an issue prior. Previous surfaces had a blur effect that was subtle, and it just worked. I'm aware that this is a beta, but I have a feeling that not much is going to change. Apple really wants to sell this stupid effect. Note that some items do change from black to white depending on the background, for example user interface buttons in Safari.
You can make surfaces a little more legible by enabling the Increase Contrast setting. Don't know why it isn't reduce transparency, but whatever.
Another issue with this glass is reflection around the edges. There is no way to turn this off. I cannot imagine how much battery life this uses. Not to mention, this creates a lot of motion, and reduce motion does nothing to stop this. Unlocking my phone makes me a little nauseous. Additionally, some surfaces bounce when you tap them, anywhere on them, as well as glow around where your finger tapped. The bouncing is really annoying. I don't think it's supposed to bounce every time you tap, but surfaces do.
Bring Back Buttons
In order to appear more minimalist, iOS 26 redesigns the interface for a lot of apps. Specifically, it redesigns the navigation bar, which I don't like. As discussed, there is a lot more motion for common tasks, but there is also another issue, and that's ease of use.
If you're on this blog, you probably know more than just how to use a phone. But there are people who don't, and despite what you're told, that's completely fine. Old people, people with disabilities, or people with talents in other things should still be able to use an operating system. Apple devices are supposed to be the "easy to use" ones, but ever since gesture control on the iPhone X I feel they've only become harder. The number of times I get asked how to open the quick switcher is incredible.
One interesting example of this is how most people I find don't know how to set a timer in the camera app. This wasn't an issue until Apple refreshed the camera app for the iPhone XR and above. The only way to find the timer button is to swipe up in the middle of the viewfinder, which I don't think anybody was ever going to do that. The new camera app does improve on this by making the controls menu a button instead of a gesture, but that's about all the good I have to say.
The little bar that appears telling you to swipe up only appears for like 2 seconds when launching an app. I liked the bar!
The worst offender is Safari. Look at this:
How do you expect someone who isn't good with tech to use this? And don't tell me that you can change it in settings, because most people use the settings app exclusively for changing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Conclusion
In conclusion, its kinda cool but like totally unnecessary. i wish apple would redesign the photos app once a quarter instead of once a year.
I know Material You came out before the tumblr post. ↩︎