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Seems like I'm against the trend here in HN, but I personally like it more the more I use it. (Admittedly I don't have any accessibility issues which may come u

Seems like I'm against the trend here in HN, but I personally like it more the more I use it. (Admittedly I don't have any accessibility issues which may come up for others) Also, I appreciate the UX improvements (as opposed to the pretty glass effect), such as the much improved menu system and the generally (IMO) improved changes in layout in Calendar, Mail, Safari, etc. That said I do find it a bit more annoying to access different tabs in Safari but maybe that's why I get for using Safari.

argsnd 1y ago
If you head into Safari's settings you can reinstate the old bottom bar (or the even older top and bottom bars)
- operator-name 1y ago
  There’s also a hell of a lot of gestures that I’ve just learned of: https://www.cnet.com/tech/i-finally-got-used-to-the-new-ios-26-safari-after-i-made-these-changes/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/i-finally-got-used-to-the-new-ios-...
mrkstu 1y ago
Turning on reduce transparency makes it perfectly usable, generally. Even with transparency on its gotten much better than the early betas, which is good, since that is the happy code path and gets more testing coverage.
- themadturk 1y ago
  Came her to say this. There are things I still don't like about it, but reducing transparency has helped a lot. The rest I'm willing to live with (as if I had any choice...)
exasperaited 1y ago
> (Admittedly I don't have any accessibility issues which may come up for others) Yet. This design is really punitive for older, tireder eyes and they really need to learn not to do this. Because their audience gets older all the time (as the population in all western countries does). Their design team is evidently skewed young again, and needs to really learn about how ageing affects eyesight for absolutely everyone. It is insane to put everyone over about 50 into an accessibility category, but eyesight ageing is one of the things that can't be held back.
- torben-friis 1y ago
  >It is insane to put everyone over about 50 into an accessibility category accessibility != for the disabled, and apple used to champion that principle. What's good for someone with eyesight problems is also good for a young person standing outside under the sun's glare. What's useful for a one-handed person will also serve you when you're carrying your toddler in one hand. A silence compartment on a train might make you effectively deaf for a while, a hangover or a night of bad sleep might make your attention sink, and so on. We're all somewhere on the spectrum, and most importantly, where in the spectrum we are changes frequently during the day. That's why it's so important for all interfaces to be accessible by default rather than having a buried switch somewhere.
  - exasperaited 1y ago
    Indeed.
- tdy_err 1y ago
  For what it’s worth, the median age in the United States is ~ 37
jeroenhd 1y ago
I like it too. However, I have noticed several screens that clearly were never tested by any Apple testers. Not just the liquid glass part, either; I've found entirely borked screens inside of the iOS settings app. When I tried to get Aero Glass into Linux themes, I found plenty of existing transparency-oriented themes, but all of them made Microsoft's decision to use frosted glass more obvious. There's a balance between the shininess and opacity that needs to be dialed down for the look to both look good and be clear. I think Apple went too far with making their theme look shiny. I assume (hope) a 26.1 update coming out in a few months to tweak the UI and fix a lot of the usability issues. As for the weird design choices around Safari: I've always found Safari's UI to be one of the most confusing parts of iOS. It was never quite obvious to me what menu I would need to hit to get to what feature. I think removing the tab button is a step backwards for sure, but with my normal struggle to use it, I've barely noticed it to be honest. I find the button as easy to find as I do most Safari buttons, and that includes previous versions. macOS seems particularly bad for built-in software, though. It seems like Apple changed the look of standard list boxes/navigation panels/whatever they call the menu on the left, and a lot of built-in macOS applications look terrible when multiple of these panes are placed near each other.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
quirino 1y ago
I'm a fan of the eye-candy. Truly feels like a glimpse of the future is terms of aesthetics. I just wish they hadn't thrown UX principles away.
gcr 1y ago
I must be in the minority because I actually kinda like liquid glass. I find the effect tasteful.
- Eldandan 1y ago
  I'm newer to iOS (first iPhone was 15 pro) and macOS (M2 Air) so have tried to keep an open mind - only excessively irritating bugs will get me back to android and windows, as the back and forth transition is a soft barrier. So far, accessing Safari tabs to close takes an extra tap, but that's counteracted somewhat by the New tab / private tab options. And keyboard doesn't pop up consistently when replying to emails in Outlook. Might be related to SwiftKey or just a bug in that app. Aside from that I'm pretty happy with the ux.
ebbi 1y ago
Just in case you aren't aware, you can swipe up from an existing tabs address bar and it'll show all open tabs UI
- seabombs 1y ago
  Thank you!
- nielsbot 1y ago
  I did know that! But just seems harder to invoke after the update.
baxtr 1y ago
I came here to look for this comment. I like it as well.

argsnd 1y ago

If you head into Safari's settings you can reinstate the old bottom bar (or the even older top and bottom bars)

operator-name 1y ago
There’s also a hell of a lot of gestures that I’ve just learned of: https://www.cnet.com/tech/i-finally-got-used-to-the-new-ios-26-safari-after-i-made-these-changes/ https://www.cnet.com/tech/i-finally-got-used-to-the-new-ios-...

mrkstu 1y ago

Turning on reduce transparency makes it perfectly usable, generally. Even with transparency on its gotten much better than the early betas, which is good, since that is the happy code path and gets more testing coverage.

themadturk 1y ago
Came her to say this. There are things I still don't like about it, but reducing transparency has helped a lot. The rest I'm willing to live with (as if I had any choice...)

exasperaited 1y ago

> (Admittedly I don't have any accessibility issues which may come up for others) Yet. This design is really punitive for older, tireder eyes and they really need to learn not to do this. Because their audience gets older all the time (as the population in all western countries does). Their design team is evidently skewed young again, and needs to really learn about how ageing affects eyesight for absolutely everyone. It is insane to put everyone over about 50 into an accessibility category, but eyesight ageing is one of the things that can't be held back.

torben-friis 1y ago
>It is insane to put everyone over about 50 into an accessibility category accessibility != for the disabled, and apple used to champion that principle. What's good for someone with eyesight problems is also good for a young person standing outside under the sun's glare. What's useful for a one-handed person will also serve you when you're carrying your toddler in one hand. A silence compartment on a train might make you effectively deaf for a while, a hangover or a night of bad sleep might make your attention sink, and so on. We're all somewhere on the spectrum, and most importantly, where in the spectrum we are changes frequently during the day. That's why it's so important for all interfaces to be accessible by default rather than having a buried switch somewhere.
- exasperaited 1y ago
  Indeed.
tdy_err 1y ago
For what it’s worth, the median age in the United States is ~ 37

jeroenhd 1y ago

I like it too. However, I have noticed several screens that clearly were never tested by any Apple testers. Not just the liquid glass part, either; I've found entirely borked screens inside of the iOS settings app. When I tried to get Aero Glass into Linux themes, I found plenty of existing transparency-oriented themes, but all of them made Microsoft's decision to use frosted glass more obvious. There's a balance between the shininess and opacity that needs to be dialed down for the look to both look good and be clear. I think Apple went too far with making their theme look shiny. I assume (hope) a 26.1 update coming out in a few months to tweak the UI and fix a lot of the usability issues. As for the weird design choices around Safari: I've always found Safari's UI to be one of the most confusing parts of iOS. It was never quite obvious to me what menu I would need to hit to get to what feature. I think removing the tab button is a step backwards for sure, but with my normal struggle to use it, I've barely noticed it to be honest. I find the button as easy to find as I do most Safari buttons, and that includes previous versions. macOS seems particularly bad for built-in software, though. It seems like Apple changed the look of standard list boxes/navigation panels/whatever they call the menu on the left, and a lot of built-in macOS applications look terrible when multiple of these panes are placed near each other.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

quirino 1y ago

I'm a fan of the eye-candy. Truly feels like a glimpse of the future is terms of aesthetics. I just wish they hadn't thrown UX principles away.

gcr 1y ago

I must be in the minority because I actually kinda like liquid glass. I find the effect tasteful.

Eldandan 1y ago
I'm newer to iOS (first iPhone was 15 pro) and macOS (M2 Air) so have tried to keep an open mind - only excessively irritating bugs will get me back to android and windows, as the back and forth transition is a soft barrier. So far, accessing Safari tabs to close takes an extra tap, but that's counteracted somewhat by the New tab / private tab options. And keyboard doesn't pop up consistently when replying to emails in Outlook. Might be related to SwiftKey or just a bug in that app. Aside from that I'm pretty happy with the ux.

ebbi 1y ago

Just in case you aren't aware, you can swipe up from an existing tabs address bar and it'll show all open tabs UI

seabombs 1y ago
Thank you!
nielsbot 1y ago
I did know that! But just seems harder to invoke after the update.

baxtr 1y ago

I came here to look for this comment. I like it as well.