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Re: Liquid Glass? Not a fan.
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2025 11:02 pm
by solinus
jamesjaysinger wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 7:22 pm
Maybe I'm wrong (I don't have an Iphone), but it still feels minimalistic. The UI doesn't feel "material" enough, it's still a lot more abstract. We didn't get the IOS 6 skeuomorphism back. Liquid glass feels like it's trying to be an in-between design, it's not flat but it isn't skeuomorphic either. It's got more depth than the previous flat design but not it's not glossy or "realistic".
This makes me wonder if liquid glass will actually kill off flat design, companies don't seem more eager to change their whole design philosophy (yet), they're just trying to make flat design a little less boring.
It was sitting on the back of my head for a while, but I believe the reason why it *still* looks off is because the majority of the lighting is at the border, and the glass does not produce a shadow. In real life, glass produces a shadow because it is imperfect at transparency. The buttons lack any sort of shading, lighting, or depth.
Compare with this mockup of a better version of Liquid Glass from KIlo:
https://xcancel.com/1000kilobytes/statu ... 6422150576
Adding a white tint to the glass allows for more obvious shading within the glass, adding thickness to the glass rather than it being flat and "thin" looking depth-wise. Each button retains the liquid glass effect, with highlights, shadows, and shading throughout.
Re: Liquid Glass? Not a fan.
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2025 11:50 am
by jamesjaysinger
solinus wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 11:02 pm
jamesjaysinger wrote: Sat Nov 22, 2025 7:22 pm
Maybe I'm wrong (I don't have an Iphone), but it still feels minimalistic. The UI doesn't feel "material" enough, it's still a lot more abstract. We didn't get the IOS 6 skeuomorphism back. Liquid glass feels like it's trying to be an in-between design, it's not flat but it isn't skeuomorphic either. It's got more depth than the previous flat design but not it's not glossy or "realistic".
This makes me wonder if liquid glass will actually kill off flat design, companies don't seem more eager to change their whole design philosophy (yet), they're just trying to make flat design a little less boring.
It was sitting on the back of my head for a while, but I believe the reason why it *still* looks off is because the majority of the lighting is at the border, and the glass does not produce a shadow. In real life, glass produces a shadow because it is imperfect at transparency. The buttons lack any sort of shading, lighting, or depth.
Compare with this mockup of a better version of Liquid Glass from KIlo:
https://xcancel.com/1000kilobytes/statu ... 6422150576
Adding a white tint to the glass allows for more obvious shading within the glass, adding thickness to the glass rather than it being flat and "thin" looking depth-wise. Each button retains the liquid glass effect, with highlights, shadows, and shading throughout.
Side by side, the first one looks terrible. The buttons are just as flat as they were before, apple didn't want to commit 100% to changing the design. Did they do this for performance reasons?
Re: Liquid Glass? Not a fan.
Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2025 3:01 pm
by solinus
jamesjaysinger wrote: Sun Nov 23, 2025 11:50 am
Side by side, the first one looks terrible. The buttons are just as flat as they were before, apple didn't want to commit 100% to changing the design. Did they do this for performance reasons?
Possibly, but there's no reason they couldn't at least added drop shadows or subtle shading.