Stock UI in MacOS 27 Eschews Clarity

Useful takeaways from this story.

"Thibault", in post on Mastodon responding to Brent Simmons's "stock Mac UI" post that I just linked to:

It reminded me of my own explorations with the macOS design language, especially the modern title/toolbar which I believe is one of the most foundational design regression on the platform.

I played with the idea of redesigning the Finder with the original hierarchy but keeping the current Liquid Glass styling.

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The useful part

"Thibault", in post on Mastodon responding to Brent Simmons's "stock Mac UI" post that I just linked to: It reminded me of my own explorations with the macOS design language, especially the modern title/toolbar which I believe is one of the most foundational design regression on the platform. I played with the idea of redesigning the Finder with the original hierarchy but keeping the current Liquid Glass styling.

How it works

Thibault's simple example also shows that the problem has nothing to do with "Liquid Glass" controls.
Like: where exactly can you click to drag a window around?
The changes in Thibault's redesign, if you describe them verbally, sound minor.
Looking at the differences feels like a huge — and much needed — breath of fresh air.
It relaxes my nervous system to see obvious differentiation for window chrome at the top.

What to take from it

The hierarchy is clear: this area is the window, this area is the content of the window. Apple's MacOS 27 Golden Gate stock UI deliberately does away with that differentiation, for no good reason. I crave clarity, and Apple's current MacOS design language rejects clarity.

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