Exploring the Apple Ecosystem
Apple has reversed its prior macOS design choice of placing icons in every menu item by default, removing this feature in macOS Golden Gate after trying it for a year in macOS Tahoe. The new Human Interface Guidelines now cite the earlier approach as a design mistake, highlighting a shift based on real user experience and a recognition that uniformly icon-free menus offer a clearer, more consistent interface.
Mac app icons have historically featured diverse shapes, but recent macOS versions enforce a uniform squircle shape to harmonize visuals across the platform, restricting arbitrarily-shaped icons to maintain consistency and system integration. This “Squircle Jail” approach, introduced after macOS Big Sur and solidified in macOS Tahoe, trades the expressive freedom of bespoke shapes for a cohesive Dock appearance that balances platform identity with app branding. The evolution reflects broader shifts toward simplified, scalable design suited to a growing and varied developer community, emphasizing the squircle as both canvas and container to effectively communicate the app’s function while fitting into Apple’s ecosystem.
The article highlights numerous subtle yet meaningful software and system improvements announced at WWDC26 across Apple’s ecosystem, including enhancements to Photos, Messages, Mail, Safari, Health, and many other apps and services. These refinements focus on smoothing workflows, fixing longstanding issues, boosting performance, expanding language support, and improving accessibility, reflecting Apple’s attention to detail and commitment to user experience. Many updates also target better integration and efficiency across macOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and visionOS, underlining enhancements in productivity and ecosystem cohesion.
The article explores the evolution of Mac app window corner designs from the original Macintosh OS to the latest macOS Tahoe, emphasizing changes in corner radius and window styles. It critiques Apple’s recent design choices, particularly the uniform, more rounded corners in Tahoe that can cause content clipping, contrasting them with earlier versions like Mac OS X 10.0 that featured distinct rounded corners only at the top, suggesting the older designs offered better usability and aesthetics.
The article discusses users’ dislike of the new menu icons introduced in macOS Tahoe, which are seen as cluttered, inconsistent, and difficult to scan. It highlights a Terminal command discovered by Steve Troughton-Smith that allows users to disable these icons while preserving some useful ones, and suggests Apple should either revert the change or provide an official option to turn off the icons in future macOS updates.
https://512pixels.net/2026/03/hide-macos-tahoes-menu-icons-with-this-one-simple-trick/
Apple’s Liquid Glass interface will remain in iOS 27 despite some criticism. The design has substantial support within the company, with tweaks allowing users to reduce transparency. A new feature may provide more control over its appearance, though technical challenges persist.