Tahoe is overwhelmingly about its human interface. It still has problems in providing reliable contrast between elements and tools in controls and windows contents, and sameness across platforms.
design
App icons in Tahoe are forced into squares with rounded corners and aren’t allowed to deviate, but add rendering modes for the user. Finding good solutions that remain distinctive isn’t easy.
Since 2007, Quick Look has provided us with faithful thumbnails and previews of images. Then in 2020 their corners were cropped, and that’s not getting any better with macOS 26 Tahoe.
Good human interface design should bring fun where it’s appropriate, but fun is only justifiable when it’s completed to be functional.
Confess, identify, solution, damage limitation, and reference – key elements in the information an app needs to provide the user when an error occurs.
We’re swimming upstream in a raging torrent of alerts and notifications. Rather than clicking through everything, macOS should lead by example and do what we did with traffic signs.
Handling errors means more than a couple of jargon phrases and a magic number. Designing for error requires the user to be at its centre.
Is your Dock busy? How well are you able to distinguish Apple’s new app icons cast rigorously into rounded rectangles? I’m still failing, and open FaceTime when I want Messages.
It’s enough to make you and Edvard Munch scream: every QuickLook thumbnail and preview has rounded corners. They scream out the arrogance of the designer.
It’s not just inversion of display colours, but has colour tinting from the Desktop, accents which change the colour of controls, and all icons need to be redesigned. Just to be cool?
The Eclectic Light Company 