Reflecting on Apple’s Liquid Glass: Innovation or Gimmick?
On June 10th, 2025, at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC25), Apple introduced a new visual design material called Liquid Glass, featured prominently across iOS 19, iPadOS 19, macOS Sequoia, and visionOS.
As described on Apple’s official developer site, “Interfaces across Apple platforms feature a new dynamic material called Liquid Glass, which combines the optical properties of glass with a sense of fluidity.”
With this announcement, Apple signaled a fresh chapter in its design evolution — one that invites closer inspection into whether this aesthetic shift meaningfully enhances the user experience across devices, or simply serves as a visual statement.
Here we critically examine whether this design innovation genuinely creates a more dynamic and expressive user experience across Apple’s ecosystem of devices — or if it merely serves as visual embellishment.
Apple Design Trend & Development
In its early user interface designs, particularly before 2013, Apple embraced skeuomorphism, characterized by highly realistic visual metaphors reminiscent of physical objects — such as leather-bound textures, paper calendars, and wooden bookshelves. This approach was intended to bridge the digital and physical worlds through familiarity. However, beginning with the introduction of iOS 7 in 2013, Apple significantly shifted towards a more minimalistic, flat design, stripping away realistic details in favor of simplicity. As mentioned by the article Glassmorphism: Definition and Best Practices posted by Nielsen Norman Group, “Glassmorphism is a visual-design style that utilizes different levels of translucency to create depth and contrast between foreground and background elements, mimicking frosted glass.”
Press enter or click to view image in full size
By blurring the background, attention is immediately directed toward interactive elements — such as app icons within folders and notification panels — ensuring their prominence without relying on heavy graphical treatments. The subtle outline stroke reinforces the boundary of each UI component with precision. This careful balance of depth, contrast, and subtle delineation elevates user experience by intuitively guiding user focus and interaction flow.
Liquid Glass — Now
Apple’s “Liquid Glass” directly incorporates these Glassmorphic principles by combining glass-like optics and fluid animations. However, some people critique Liquid Glass as “the failure of aesthetics and accessibility”. While the design aims to be visually dynamic, its heavy reliance on blur, translucency, and subtle boundaries can hinder readability and reduce contrast.
Press enter or click to view image in full size
Refer to the screenshot above, the music player with the background blur effect is standing out. However, the name of the singer seems blended with the background color. This design doesn’t pay that much attention to the accessibility part, especially for users with visual impairments.
The heavy use of blur, soft edges, and layered translucency makes the interface feel ornamental, but risks sacrificing clarity. The bottom navigation bar suffers from similar issues: while the frosted-glass effect adds depth, it also competes visually with background content, reducing separation between interactive elements and passive content. In fast-paced mobile contexts, this can lead to a degraded experience masked by polish.
It’s worth asking: why is Apple investing so heavily in Liquid Glass? Is it truly solving a user need, or is it a response to the pressure of delivering something “new” each year — even if that novelty is mostly surface-deep? While Apple frames Liquid Glass as a dynamic material meant to enhance expressiveness, it often feels like a visual flourish rather than a functional advancement. The aesthetic is undeniably polished, but at what cost?
It raises the concern that Apple may be prioritizing visual spectacle over usability — leaning into form over function in a way that feels more like a design statement than a user-centered innovation.
