Hutson HaywardJul 25, 2025
John Gruber
There is no good argument for selection states that are anything but instantly obvious. Whoever designed this doesn’t use the app.
https://mastodon.social/@siracusa/114898428763571700
Jul 23, 2025 at 1:37amIvory for iOS
Show threadJeroen BaertJul 23, 2025
@gruber Is this one of those HDR calibration tests
Show threadJeff JohnsonJul 23, 2025
@gruber https://mastodon.social/@lapcatsoftware/112600557190057425
Show threadEshu MarneediJul 23, 2025
@gruber @siracusa System Settings wasn’t designed.
Show threadGregatron5Jul 23, 2025

@gruber Hard disagree. I bet the person who designed this uses the hell out of it every day.

However, I also bet that person is not an older, well-seasoned designer who knows to design for people with failing eyesight or who have to use $300 hand-me-down monitors, having designed for the real world and learned hard-won lessons over a lengthy career. They’re probably a 20-something design grad with perfect eyesight, at their first job, working in a light-controlled environment on an XDR display.

Show threadGed MaheuxJul 23, 2025
@gruber @siracusa Same exact problem with Safari tabs under 26. Depending on the underlying website’s design and which mode I’m in (dark or light), sometimes I not only can’t read the tabs but also cannot discern which one is selected. Really bad.
Show threadJohn GruberJul 23, 2025
@gedeonm @siracusa Yep. And while there are an infinite number of visual styles that can be used to present "tabs”, job #1 ought to be making the active tab instantly and unambiguously obvious.
Show threadSteve BollingerJul 23, 2025
@gruber Don't forget Apple TV's "this item is 0.03% bigger because it is selected right now" system. Utterly baffling how function falls to form in Apple UI so often.
Show threadMichael PorterJul 23, 2025
@stebo @gruber The number of times I moved away from the selected item to try to determine what was selected in Apple tvOS is… many.
Show threadJohn GruberJul 23, 2025
@MichaelPorter @stebo Turn on the tvOS Accessibility setting for prominent selections. You’ll never go back. I keep forgetting it’s not the default.
Show threadMichael PorterJul 24, 2025
@gruber @stebo Thanks, I'll check that out 😊
Show threadJohn GruberJul 23, 2025
@stebo tvOS has a great accessibility setting for this, that puts an obvious thick outline around the selected item. It’s so good I often forget it’s not on by default.
Show threadSteve BollingerJul 24, 2025

@gruber Thanks for the tip. In the tvOS I"m using the path to the setting is:

Settings -> accessibility -> display -> Focus Style -> high contrast

I would never have put up with this so long if I had known.

Show threadEugene KimJul 23, 2025
@gruber @siracusa I’d love to see a deeper dive into Apple’s HIG group and where in Alan Dye’s yard were they buried.
Show threadAndrei TorresJul 23, 2025
@gruber and I also don't understand how this design got approved.
Show threadAdam FairclothJul 23, 2025
@gruber John, for those of us who are in utter despair over the state of UI/UX in the OS 26 betas, can you offer us any reassurance that there are voices within Apple yelling very very loudly that this design is misguided on a whole bunch of levels? (I'm looking for straws to grasp to…)
Show threadSebastian SanneJul 23, 2025
@gruber @siracusa In my experience typical for UI designers that have great monitors themselves, love nuance a bit too much and accessibility not enough, and haven’t gotten enough user testing under their belt.
Show threadDavid HoltJul 23, 2025
@gruber @siracusa haven’t you heard of homeopathy?
Show threadAndy CameronJul 23, 2025
@gruber I am genuinely dreading this update rolling out to my 78-year-old Dad. He’s no Luddite, but unless it is absolutely and immediately clear what form, function and state are, anyone who’s not using their device all day every day for a living is going to be lost.
Show threadMichael PorterJul 23, 2025
@gruber Apple’s design ethos has gone from “elegantly intuitive” to “Where’s Waldo?”
#Apple
Show threadAndré ClaaßenJul 23, 2025
@MichaelPorter @gruber Absolutely.
Show threaddmitriidJul 23, 2025

@gruber @siracusa

None of the higher ups use computers. Or care

Show threadShawn PlatkusJul 23, 2025
@gruber @siracusa It's the Settings app! Obviously no one at Apple has ever used it! 😂
Show threadJeff WatsonJul 23, 2025
@gruber @siracusa I’d expand that to say “doesn’t use the computer”.