I've been thinking for a long time about moving from Apple's #Journal app back to #DayOneApp.
Among other things, I've missed having the Journal app on the iPad and Mac, but I remembered it's coming with the upcoming OS 26 updates, so I started to question if it was a good idea.
Then I remembered how bad things seem with the liquid glass situation, and how I'm really not looking forward to upgrading in September.
So I figured, I could just install the public beta, try it out for myself, get a first-hand impression, and assess whether the Journal app is good enough to sacrifice a stable & better designed OS...
I went ahead and installed the public beta on my iPad, tried the Journal app, was completely dissatisfied, got motion sick from all the Liquid Glass pointless effects, personally witnessed the many poor design decisions, and began migrating all my journal entries back to Day One right away.
Now I'm back on iPadOS 18, and for the first time ever, I don't personally feel like it's outdated or a downgrade in any way.
I've been following this closely ever since the updates were announced at WWDC, but I never had a reason to try the betas.
Now that I have, I can officially and confidently say: it’s baaaaaaaaad. You don’t even need more than 30 minutes to realize just how rough it is. There are plenty of examples out there, so I’ll just share 3 I haven’t seen mentioned yet.
#Accessibility has come up plenty of times during the Liquid Glass convo, but check this out. Just a basic example, something even a barely-skilled designer should be able to easily get right.
You need a contrast ratio of 3:1 to meet WCAG AA for large text (4.5:1 for small text like this). Ideally, you’d aim for AAA, which requires 7:1.
The labels on the Reminders buttons don’t even hit 3:1. They're not accessible at all. You don’t even need a visual impairment to struggle when reading these.
Everyone's favorite topic: #LiquidGlass.
It feels like all the shiny reflections on the glass were designed with light mode in mind, because the moment you switch to dark mode, your eyes and brain have to work extra hard just to discern the icons and find the one you're looking for.
These really should be toned down in dark mode. There's just so much visual noise!
In other words: finding an app now comes with a much higher cognitive load, for the sake of… questionable aesthetics?
Last but not least: there are plenty of examples like this that show poor execution and a lack of attention to detail.
Right now, swipe actions are sometimes just text, sometimes icons with text stacked vertically (it depends on the app).
In 26, it’s icons with text laid out horizontally, which could be OK (although challenging) but they went even further and made each one a separate button… which, logically, means there’s not enough space to fit them all.
And this is beta 4? 🫠
Aday
Bradlee B.
Jeffrey D. Stark
Richard Grant