Apple’s Liquid Glass design language has been controversial, to say the least. But it wasn’t just the glass-themed elements that came under fire. One of the macOS 26 Tahoe icons in particular came under fire, with Apple changing the Macintosh HD icon in response.
But some suggest the problems go deeper than this, with the macOS 26 icons as a whole described as “terrible” and “objectively bad” …
The Macintosh HD icon
The original Macintosh HD icon had been outdated for a great many years. It very clearly depicted a spinning metal hard disk drive long after Apple made the switch to chip-mounted SSDs.
It wasn’t until this year that the company finally reflected this with a new icon depicting an SSD. But that came in for criticism on a number of fronts. Some complained that it depicted an external SSD, which still looked nothing like the internal one. Others disliked the off-center USB-C slot and the random holes. Still others pointed out that the Apple logo didn’t reflect the three-dimensional orientation of the icon.
The company responded with a new version featuring a better-aligned Apple logo, and with both USB-C slot and holes removed.
macOS 26 Tahoe icons ‘terrible’ and ‘objectively bad’
But some critics feel the problems go deeper than this, and that many macOS 26 Tahoe icons are lacking.
Basic Apple Guy highlighted the utility app icons. Instead of each having a distinctive look, they are all small variations on the same design. This makes it harder to see at a glance the function of each, and “seeing at a glance” is kind of the one job of an icon.
Daring Fireball’s John Gruber didn’t mince any words when he commented on this.
This year’s app icons from Apple are just plain objectively bad […] They all look like placeholder icons made by a developer who would be the first to admit that they’re not an artist […] These new icons all use the same “wrench” motif, which is a lazy, limiting concept to start with [but worse] maybe like 10 percent of the area of the icon is the area where the app can show something that identifies its purpose. So the entire concept for these icons sucks. But the conceptual execution sucks too.
Paul Kafasis goes further, essentially describing all of the new icons as “terrible.” He takes them apart one by one in a blog post, describing various examples as “awful,” “dumbed-down,” “bland,” “lifeless,” “amateurish,” “moribund,” “soulless,” and “like art from a kindergarten classroom.”
Top comment by BrashFroth
As a graphic designer the Tahoe icons are so regressive. They miss the point of an icon - playful & instantly recognisable. In some cases they have gotten smaller to fit inside a square and in other cases have absolutely no bearing on the app. They got rid of a HD icon, instantly recognisable as an internal drive & replaced it with ‘a unit’ that looks a bit like a USB drive, disk utility is now a spanner - when was the last time you used a spanner on a hard drive - both drive related icons but with no coherence. Smaller, fuzzier & incoherent, welcome to Apple world.
And that’s before he even gets started on the calendar icon depicting a month with 24 days …
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