Apple's Liquid Glass UI marks the end of flat design | Hacker News Reader

Apple's Liquid Glass UI marks the end of flat design

5 pointsPenguin_7 comments

Designer here. I wrote this piece after watching WWDC25 and realizing how drastically Apple just shifted its UI paradigm.

It’s not flat. It’s not skeuomorphic. It’s something new — a tactile, motion-driven, almost emotional interface approach. They’re calling it “Liquid Glass UI,” and it breaks nearly every design convention we’ve followed for the last decade.

Curious to hear what folks here think. Is this Apple getting ahead of the curve… or just overdesigning for the sake of aesthetics?

Article here if you want the full breakdown: https://medium.com/@dahsmartgirl/apple-just-killed-flat-design-at-wwdc25-heres-what-it-means-for-ux-8a84cdf00234

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"Everything new is the well forgotten old" is in full force here.

Although I didn't think we'd forget Mac Aqua, Windows Aero and Glassmorphism so soon. Three different times in the last 25 years when this trend kept popping up. Except... worse every time.

Aqua was simple and functional. Slightly cheesy maybe, but very usable. At the time, impressive. While Liquid Glass is... a bizarre display of form over function. Its transparent with the aim of blending in, and then performatively distorting the light behind, even diffracting it into a rainbow in some components (?!) which is the opposite of "blending in". It distracts by design.

this isn’t new, i know that. Aqua, Aero, and Glassmorphism all paved the way. The nostalgia is valid.

But Liquid Glass isn’t just aesthetic reuse, it’s a reframe.

This time, the visual noise isn’t a byproduct. It’s the product. It’s meant to provoke, to feel alive, to signal a shift toward interfaces that are less tool, more experience.

Is it distracting? 100%. Is it usable? Not really. But is it worth paying attention to? Definitely.

Because when Apple makes something this bizarre, they’re usually early, not wrong.

Your entire thesis can be summed up to “if Apple does it it’s good, even if it’s bad.” It doesn’t work this way. Apple has failed many times in the past, many forgotten failures, and this will be another one.

Don’t confuse buzz on the Internet with successful design that will last. I remember when the cybertruck was the topic of every discussion 1 year ago. Now their sales are in the gutter.

“Demanding attention” is the first move, not the endgame. For a product to succeed it needs to fulfill a purpose other than distraction.

New? https://www.nngroup.com/articles/glassmorphism/

Windows Aero: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Aero

Not new visually, yeah. Aero and Glassmorphism walked so this could run.

What Apple’s doing here feels deeper. It’s not just a style layer, it’s starting to drive how the UI behaves. Motion, depth, and light are all working together to create more emotion in the interface.

Could be overkill, could be the start of something bigger. Time will tell.

It’s the same old shit that no one wants. It divides us into two camps and we all take shots at each other about some pointless UI fashion.

This argument is tired and worn out. Fuck it. Grow up, use a computer as a bicycle, don’t worry about whateverthefuck color it is.

Cool, but saying “fuck it” doesn’t stop UI from evolving.

You don’t have to care about glass, but don’t pretend design doesn’t shape how people use software.

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