Nielsen Norman Group on iOS 26 usability

October 12, 2025

On Friday, Raluca Budiu posted “Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26” to the Nielsen Norman Group site. If the name isn’t familiar to you, the Nielsen Norman Group are UI/UX specialists who’ve been commenting insightfully about design since the late-90s. The piece on Liquid Glass is scathing, and excellently summarizes many of my frustrations.

Overall, Apple is prioritizing spectacle over usability, lending credibility to the theory that Liquid Glass is an attempt to distract customers from iOS 26’s lack of long-promised AI features.

The interface is restless, needy, less predictable, less legible, and constantly pulling focus rather than supporting seamless access to content. Instead of smoothing the path for everyday tasks, iOS 26 makes users relearn basics while enduring a constant parade of visual stunts.

Apple may call it Liquid Glass. To many users, it feels more like a fogged‑up window: pretty from a distance, but frustrating when you try to see beyond it.

As I’ve written before, I really like the idea of Liquid Glass. The translucent effects are very pretty in Apple’s screenshots and promo videos. There are some pops of fun visuals in the design, but I find them vastly outweighed by baffling usability downgrades.