I downloaded Apple’s latest operating systems OS26, iOS26, iPadOS26 with the famous redesigns.
After hearing so much about their development and betas, turns out that they are, well, OK. Not good. Not better. Not that bad. Just different. I think different just to be different.
The first third of my career involved roles in product development. These were mostly consumer products. I learned about looking for things to change in products in order to provide a better customer experience.
Oh, and also how to describe those changes to marketing—hoping they would stick to the facts and not overhype the changes.
I suspect that was Apple’s downfall with the changes. They tried so hard to explain all the great changes with explanations about how they worked. Don’t believe it. Mostly it was change because someone in management thought it was time for a change. The animations are cutesy without any real value or meaning. The new icons fail to add visual understanding. After I learn them, they will be lost in familiarity and—just OK.
Reminds me of a magazine publishing company where I worked. They changed the font and color of the company name and added a funky logo. Since these were not self-explanatory (which they should have been), they sent a three-page memo explaining all the changes. You know, what the color symbolized, what the logo represented (since it was hardly intuitive).
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