[skwee357]

I think it outlines a bigger problem we have in the tech industry: innovation for the sake of innovation.

When you have an in-house design team, or development team, you will, inevitably, reach a point where your product is "ready": design was finalized, functionality is there, and aside from minor bug fixes, there is nothing else really to do. Then you ask yourself, what should you do with the in-house teams? The logical answer would be to let them go, or focus on different projects.

But this is not how our industry works. Instead, teams are sitting there, coming up with problems in order to create solutions, because otherwise you are getting paid for doing nothing. This, eventually, leads to enshittification of everything.

This new apple design is one example. Another example is a not-so-recent redesign of whatsapp where they went from blue color scheme to green. It's works for the sake of work.

[PaulKeeble]

Its just fashions. UI's have been going through multiple phases of fashions where accessibility and basic function is often sacrificed to have a different look. Windows didn't need all the colour and style changes its gone through, neither has Android and neither did iOS. These aren't changes for a good reason they are just fashions.

The longer I watch the tech industry the more I realise its going through these fashion and hype cycles.

[jmye]

Nailed it. If you let your whole UI, in a consumer application, stagnate, you will lose. Your software could be fantastic, but someone else will build something nearly as good, paint it a “cool” color, and eat your lunch.

The idea that phones aren’t, for a huge number of people, fashion accessories, is really funny, and extremely IT-centric, to me. Look at the way Apple releases very visible, specific features for its Pro models - it’s all signaling. My phone is purple because one year that was the new color so everyone who saw your phone would know it was the new one.

(I say this also not taking away from the opinion that it’s prepping users and developers for something they’re going to bring out in two years - both things can be equally true.)

[SebFender]

On point - Can you imagine it's 2025 and I still can't customize my iOS keyboard... but we now have Liquid Glass

[thefz]

> I think it outlines a bigger problem we have in the tech industry: innovation for the sake of innovation.

Yeah. Imagine the world if all the tech companies stopped spouting useless new features every day and dedicated 3-5 years on fixing bugs and improving the existing products / performance.