At WWDC 2025, Apple did something bold: it melted the edges of the screen, metaphorically, of course, and introduced what it’s calling the “Liquid Glass” UI.
Gone are the flat, rigid designs of past iOS versions. In their place: translucent, fluid, motion-driven interfaces that adapt, breathe, and feel almost alive. But this isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s a major shift in how we think about digital experience design.
Let’s break down what it is, why it matters, and what it means for designers and users alike.
Think of Liquid Glass as the spiritual successor to Apple’s earlier skeuomorphism and the polished minimalism of iOS 7+. But now, it's fluid, reactive, and dimensional, built on several key principles:
In a nutshell: Apple is making the UI feel less like a screen and more like an interface that lives inside physical space.
Tim Cook described Liquid Glass as “design that responds not just to touch, but to presence.” That may sound poetic, but it’s grounded in real strategy:
Apple’s push into spatial interfaces (Vision Pro, visionOS) means UI can no longer be flat. Liquid Glass is a stepping stone—training users’ eyes and fingers for fluid, spatial design.
Whether on iPhone, iPad, or Vision Pro, Apple wants one visual language. Liquid Glass unifies the brand while optimizing for gesture-based, immersive input.
Studies show users perceive motion-rich, translucent UIs as more premium and trustworthy. Apple, always about the “feel,” is leveraging this to deepen user connection.
“This is Apple putting emotion back into the interface.” — John Maeda, technologist and former head of computational design at MIT Media Lab
This is not just a visual refresh — it’s a new design paradigm.
Design with depth in mind. Think: glass cards floating above dynamic backgrounds. Contrast, color, and motion all matter more now.
Motion isn’t for flair anymore — it signals hierarchy, attention, and even urgency.
Color palettes need to shift in real-time. Your designs must respond to light mode, dark mode, and even motion/lighting conditions around the user.
Apple is adding more motion-reduction and contrast-enhancement options than ever. If your designs aren’t readable with blur or motion turned off, they’ll fail.
Apple’s Liquid Glass UI may just be version 1.0 of a screenless future. By blending UI with spatial context and reactive behaviors, it’s creating a design language for:
This could be the beginning of an interface evolution—from rigid screens to adaptive, fluid experiences that feel more like part of our world than stuck behind a display.
Apple didn’t just change how iOS looks. With Liquid Glass, it’s reshaping how we feel while interacting with tech.
And as the lines blur—literally and figuratively—between real and digital, the goal is clear: interfaces should disappear into the experience.
I don’t just make things look good. I make them work.Websites, brands, films and stories built to connect and built to last.
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