Apple and the Jelly Fish

2 hours ago 2

Apple & the Jelly Fish

Does anyone remember Bubble Trouble? It was a delightful game for Mac made by Ambrosia. Squishy bubbles with pops. Bouncy animations and fast fish. It was great fun.

iOS 26 reminds me of that game. There are squishy and luxuriously slow animations and bubble effects. The difference, however, is that iOS has some elements of frosted glass in the UI. Frosted glass is a bit pro for a shareware game. Responsive bubbles are a bit odd for an adult iPhone's UI.

Slow, distracting, and visually lacking in cohesion. iOS26's visuals are disappointing. A vast amount of effort has clearly been applied to individual elements, however, it seems minimal effort was directed toward unifying elements toward an unobtrusive overall experience.

Pressing the back buttons leads to a distracting flash animation. Swiping button menu selectors have barely arrived when the app's UI has already refreshed. Transparency effects are as if looking through frosted glass at a field of Jelly Fish; it is psychedelically distracting. There is a horrid white shadow effect around app icons. Slide selection buttons are way too long. The fonts are fine and elegant yet they appear over a chunky and oversized canvas.

It has been a long while since I have let myself believe Apple could become a messy UI company. It has. Now I worry for its position as the design leader in human computer interface.