The new app icons are horrific and poorly designed

[symphony]

i remember the days when functionality was of #1 importance And esthetics for MacOS was cooler than we could imagine. Now everyone is a design expert. Lighten up my friends. Life is an evolution. Everything doesn’t need to be a revolution. Pick your battles. ✌🏽❤🤘🏼

Talk about a devolution. You don’t need to be a design expert to know that they went backwards in design and made something that is trash
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You guys realize that these are beta's right? They will adapt to feedback.

How many times have I heard this phrase over 8+ years of beta testing??

Barely anything ever changes, nor were the bugs I’ve reported over the years during beta test. This phrase is BS

 

[AustinIllini]

"Horrific". That's hilarious

 

[Release]

I'm diggin' 'em. I'm happy they didn't go with the flat look where everything blended together.

 

[infinitejest]

Anyone?

 

[verniesgarden]

Could just be placeholders.

A lot of work for placeholders. Especially when they could have just used established iOS icons

 

[canopic]

It's funny seeing people flip out over minor ****. Most of the upgrades look good or are improvements, 10% or so of them are questionable - who cares, this gets tweaked and refined over time.

iOS7 had some questionable stuff, but it was a huge improvement, and over the years iOS has become kinda perfect. I'm glad we didn't listen to the iOS6 die hards who wanted to pump the brakes and revert because it was 'cartoony'.

Finder was getting to look like old crap. Menu bars were starting to look like old crap. All this stuff looks generally better.

And when I return to Mac after being on iPad for a while , MacOS icons and UI does currently look dated. I'm glad they are making it more iOS/iPadOS-like.

And it's the same EVERY TIME apple change anything - "HORRENDOUS, AWFUL, AGHAST", relax bro.

 

[puggles]

It's funny seeing people flip out over minor ****. Most of the upgrades look good or are improvements, 10% or so of them are questionable - who cares, this gets tweaked and refined over time.

iOS7 had some questionable stuff, but it was a huge improvement, and over the years iOS has become kinda perfect. I'm glad we didn't listen to the iOS6 die hards who wanted to pump the brakes and revert because it was 'cartoony'.

Finder was getting to look like old crap. Menu bars were starting to look like old crap. All this stuff looks generally better.

And when I return to Mac after being on iPad for a while , MacOS icons and UI does currently look dated. I'm glad they are making it more iOS/iPadOS-like.

And it's the same EVERY TIME apple change anything - "HORRENDOUS, AWFUL, AGHAST", relax bro.

Let's all just take a time out.

 

[canopic]

Sorry, hehe.

 

[Brien]

What drugs are Apple smoking

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Screenshot is an app now? WTF?

FaceTime, QUICKTIUME, Messages, App Store, Stocks LOOK LIKE TRASH.

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What about keychain Access? It looks like an app icon from 2006

To be fair the QTX icon was always trash.
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The face isn't even centered.

 

[Tozovac]

iOS7 had some questionable stuff, but it was a huge improvement, and over the years iOS has become kinda perfect. I'm glad we didn't listen to the iOS6 die hards who wanted to pump the brakes and revert because it was 'cartoony'.

You’re missing the point of many who, like me, didn’t want/need iOS6’s cartoony aspects, while we most definitely want/need/miss the UI aspects pre-iOS7 that focused on intuitive/efficient function and not minimalist bare-bones ”you already know how to do this stuff” fashionable flat design minimalism.

With iOS7 came thin low-contrast hard to read font on stark white backgrounds with text-for-buttons that were and still are often difficult to differentiate from non-button text, all set on backgrounds devoid of all but the faintest of faint light grey separation lines (why even use them if hard to see) instead of frames/brackets that added context and defined certain families functions/buttons from other ones.

The efficient ease and “it just works”-ness of iOS/OSX have been at historical low points since iOS7 and Yosemite were released, slowly being improved over time. Now Big Blur OS11 is looking like several steps backwards, with its iOS-ification.

 

[The Clark]

Honestly these icons don't look as bad as everyone claims they do.

 

[Tozovac]

The face isn't even centered.

How certain are you that the right face isn’t desired to be slightly more prominent?

 

[makr]

They look good to me.

 

[sub150]

It's funny seeing people flip out over minor ****. Most of the upgrades look good or are improvements, 10% or so of them are questionable - who cares, this gets tweaked and refined over time.

iOS7 had some questionable stuff, but it was a huge improvement, and over the years iOS has become kinda perfect. I'm glad we didn't listen to the iOS6 die hards who wanted to pump the brakes and revert because it was 'cartoony'.

Finder was getting to look like old crap. Menu bars were starting to look like old crap. All this stuff looks generally better.

And when I return to Mac after being on iPad for a while , MacOS icons and UI does currently look dated. I'm glad they are making it more iOS/iPadOS-like.

And it's the same EVERY TIME apple change anything - "HORRENDOUS, AWFUL, AGHAST", relax bro.

When you see it 8 hours a day it's worth complaining about.

The messages icon has always confused me. Why has it always been green when green is associated with Android users? It should be blue. However, this Big Sur messages icon is so bad. It looks like something Android would have done in 2010.

Seems like everything at Apple is being "memoji'd"...cute, bubbly, and childish. I get memoji being that way, and they are fine, but it's not a design language that you want to see throughout the entire OS in all products.

 

[Squuiid]

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THIS BATTERY ICON IS A JOKE LOL WTF

Yeah, this is the worst screen in the entire OS.
Pathetic Apple. Was it really all just Ive? Seems so, you’re not inspiring much confidence here.

 

[aaronhead14]

It's not just for the app icons, but icons in general.

The icons in System Preferences are atrocious, especially all the apps right now.

Everything about the new UI I love, including the iOS-like app icons, but they should've just used iOS icons if iOS apps can now run on macOS with ARM processors in the future.

These icons look like they are from a jailbreak tweak. The new folder icons are displeasing, make them like iOS!!!

I hate that the icons are conformed to the shape of iOS icons. It’s like Apple wants you to feel like the OS is more restrictive than it used to be. It’s a visual/psychological cue. Ugh.

 

[ImaHassen]

The very first beta of the next major version of a near 30 year old OS signalling huge changes in the future comes out.

So do the keyboard warriors.

It’s beta 1. Not a GM.

 

[makr]

Screenshot is an app now? WTF?

A useful one.

 

[MauiPa]

They look fine, they are just icons FCOL. Why the anger? So much to really be upset about. I mean this reads like an episode of Hannity on crack

 

[Stellarspace]

I disagree with all of you. The new design identity for macOS, iOS, etc. is wonderful. A facelift was necessary because it gets boring after a while looking at the same design elements over and over again. Apple wanted to spice things up a bit. In an attempt to reintroducing past trends in a product's design identity, specifically gradients and effects, they came up with a new design identity. It's basically a combination of old design (gradients, textures, effects (shadows), etc.) and new design which can be referred to as flat, material, fluid, clean, etc.

 

[tomi03]

Hopefully these are beta designs!

Nope, these are the real icons, and nothing will change. You will see.

it’s atrocious.

 

[b656]

I use my Macbook Pro all day long but I rarely look at any of the icons.
My dock is hidden and I launch apps via LaunchBar. So as long as the icons are not slowing down the OS I'm fine.

 

[RBR2]

This does not look nearly as bad as the Messages icon.

Why is it that Apple keeps focusing on irrelevant crayons colors and icon design rather than functionality? (How about memory management without enormous “leaks”.

Just how bad is performance of Macs going to be with ARM based CPUs?

“This changes everything.” Could this be the move that makes the Wintel duopoly actually look good?

 

[coasterider]

I really like the presentation of the 3D layered app icons coming together. But man did they miss the mark on the actual icon.

 

[now i see it]

In the future, (ARMac days) the Mac App Store will be flooded with millions upon millions of iOS apps that look like, well, iOS apps. Big Sur HAD to change its Mac icons to look a lot like iOS icons so the integration wouldn't be so jarring.

Granted, some of the beta Big Sur icons look pretty trashy, but the curved corners are here to stay.

I think a lot of people don't like change. I have an old 2011 Mac Mini that can dual boot into Snow Leopard and every time I take a peek at it, (SL) I'm always struck by how crappy looking future version of MacOS after it have become. Besides a few outliers, I think the change in icons for Big Sur is definitely a step in the right direction.