Apple UI/UX Criticism

Comments debate Apple's user interface and experience design choices, focusing on tensions between aesthetics, usability, consistency across platforms, and changes like iOS 7's flat design.

➡️ Stable 1.2x Hardware
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#6119
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

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Keywords

OSX UX IMO OS9 OK HackerNews WP8 WTF OS XP apple ui ios design ux techies button osx screen aesthetics

Sample Comments

rchowe Mar 4, 2011 View on HN

Some iPhone/Mac devs are obsessive about their UI. This does not look like their kind of app.

sleepybrett Jan 30, 2024 View on HN

It's probably more down to the getting the UI right on apple's end.

abandonliberty Feb 21, 2021 View on HN

Good UX hasn't changed. Apple sacrificed it for design.

danhau Oct 8, 2025 View on HN

Ok, then I guess Apple changed the UI to more reflect reality?

nohorse Oct 24, 2012 View on HN

He showed his hand there in the second to last sentence. Apple UI is stale. The grid-of-dancing icons in iOS and bouncy-bouncy dock in OSX with it's faux 3D reflections is insulting and tired in my opinion. It's OK to love a stale UI. But why attack UI that is forward thinking?

t0r0nat0r Mar 11, 2021 View on HN

Lol people here need to chill. I like apple’s UX and i think the point here is a uniform experience across platforms. That being said, I think it works perfectly fine like it is now IMO.

dmyler Sep 24, 2013 View on HN

Apple definitely removed as many affordances as possible with each screen, almost to the extreme. Now, have I figured out how each screen works? Yes. Do I think the UI would be improved with a few more visual hints (button backgrounds, consistent color choice for actions)? Yes.iOS 7 is such a large reset from previous iOS versions, and I would expect to see this new design language evolve over future releases. The best comparison I read: think of the changes between OS9 and OSX.

birdyrooster May 2, 2021 View on HN

Apples UI has been copied since as long as I’ve been alive

mister_hn Apr 19, 2020 View on HN

Sounds a lot similar to the Apple UX

solardev Dec 30, 2023 View on HN

Sounds like a terrible experience for iOS users. They have different UI patterns, fonts, privacy APIs, etc.