{"id":48235,"date":"2025-06-25T17:22:56","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T21:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=48235"},"modified":"2025-06-29T16:30:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T20:30:46","slug":"roundrect-dictator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/25\/roundrect-dictator\/","title":{"rendered":"Roundrect Dictator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Heer<\/a>:<\/p>\n

App icons across Apple’s three most popular operating systems share a similar rounded square mask, and it is a downgrade. Simon B. Støvring<\/a> correctly calls out the “expressive, varied app icons, a case of character over conformity” as a highlight of past versions of MacOS. I miss detailed and artistic app icons plenty. Indulging in realistic textures and thoughtful rendering was not only a differentiator for the Mac; it also conveyed the sense an app was built with a high degree of care.<\/p>

Perhaps that is largely a product of nostalgia. Change can be uncomfortable, but it could be for good reasons. Stripping icons of their detail might not be bad, just different. But wrapping everything in a uniform shape? That is, dare I say, an objective degradation.<\/p>

Since MacOS Big Sur debuted the precursor to this format, I have found it harder to differentiate between applications which, as I understand it, is the very function and purpose of an icon. I know this has been a long-running gripe for those of us of a certain age, but it remains true, and a walk through the history of Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines indicates the company also understands it to be true.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Apple used to guide designers on how to make smaller icons by removing details and simplifying. Something you will often hear from designers is the fun and challenge of very small icons; how does one convey the same impression of fidelity when you have exactly 256 pixels to use? It is a delicate feat. Now, Apple simply says no icon — no matter how large — is deserving of detail. This, to me, betrays a lack of trust in the third-party designers it apparently celebrates<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n