I might spend most of my time writing about Apple – I was following along with the WWDC show today, in fact – but my first computing experiences were of a decidedly Windows flavor. In fact, I’ve used Windows since Windows 95, but the first edition that I truly fell in love with was Windows 7.
But it wasn’t any of the new features or functionality that captured my attention at the time – it was the design. Windows 7 took Microsoft’s operating system from a staid, grey platform that could give itself boredom into one that was modern, sleek and classy, all in a single OS update.
The key element in this was Aero, Windows 7’s glass-like transparency effect. With this in place, colors subtly refracted through windows and title bars, and it all shimmered and shone in real time as you dragged your apps around your screen. For my design-obsessed young brain, it was a graphical marvel.
It was, to borrow a phrase from Steve Jobs, so good you wanted to lick it.
Naturally, I was devastated when Microsoft did away with this design, and I still don’t think the company has been able to match it in the decade and a half since.
Yet watching Apple unveil its new Liquid Glass design language during the company’s WWDC keynote today, I felt a sudden jolt of nostalgia. Here was a glassy, translucent interface that used light and colour to create gorgeous effects on your desktop. It was everything I loved from those halcyon Windows 7 days, back with new twists for a new era.
Who would have thought that Apple would bring back a Microsoft design with such aplomb?
More than just fashion
Of course, Liquid Glass is likely to provide plenty of fuel for those critics who allege that all Apple does is copy other people’s work. Yet not only does Liquid Glass show what a braindead take this is, it also highlights exactly the kind of thinking that goes into all of Apple’s designs – and showcase a key difference between its mindset and that of Microsoft.
Because as much as I absolutely adored Windows 7’s look and feel, Aero was essentially a cosmetic coat of paint. It was about looking great – and sure, it sumptuously smashed it in that department – but it didn’t go much beyond that.
Liquid Glass, on the other hand, is about form and function. It’s not just a pretty face (although it is that too in spades) but offers much more on closer inspection.
For instance, Apple made a point of showing the responsiveness of its new interface. Swipe up or down and your iPhone’s floating menu panels automatically adjust their size. Resizing something will prompt it to flex with your mouse or finger. It’s all designed to impact the way you use your device, not just how you look at it.
This hits a core principle that has driven Apple since the days of Steve Jobs: “design is how it works.” Many people think that “design” just means making something pretty, and that’s all there is to it. But design should never exist just to serve itself – it must serve the user, and that means you have to create something that works amazingly well. Design is what makes that happen.
Steve Jobs summed it up when he launched the original iMac. In response to Microsoft’s Bill Gates claiming Apple had merely put a new lick of paint on its old devices, Jobs shot back: “The thing that our competitors are missing is that they think it’s about fashion, and they think it’s about surface appearance. They say, ‘We’ll slap a little color on this piece of junk computer, and we’ll have one too’.”
In other words, you can’t put lipstick on a pig. Dress up an awful device and you still have an awful device underneath. Something must work brilliantly and look great in order to be designed well.
This idea is what makes me so excited about Liquid Glass. Not only is it a revival of the elegant transparency effects of Windows 7’s Aero, but it actually adds extra functionality. It gives you new ways to use your Mac or your iPhone, and it looks stunning while doing it.
Design is how it works. Liquid Glass just proved it.
