After reading NN/g's iOS 26 critique, I'm sitting here staring at my trading app's deliberately boring UI and feeling... vindicated?
ImBuilding a desktop app where users monitor live trades. Originally planned glassmorphic overlays because they look incredible in mockups. Scrapped it after showing a trader friend.
His reaction: "Dude, I need to read a stop-loss alert through this? While watching a $5k position move against me? Make it BORING."
So I did. Solid backgrounds. No animations on critical buttons. Navigation that never moves. Zero transparency effects.
The problem: It photographs terribly. Product Hunt launch will look dated compared to Liquid Glass competitors.
But here's what I'm wondering:
Is Apple's Liquid Glass actually a gift to indie devs?
Hear me out:
Big Tech optimizes for launch day virality (they can afford the retention hit)
Indie devs MUST optimize for retention (we can't afford user acquisition costs)
If users get trained to expect "pretty but frustrating" from Apple...
...suddenly "boring but predictable" becomes our competitive advantage?
My hypothesis: In 6 months, "Works like iOS 25" will be a feature, not a bug.
ImBuilding a desktop app where users monitor live trades. Originally planned glassmorphic overlays because they look incredible in mockups. Scrapped it after showing a trader friend.
His reaction: "Dude, I need to read a stop-loss alert through this? While watching a $5k position move against me? Make it BORING."
So I did. Solid backgrounds. No animations on critical buttons. Navigation that never moves. Zero transparency effects.
The problem: It photographs terribly. Product Hunt launch will look dated compared to Liquid Glass competitors.
But here's what I'm wondering:
Is Apple's Liquid Glass actually a gift to indie devs?
Hear me out:
Big Tech optimizes for launch day virality (they can afford the retention hit)
Indie devs MUST optimize for retention (we can't afford user acquisition costs)
If users get trained to expect "pretty but frustrating" from Apple...
...suddenly "boring but predictable" becomes our competitive advantage?
My hypothesis: In 6 months, "Works like iOS 25" will be a feature, not a bug.
What would you do?