Look at an old colorful iMac running an early version of Mac OS X. The decisions made in its appearance were unnecessary but pleasant. The aqua interface was functional but pretty. It played with textures in fun ways that weren’t distracting, like pinstriping in menus that matched the machine itself, shiny jelly buttons and icons that looked more alive and interesting. While it can be said that they leaned in too heavily to this sometimes (brushed metal and stitched leather were…a lot) the overall experience was engaging. People were trying new things and there was variety, even from a company demanding a uniform market like Apple.
Now look where we are in 2025. We have Liquid Glass, which is just loud and in my way, inefficient and less functional. We have AI everywhere which does everything we could already do but without any accountability or responsibility so there’s no consequences when it fucks up like if a human did. We have companies competing against eachother to see who can most effectively suck the life out of their customers rather than who can make the most appealing product the get customer buy in.
Nobody cares about the consumer anymore. It’s all just a big money laundering operation for shareholders. Business majors ruined the world.
Tywele@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
I also agree with this.