That About Wraps It Up for Stock Mac UI

The latest macOS is a nice step toward a good-looking Mac UI, but I do wish it had gone farther. I am in particular not a fan of how Mac toolbars look. I don’t like the full-height sidebars and I especially don’t like the Liquid Glass buttons. I looked around at what other Mac apps are doing. I asked on my microblog which gets syndicated to Mastodon and I also looked at replies to Isaiah’s similar question from a few days ago. What I found should be no surprise: many of the apps people think look good are not using stock UI. You already know this. I don’t think I need to prove it. But one app may serve as an illustration: Things. Things is a perennial callout for its design and for its Mac-like-ness. But it is not really a stock Mac app at all. The toolbar is not at the top of the window (not an NSToolbar) and it’s not customizable. There is no hint of Liquid Glass style translucency anywhere in their main UI. The content doesn’t slide under the sidebar, for instance. (The one place I…