When Apple introduced Liquid Glass at WWDC 2025, it described a new material that reflects and refracts what sits behind it and adapts as it moves. A year later it is the visual language across Apple’s platforms, and it has sparked one of the longest-running design debates of the year: how do you keep an interface expressive without making it harder to read? Google has taken a different route with Material 3 Expressive, leaning into bold colour, shape and motion. Both directions hold useful lessons for any product team, whether or not you design for Apple or Android.
What actually changed
Liquid Glass moved translucency and depth from decoration into the system itself. Toolbars, tab bars and controls float above content and change their appearance based on what is underneath. As they grow or move, their material properties shift too, so a larger panel behaves like thicker glass.
The result can feel alive and spatial. It also means the appearance of a control is no longer fixed. The same button can look different over a white page, a dark photo or a busy video. That flexibility is the source of both its appeal and its criticism.
Material 3 Expressive takes the opposite approach to the same goal. Instead of transparency, it uses stronger colour, more varied shapes and more pronounced motion to make interfaces feel distinctive and emotional.
Readability is the real test
Much of the criticism of translucent interfaces has come from people with low vision. When contrast depends on what is behind a control, it changes from moment to moment. A label that is perfectly clear over a calm background can become hard to read over a busy one.
This is not a reason to avoid depth or translucency. It is a reason to design for the worst case, not the screenshot. Product teams should test floating controls over light, dark and highly detailed content, and check how they behave with reduced transparency and increased contrast settings turned on.
If a control is only legible in the marketing image, it is not finished.
If a control is only legible in the marketing image, it is not finished.
The wider shift towards calm
Across many trend reports this year, a common thread appears: a move away from visual theatre towards calmer interfaces. Fewer decisions per screen, more generous spacing, and motion that explains a change rather than decorating it.
Calm does not mean plain. It means the visual system supports the task. Moments of expression, such as a playful transition after completing a payment, are chosen deliberately and used sparingly, so they feel special rather than noisy.
Practical guidance for product teams
Treat every visual effect as a decision that needs a reason. Translucency can help people keep their place by showing what is underneath a panel. Motion can show where something came from. Bold colour can signal importance. If an effect does none of those things, consider removing it.
Respect system settings. Many people turn on reduced motion, reduced transparency, increased contrast or larger text. Your interface should adapt gracefully to each of them, ideally through your design system tokens rather than one-off fixes.
Test on real devices in real conditions: outdoors, in low light, with a cracked screen protector, with large text. Desktop mockups hide most of these problems.
What this means for brands
Platform design languages change how your product feels even if you change nothing. An app built with heavy custom styling can suddenly look out of place next to native controls. Conversely, a product that leans entirely on platform defaults can lose its identity.
The best approach is usually a balance: use platform components for familiar controls, and express the brand through content, colour, imagery and a few signature moments.
A practical checklist
For every floating or translucent element, check legibility over the lightest, darkest and busiest content it can appear on. Confirm it still works with reduced transparency and increased contrast enabled. Make sure focus states remain visible.
For every animation, confirm it has a purpose, that it is short enough not to slow people down, and that it has a reduced-motion alternative. For every colour, confirm contrast in both light and dark themes.
An example from our work
On our own website, page headers, section navigation and pop-ups use subtle translucency and blur. We test each of them over light and dark content, and the text always sits on a solid enough layer to remain readable. Motion is limited to short transitions that help people understand where they are.
The lasting lesson
Visual trends will keep moving. The principle underneath them does not: interfaces exist to help people do something. Effects that serve that purpose age well. Effects that compete with it age quickly.
Worth checking in your product
- Test floating controls over light, dark and busy content.
- Support reduced transparency, reduced motion and larger text.
- Give every visual effect a clear purpose.
- Express the brand through a few deliberate signature moments.
