Sweet Jeebus, macOS 27 Golden Gate Removes the Dumb Icons from Menu Items
This is my favorite news from all of WWDC this week. I mean that. In a small way I mean it because I so loathe this aspect of MacOS Tahoe. But in a large way I mean it because it’s proof that the rot has been rooted out of Apple’s software design team.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Sweet Jeebus, MacOS 27 Golden Gate Removes the Dumb Icons From Menu Items Wednesday, 10 June 2026 Perhaps the worst UI crime in MacOS 26 Tahoe was the inexplicable decision to add inscrutable, distracting icons next to every item in the menu bar. You will recall Jim Nielsen writing about it, rightly describing it as exactly the sort of thing that Mac users look down upon in platforms like Google Docs and Windows. You will also recall Nikita “Tonsky” Prokopov writing about it, illustrating that the bad idea wasn’t even implemented well, with different Apple apps using entirely different icons for the same menu items. You will also recall my linking to Nielsen (“I can tolerate being angry about UI changes Apple makes to the Mac.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Daring Fireball.
