Hey 👋
This week we're looking at fixing iOS 26’s glassy legibility, design with colour for intent, and add AI‑native metrics plus response‑time guardrails to ship with trust.
Enjoy! - Adam at Unicorn Club 🦄
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Make better interfaces.
Liquid Glass Is Cracked, and Usability Suffers in iOS 26
Apple’s “Liquid Glass” aesthetic obscures content and weakens predictability with translucent overlays, restless motion, and cramped, shifting targets.
- Why it matters: Spectacle that harms legibility and learnability slows users and increases errors.
The 12 emotional journeys of color psychology
A science‑based map links emotional states to colour and saturation, showing how congruent palettes reinforce motivation, trust, and clarity across flows.
- Why it matters: Colour that matches intent (optimistic, insecure, secure, pessimistic) reduces friction and builds confidence.
- Try this: Re‑tune colours on one flow (error, success, waiting).
Prompt‑to‑mock‑to‑code loops create iOS screens, Figma assets, and runnable prototypes fast—useful, but still needs human fixes for clarity and defects.
- Why it matters: Compresses iteration from idea to artefact and teams keep control by correcting AI’s misses.
- Try this: Prompt ChatGPT 5 for a one‑screen mobile UI, import to Figma, mark defects (icons, labels, states), clean up, and note time saved vs manual.
🧩 Shape
Shared foundations across teams.
Two archetypes bias differently—breadth/momentum vs coherence/constraints; naming the tension unlocks healthier trade‑offs and collaboration.
- Why it matters: Aligning expectations and decision modes reduces churn and re‑litigation.
- Adopt this week: Run a 30‑minute team self‑map. Each person tags their bias and risk and agree one guardrail (e.g., one opportunistic bet + one deep bet per sprint) and write it down.
Product-Centricity When You Don't Sell A Digital Product
Project funding, translation layers, and deep dependencies block “product” shifts—use a networked, value‑stream model with durable teams and platform foundations.
- Why it matters: Non‑software organisations need a contextual operating model, not a SaaS copy‑paste.
🚀 Ship
Release, measure, iterate.
What Perplexity’s AI browser reveals about UX’s future
Intention‑based UX shifts burden from navigation to delegation. AI excels at synthesis.
- Why it matters: AI‑native experiences need different telemetry and guardrails than page‑click funnels.
- First step: Add three events to one task: Intention started, Intention outcome (success/blocked), Delegation approvals. Then review after two weeks and patch silent‑failure states.
Miller/Nielsen thresholds (0.1/1/10s) and patterns (skeletons, spinners, progress bars, optimistic UI) make waits feel faster and clearer.
- Why it matters: Perceived speed drives conversion. Poor feedback triggers repeats, errors, and drop‑offs.
- Adopt this week: Add feedback to any 1–10s operation: show skeleton/spinner after 300–500ms then use determinate bars and “time remaining” >10s.
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Adam from Unicorn Club
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