Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Designers Criticize macOS Tahoe Menu Icons for Clutter and Poor Usability

Designers cite Apple’s 1992 guidelines to argue that icon-saturated menus undermine quick scanning.

Overview

  • macOS Tahoe adds icons to nearly every menu item across the system, expanding Apple’s push for visual cues.
  • Critiques say the dense iconography increases visual noise and slows users who rely on quick menu scanning.
  • Reviewers document inconsistent symbol choices across and within apps, including reused icons for unrelated actions.
  • Icons are very small and rendered as vector symbol fonts, which reviewers say lose detail and appear blurry at menu sizes.
  • Detailed analyses by Niki and Nikita Prokopov highlight confusing metaphors and text-as-icons, with no Apple response reported.