{"id":697659,"date":"2026-06-11T12:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/697659\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T12:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:12:09","slug":"daring-fireball-sweet-jeebus-macos-27-golden-gate-removes-the-dumb-icons-from-menu-items","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/697659\/","title":{"rendered":"Daring Fireball: Sweet Jeebus, MacOS 27 Golden Gate Removes the Dumb Icons From Menu Items"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, 10 June 2026<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, 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 \u201cTonsky\u201d Prokopov writing about it<\/a>, illustrating that the bad idea wasn\u2019t even implemented well, with different Apple apps using entirely different icons for the same menu items. You will also recall my linking to Nielsen<\/a> (\u201cI can tolerate being angry about UI changes Apple makes to the Mac. But I can\u2019t tolerate being heartbroken.\u201d) and to Prokopov<\/a> (\u201cThe fact that Tahoe\u2019s menu item icons are glaringly inconsistent and often utterly inscrutable is the fudge icing on a shit cake, but the real embarrassment is that the idea ever got past the proposal stage. No real UI or icon designers think this is a good idea. None.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Top third-party developers rightly rejected the design<\/a>, adopting open source code from Brent Simmons<\/a> to disable the default \u201cicons in all standard menu items\u201d behavior.<\/p>\n

Wonderful news in MacOS 27 Golden Gate: the icons are gone. It\u2019s like Tahoe\u2019s menu item icons never happened. Prokopov noted it on Mastodon<\/a> with before and after screenshots, and mentions that Apple has updated the Human Interface Guidelines accordingly<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Use menu item icons sparingly and with purpose. Icons allow
\npeople to find menu items more quickly, and help clarify what
\nselecting an item does. Use an icon to highlight the most common
\nactions and key features of your app, file system locations,
\nconnected devices, visual concepts like rotating or flipping an
\nimage, and user-generated content like folders and documents.
\nDon\u2019t display an icon if you can\u2019t find one that clearly
\nrepresents the menu item.<\/p>\n

This updated advice in the HIG is perfect. Screenshot:<\/p>\n


\n \"Screenshot<\/a><\/p>\n

MacOS 26 Tahoe\u2009\u2014\u2009across every Apple app on the system\u2009\u2014\u2009is a living example of the updated HIG\u2019s \u201cwhat not to do\u201d example illustrations (including the second section about groups within a menu). If you\u2019re stuck using Tahoe until Golden Gate arrives, recall this tip<\/a> to alleviate the problem to some extent.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s proof that the rot has been rooted out of Apple\u2019s software design team. I don\u2019t know if all the untalented hacks are gone, but the untalented magazine-designer hacks with clout and influence all left with Alan Dye. I\u2019ve chatted with a few people from Apple\u2019s design team this week and they\u2019re all loving the work they\u2019re doing and the direction they\u2019re taking Apple\u2019s platforms. Backtracking on these idiotic menu item icons was a necessary first step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wednesday, 10 June 2026 Perhaps the worst UI crime in MacOS 26 Tahoe was the inexplicable decision to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-697659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}