Designer Sebastiaan de With has unveiled an ambitious preview of Apple’s anticipated iOS redesign, featuring intricate mockups and an innovative design philosophy that could transform user interaction with devices.
With WWDC just around the corner, de With, who is the co-founder of photography app Lux and a former Apple designer, has introduced what he refers to as the “Living Glass” concepts.
These ideas aim to create interfaces that resonate with the material qualities of Apple’s glass-screened devices.
In his extensive write-up, de With articulates, “Philosophically, if I was Apple, I’d describe this as finally having an interface that matches the beautiful material properties of its devices.”
This approach proposes an interface seamlessly integrated with its environment, giving users a sense that the glass itself is coming to life.
However, de With’s vision extends beyond mere aesthetic enhancements.
Drawing inspiration from visionOS, he advocates for a significant shift towards “physicality” in interfaces, characterized by dynamic lighting, reflections, and an awareness of the environment in which they exist.
To contextualize his vision, de With traces the evolution of iOS through three distinct eras.
He identifies the period known as the “Shaded Age,” which spanned from iPhone OS to iOS 6, during which skeuomorphism dominated design.
This era emphasized realistic textures and shadows to ease users into the transition from physical buttons to touchscreen interfaces.
He then discusses the subsequent “Flat Age,” which emerged with iOS 7’s controversial redesign that sought to strip away visual clutter in favor of clean typography and minimalistic aesthetics.
Although this redesign was initially stark, de With notes that iOS gradually incorporated depth through blur effects and subtle shadows over the years.
According to de With, hints of a third era are now emerging, illustrated by features like Dynamic Island and the new Siri animation—elements that mimic the behavior of physical materials rather than being static graphics.
He remarks, “We’ve come back, in a sense, to skeuomorphic interfaces—but this time not with a lacquer resembling a material.
Instead, the interface is clear, graphic and behaves like things we know from the real world.”
The “Living Glass” concept involves treating all user interface elements as dynamic glass surfaces that can reflect, refract, and respond to their surroundings.
Under this vision, buttons could cast realistic shadows, reflect bright content, and exhibit features such as surface tension when merging together.
De With believes this approach would establish a visual hierarchy through different glass treatments, utilizing glossy elements for primary actions and frosted surfaces for secondary controls, while also integrating inlaid elements that seem embedded within the display.
His mockups showcase tab bars that float above content, app icons featuring dynamic reflections, and controls that emerge from background surfaces when activated.
As envisioned, the system would manage these effects automatically to ensure consistency across all apps.
To support his theory, de With cites recent enhancements in iOS, such as Apple’s work on automatic icon masking in iOS 18, observed in features like Dark Mode and tinted icon effects against uniformly black gradient icon backdrops.
He posits that these developments could lay the groundwork for more dynamic backgrounds in the future.
Beyond visual appeal, de With claims that current design tools such as Figma are unable to produce the dynamic lighting and responsive behaviors he envisions.
This gap, he argues, could present Apple with a competitive advantage if such intricacies are challenging for others to duplicate.
His concepts align with Apple’s broader design philosophy centered on hardware-software integration.
For instance, just as the translucent Aqua interface of early Mac OS X harmonized with the colorful enclosures of iMacs, “Living Glass” could create a software experience that feels intrinsic to glass-screened devices.
De With acknowledges the challenges inherent in implementing such complexity across a platform used by millions of third-party developers, yet he draws parallels to previous transitions by Apple that ultimately elevated interface design standards across the industry.
As WWDC approaches, speculation mounts about Apple’s upcoming redesign, which is rumored to feature “glassy” effects influenced by visionOS.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has also noted that Apple has branded WWDC as its “sleek peek” event.
The real question remains whether Apple’s actual plans will align with de With’s vision, but his compelling insights are generating excitement among even the most skeptical Apple users about what iOS 26 and other operating systems may reveal next week.
De With concludes with optimism, stating, “Only Apple can push the state of the art to a new interface that brings the glass of your screen to life.”
For those interested in de With’s comprehensive design philosophy, his full write-up is available on the Lux Camera website.
image source from：https://www.macrumors.com/2025/06/04/ex-apple-designer-living-glass-ios-concepts/
