If you're a startup founder or building your MVP, user experience should be at the core of your product.
At PixelBeard, we’re helping startups and established businesses alike harness cutting-edge UI trends, such as Apple’s Liquid Glass and others, to build intuitive, future-proof apps.
But what exactly is this new wave of design?
Let’s break it down 👇
What Is Liquid Glass, and Why Should Startups Care?
Liquid Glass is the evolution of Glassmorphism, Apple’s latest design language, gaining traction across iOS 26, macOS Tahoe, and VisionOS 26.
While Glassmorphism gave us those dreamy, frosted panels, Liquid Glass adds clarity, motion, and real-time responsiveness.
Panels shimmer as you scroll, shift with device tilt, and adapt to the content behind them.
The result?
A fluid, immersive experience that feels alive and intuitive.
For startups launching in 2025, Liquid Glass offers more than just aesthetic value; it brings:
- Enhanced usability.
- Built-in visual hierarchy.
- A modern, polished brand feel.
Why You Should Take Notice 🚀
Design isn’t just about looking good; it’s about function and first impressions.
88% of users say they won’t return to an app after a poor experience.
With Liquid Glass, you’re giving users immediate clarity and subtle guidance, without shouting for attention.
Here’s how Liquid Glass helps you build a minimum lovable product:
🎯 Guided Focus : Adaptive depth and motion draw the eye to the right place, quickly.
🧭 Natural Navigation : Floating panels, contextual blur, and responsive highlights create intuitive interaction.
🧠 Cognitive Ease : Familiar UI patterns across Apple’s ecosystem reduce the learning curve.
In a noisy app market, using Apple’s design DNA in your MVP adds trust and polish from day one.
“Just like how Flat Design once swept through the industry, saying goodbye to skeuomorphism in 2013, Liquid Glass is setting a new bar for how design should look and behave.”
Transparency That Works for Your Users
Liquid Glass isn’t just a pretty blur and glow.
It’s smart.
Elements subtly shift in real-time with scroll and tilt. Surfaces adapt to what’s behind them, providing context-aware contrast that keeps text readable even over dynamic backgrounds.
🔍 Instead of guessing where to tap, users are subtly guided by floating shadows, refracted light, and depth-driven feedback.
Want to let your app's personality (and user’s wallpaper!) shine? Liquid Glass enables you to strike a balance between clarity and expression, ensuring every pixel serves a purpose.
Consistency Across Devices = Brand Trust
Apple unveiled full Liquid Glass integration across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro at WWDC 2025, and it’s here to stay.
That means:
- Same motion. Same translucency.
- One familiar experience, no matter the device.
As a startup, this matters.
Users trust what feels stable and intuitive.
Consistency across screens builds confidence in your brand, making your product feel mature, even if it’s brand new.
🚨 But Don’t Just Copy the Look...
While Liquid Glass is sleek, it comes with its own challenges.
Some iOS 26 testers are already reporting:
- Text fading into backgrounds.
- Buttons lacking contrast.
- Overcomplicated layers.
This is where your design team (or us here at PixelBeard come in. 😉)
It is essential to achieve a good contrast ratio across all instances, regardless of the background. This can be achieved through changes in text weight, subtle shadows, and increased blur strength, which Apple is already striving to develop.
Here’s what our Junior Product Designer, Harry Meldon, thinks about the shift…
“I am a big fan of how each element adapts to the context on screen and how the transparency causes the interface to feel more open/spacious.
However, I have concerns about legibility issues in some cases and whether the contrast ratio is accessible to all users. So while exciting, I have approached this new design system cautiously, where I engage in more thorough prototype testing to ensure that the transparency doesn't compromise the readability/functionality of a design.”
The Future Is Fluid (And Frosted) ❄️
Apple has led every major design shift over the past decade, from skeuomorphism to flat design. And now? Liquid Glass is the new standard.
Expect to see:
- Frosted UIs on more mobile apps.
- Motion-responsive blur on websites.
- Cross-platform consistency from day one.
This isn’t a passing trend; it’s potentially the new visual language of interactive design.
Final Thoughts from PixelBeard
If you’re building your MVP or next-gen app, now is the time to embrace Liquid Glass principles:
✅ Design for clarity, not just beauty
✅ Use motion and depth to guide users naturally
✅ Ensure every element adapts contextually to its environment
Whether you're building your first product or redesigning for growth, we’d love to help bring your vision to life.
📲 Ready to build an app that feels like the future?
