Everything Apple needs to fix at WWDC starts with Settings

Rumors abound that Apple is about to redesign all its operating systems, dramatically changing the devices we use every day starting this fall. It would be a perfectly understandable reaction to wonder why Apple would focus on aesthetics while so many parts of its business seem to be in turmoil.

But I’m here to propose the opposite. That a lot of the symptoms of what Apple’s done wrong lately–most powerfully represented by the disastrous update to the macOS Settings (formerly System Preferences) app–are actually reasons why now it’s past time for Apple to turn the page, design something new, and announce it at WWDC in June.

Things fall apart

I’ve never worked in software, but I have worked in the media business for a few decades and have been involved in numerous redesign projects, both for print magazines and websites. Every time a new design debuts, it’s trumpeted as being “cleaner” and “more streamlined,” which probably makes you wonder: Why was the old thing cluttered? Why design a less streamlined, less clean thing in the first place?

Of course, the answer is that every new design starts clean, fresh, and streamlined, with every feature it needs and nothing it doesn’t. But starting on day one, the compromises creep in. Designs fall apart over time, not because they weren’t nice, but because needs have changed, and you can’t do a total redesign every time you want to add or tweak just one thing. Over the years, a fresh design becomes an ugly patchwork.

But why now? Surely Apple would be better off devoting its time to adding AI features and fixing bugs! The truth is, there’s never a good time to redesign anything. There will always be another pressing new feature that takes precedence, and that usually goes on for years as the fixes pile up, creating more and more tech debt and making the existing product that much harder to update and alter. Eventually, it reaches a breaking point–the whole thing needs to be redesigned. If not now, when?

Apple’s operating systems probably reached that breaking point a few years ago. And there’s no better example, in all its details, than three years ago when Apple replaced the macOS System Preferences app with the new Settings app.

Brother from another mother

Introduced in macOS Ventura in 2022, the Settings app encompasses pretty much every reason why Apple needs to hit a big reset button.

First, let me stipulate that the old System Preferences app was just that: old. It was a remnant of the very earliest days of Mac OS X and desperately needed to be modernized. I do not doubt that there were a huge number of reasons (and an enormous pile of tech debt ) that led to the decision to replace it with a new version based on the Settings app found in iOS and iPadOS.

Foundry

But that’s the thing. The Settings app on iOS is no spring chicken. It has also struggled to adapt and grow with the increasing complexity of iOS and iPadOS. It was never intended to work on macOS. While the decision to use it on macOS was probably expedient and made Apple’s platforms feel a little more alike, adapting an old design from an entirely different platform went exactly as you might expect it to go. Settings might be new to macOS, but it’s not new.

What Settings needs, across all of Apple’s platforms, is a rethink and a reorganization. Categories and subcategories are not organized in any logical way, making the entire app so dysfunctional that you have to rely on search to find anything you need. And all that does is expose how broken a lot of Apple’s on-device search functionality feels. Not to mention that between “type to Siri” and Spotlight, it’s completely unclear what to type where on modern Apple devices.

Sure, we can all probably figure out good explanations for why things are the way they are. But that’s the point–years have gone by, and the old designs have been patched so many times that they’re simply a mess. It’s time to rip the bandage off.

The old college try

I hear a lot of skepticism about Apple’s ability to execute a complete redesign across all its platforms. And I get it: A lot of Apple’s recent missteps have come on the software side, suggesting that they may not be up to the challenge. The fact is, we just don’t know whether Apple can execute on this, but we have to be open-minded. It could be good, or it could be bad, or anywhere in between.

Apple

What’s indisputable is that Apple could really use a new design, built from the ground up to cover all of its platforms and fit its priorities. It shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all design but an overall design system that is built to adapt to the very different needs of an iPhone and a MacBook Pro.

As a certain famous former Apple CEO said, design is “not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” That’s another important aspect of this if Apple is going to do this right: It can’t just be about looks–it needs to be about functionality. For example, a new Settings app could be beautiful and reflect every platform’s special nature–but if it hasn’t been reorganized so that you can find what you’re looking for, it’s not well designed.

The same is true for many of Apple’s back-end technologies, which need to be presented in more consistent ways, whether it’s Writing Tools and Apple’s spelling checker or the aforementioned Type to Siri and Spotlight searches.

That’s the potential in a major Apple redesign. Sure, there will be gaudy flourishes that show off the power of Apple Silicon GPUs–but a successful design has to go beyond that. If Apple does this right, it will have swept away the conditions that led to sad affairs like replacing one broken Settings app with a differently broken one. A new design should be based on Apple’s vision for how people will be using its devices over the next decade, at least. And if it’s all done right, that design will inspire the rest of the company to live up to its promise.

Because nobody wants to see the OS equivalent of the Settings app.