The Shape of Apps
4 hours ago
- Mac app icons historically had varied silhouettes, but macOS Big Sur encouraged rounded-square (squircle) icons to harmonize with iOS, allowing some creative boundary-breaking.
- macOS Tahoe introduced mandatory squircles and 'Squircle Jail' for icons that don't fit, with three types: masked to squircle, scaled-down pre-Tahoe icons on gray backgrounds, or voluntary custom-colored squircles.
- The shift to flat design (iOS 7) and squircle uniformity was partly to make icon creation easier for third-party developers and big companies, at the cost of losing arbitrary shapes.
- Treating the squircle as a canvas rather than a container allows icons to fill the shape completely, avoiding 'Squircle Jail'.
- Uniform squircle icons improve visual harmony in the Dock and communicate that the shape represents an app, similar to standardized media packaging.