Designer criticizes CleanShot v5 settings redesign as UI regression
Marcin Wichary argues the app bulldozed carefully crafted v4 settings to chase macOS design trends that are themselves flawed.
What to know
- CleanShot v5 redesigned settings to match macOS styling, abandoning v4's carefully crafted UX that Wichary had praised months prior.
- Wichary argues designers should not blindly follow OS patterns when those patterns themselves are flawed, citing macOS Ventura Settings as an example.
- Specific UI regressions include colored square icon treatments that reduce visual differentiation and poor dark mode rendering.
- Wichary calls for selective reverting: keep the modern left navigation but restore v4's label layout and visual hierarchy.
The v5 redesign is a usability failure that should be reverted or heavily modified.
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“Massive agree. The new settings look horrible.”
isuffix · Lobsters ↗
Marcin Wichary UX designer, CleanShot criticCleanShot macOS screenshot/annotation app
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Designers and users endorse Wichary's critique
Comments on Lobsters and Mastodon shared Wichary's blog, with respondents echoing frustration over the v5 redesign. Critics highlighted specific UI failures like colored square icons that obscure differentiation and poor dark mode rendering.
“Such a well articulated defense of usability in the face of an increasingly indifferent platform owner. No, we do not have to follow the platform when the platform is wrong!”
— jonsterling -
Massive agree. The new settings look horrible. I particularly hate how the top row of icons were converted to a vertical column of colored squares. Having background colors surround the gray icons makes them _harder_ to differentiate! I'll admit that the previous icons seem a bit ugly at first glance, but they are far better UI than the new ones…
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Such a well articulated defense of usability in the face of an increasingly indifferent platform owner. No, we do not have to follow the platform when the platform is wrong!
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I just looked at the settings for the first time since I upgraded to v5. That's pretty bad. Thankfully, they haven't mucked with the annotation window too much or altered the keyboard shortcuts I use. And I'm cautiously optimistic that macOS 27 will clean some of this up.
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background
Wichary publishes detailed critique of CleanShot v5 settings redesign — Designer and former Google, Medium, and Figma UX professional Marcin Wichary posted a blog essay criticizing CleanShot's version 5 update, arguing that carefully designed v4 settings were abandoned in a redesign meant to align with macOS styling. The piece compares the change to failed 1970s urban modernism that destroyed livable city spaces.