While some features of an operating system look slick, they can end up backfiring when real users try them. When Apple introduced the new look of iOS 7, some users complained that the zoom-in animation when opening apps and the parallax scrolling on the home screen made them sick. Thankfully, you can reduce this motion if it affects you.

But did you know that your Mac may have similar problems? While macOS doesn't use the same zooming animation, it does use a translucent glass effect on open windows. It may not make you sick, but it could make some on-screen elements hard to see for users with visual impairments. Or you might just prefer a simpler experience without all the visual effects.

A quick trip to your Mac's Accessibility options will provide the necessary options.

Open System Preferences and head to the Accessibility header. Click the Display tab to open the relevant options. You'll see a few options here that aren't related to the motion and transparency, like Invert colors and Use grayscale. But we're interested in a few others:

  • Reduce motion will make animations like opening Mission Control and the Notification Center instantaneous instead of their usual fancy display.
  • Reduce transparency makes elements that are normally translucent, like the Menu Bar, Dock, and app windows, more opaque. This means you'll experience less blending of on-screen elements.
  • Increase contrast if you have trouble distinguishing between on-screen items because everything blends together too well.

Depending on your preferences, you might like the way macOS now just fine. But others will prefer sacrificing a bit of the eye candy for smoother performance or less element blending, which is great! Now you know how to control these.

Looking for more tips like this? Check out other useful features you probably missed on your Mac.

How do you like your Mac to look? Let us know if you love the default effects or turn them off for some reason down in the comments!