How to Master the Aero (Frosted Glass) Effect for Modern UI Design

Introduction

The Aero effect, short for Authentic, Energetic, Reflective, Open, creates a translucent frosted‑glass visual that enhances hierarchy and visual unity in UI design.

History of the Aero Effect

It originated with Windows Vista/7 in 2007, later appeared in OS X Yosemite, iOS 7, and was popularized by Apple’s Aqua style and subsequent OS versions.

Trend Revival

In 2017 Windows 10 re‑introduced the effect, and macOS Big Sur further refined it with richer gradients and functional emphasis.

Application in the 58 Part‑time Project

We incorporated the Aero effect into the “58 Part‑time Online Earning” redesign to improve page quality, visual consistency, and user experience.

Problems Solved by the Aero Effect

Expressing information hierarchy through blurred backgrounds.

Enhancing brand consistency with soft, cohesive visuals.

Improving visual presentation, including icons with translucent layers.

Practical Guide: Creating the Aero Effect

Draw a gradient‑filled game‑controller shape in Sketch (#73A3FF‑#7526FF) and add subtle shadow.

Duplicate, flip horizontally, mask, and fill with a lighter gradient (#F2F7FF‑#FFFFFF).

Duplicate the original shape, place above the mask, apply Gaussian blur 45 and set opacity 70%.

Duplicate the second shape, remove fill, add gradient stroke (#EAF1FF‑#DFD5FF) to increase icon recognizability.

Export the icon and import into After Effects using the AEUX plugin.

Organize layers, hide the Sketch‑based blur, and rename base layers.

Duplicate layer 2, set its opacity to 50%, and create an adjustment layer with an alpha mask beneath it.

Add a Gaussian blur of intensity 100 to the adjustment layer.

Apply desired animations to complete the dynamic frosted‑glass icon.