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> The biggest news in Notes is that after years, the Skeuomorphic paper texture has finally been retired! When reading things like this, I am always left wonde

> The biggest news in Notes is that after years, the Skeuomorphic paper texture has finally been retired! When reading things like this, I am always left wondering what was wrong with Skeumorphism in the first place. Is it as cynical as it seems, which that an arbitrary element of the UI was designated for elimination so that triumphant but meaningless changes could be introduced into wave after wave of new products? (I am aware that I am likely the one who is out of touch, not Apple.)

qz2 6y ago
It was inconsistently awful mostly. Now we have replaced it with consistently awful. So the net gain is zero. I miss the bit between the two fads. Really people need to just stop fucking around with user interfaces and breaking our workflows. The finest example recently being alt+tab broken in Windows 10 20H2
- Kaibeezy 6y ago
  "stop ... breaking our workflows" Thank you from the sales side for a utility with a "retro" UI.
- polytely 6y ago
  At least in the skeuo era you could tell where the buttons were.
lou1306 6y ago
Well, Apple made some horrible, horrible skeuomorphic UIs back in the day (See [0] for a very ancient example; or any stitched-leather UI from an iPhone before iOS 7). Having said that, I could really use a little bit of skeuo these days. Buttons that look like buttons, sliders that resemble sliders, and the like. [0]: http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/qtime.html http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/qtime.html
- Nextgrid 6y ago
  I don’t understand the seemingly-universal hate for the stitched leather. It at least shows some personality and effort compared to just empty whitespace everywhere.
  - neverartful 6y ago
    Because it's overly gratuitous designer eye-candy with absolutely no benefit aside from stroking the UI designer's ego.
    - Exuma 6y ago
      Something looking good is a benefit, lol.
    - iguy 6y ago
      It is eye-candy, but it's also useful for finding your way around if different apps look different. Some apps need every pixel they can get for content, but some don't, and those ones can show some personality.
    - qppo 6y ago
      This is how I feel about a healthy majority of flat UI design today (and almost the every example of neumorphism or widget with animations). Eye candy happens when UI designers make something for a slide show demo and neither the designer or PM uses the UI while they iterate. Which is part and parcel to many areas of development today.
  - lou1306 6y ago
    Real leather gives you a tactile feeling. Moreover, it reflects light differently than paper, whereas the light coming from pixels on a screen is equal in all but color. IMHO skeuomorphism is not evil per se, but it must somehow boost usability to be justified (sliders are a good example of this). Otherwise, it's like the visual equivalent of purple prose.
    - mikewhy 6y ago
miles 6y ago
> When reading things like this, I am always left wondering what was wrong with Skeumorphism in the first place. Faux paper tears and animated page turns in Lion's iCal.app were particularly unwelcome.

qz2 6y ago

It was inconsistently awful mostly. Now we have replaced it with consistently awful. So the net gain is zero. I miss the bit between the two fads. Really people need to just stop fucking around with user interfaces and breaking our workflows. The finest example recently being alt+tab broken in Windows 10 20H2

Kaibeezy 6y ago
"stop ... breaking our workflows" Thank you from the sales side for a utility with a "retro" UI.
polytely 6y ago
At least in the skeuo era you could tell where the buttons were.

lou1306 6y ago

Well, Apple made some horrible, horrible skeuomorphic UIs back in the day (See [0] for a very ancient example; or any stitched-leather UI from an iPhone before iOS 7). Having said that, I could really use a little bit of skeuo these days. Buttons that look like buttons, sliders that resemble sliders, and the like. [0]: http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/qtime.html http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/qtime.html

Nextgrid 6y ago
I don’t understand the seemingly-universal hate for the stitched leather. It at least shows some personality and effort compared to just empty whitespace everywhere.
- neverartful 6y ago
  Because it's overly gratuitous designer eye-candy with absolutely no benefit aside from stroking the UI designer's ego.
  - Exuma 6y ago
    Something looking good is a benefit, lol.
  - iguy 6y ago
    It is eye-candy, but it's also useful for finding your way around if different apps look different. Some apps need every pixel they can get for content, but some don't, and those ones can show some personality.
  - qppo 6y ago
    This is how I feel about a healthy majority of flat UI design today (and almost the every example of neumorphism or widget with animations). Eye candy happens when UI designers make something for a slide show demo and neither the designer or PM uses the UI while they iterate. Which is part and parcel to many areas of development today.
- lou1306 6y ago
  Real leather gives you a tactile feeling. Moreover, it reflects light differently than paper, whereas the light coming from pixels on a screen is equal in all but color. IMHO skeuomorphism is not evil per se, but it must somehow boost usability to be justified (sliders are a good example of this). Otherwise, it's like the visual equivalent of purple prose.
  - mikewhy 6y ago

miles 6y ago

> When reading things like this, I am always left wondering what was wrong with Skeumorphism in the first place. Faux paper tears and animated page turns in Lion's iCal.app were particularly unwelcome.