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Linking two related UI elements isn't a "skeuomorph". It is an element of design. A skeuomorph is when you try to make a UI look like a physical object: adding

Linking two related UI elements isn't a "skeuomorph". It is an element of design. A skeuomorph is when you try to make a UI look like a physical object: adding paper grain to the background of a word processor, or making a time app look like a stopwatch.

jakelazaroff 5y ago
More generally, a skeuomorph is when a derivative uses design elements for decoration that were functionally necessary in the original. Paper grain in the background of a word processor is one example of a skeuomorph — but so are spokes on hubcaps, electric lights shaped like candles and the shutter sound your phone plays when it takes a picture.
multiplegeorges 5y ago
> A skeuomorph is when you try to make a UI look like a physical object Agreed, and the linked article specifically themes their tabs to look like a file folder, with a reminiscent color and rounded corners. The very concept of a tab that contains related information in it is a replication of the physical tabbed file folder. It's pretty much this: https://imgur.com/a/u2WgESW https://imgur.com/a/u2WgESW And that is largely a hold over from the concept of a physical desktop in an office. See: https://onezero.medium.com/the-document-metaphor-desktop-gui-doesnt-work-anymore-d276271bfa40 https://onezero.medium.com/the-document-metaphor-desktop-gui... It'd be nice for some new concepts to be introduced and refined.
- layer8 5y ago
  IMO this is more about affordance than about skeuomorphism. The traditional tab strip UI is already an abstraction, because it has only two levels of depth (instead of each tab having a different depth like physical tabs) and you don’t see the stack of individual edges of each tab page. (There were skeuomorphic versions that actually did this.) The new Firefox design is lacking any clear affordance that would connect the tab button to the respective tab contents.

jakelazaroff 5y ago

More generally, a skeuomorph is when a derivative uses design elements for decoration that were functionally necessary in the original. Paper grain in the background of a word processor is one example of a skeuomorph — but so are spokes on hubcaps, electric lights shaped like candles and the shutter sound your phone plays when it takes a picture.

multiplegeorges 5y ago

> A skeuomorph is when you try to make a UI look like a physical object Agreed, and the linked article specifically themes their tabs to look like a file folder, with a reminiscent color and rounded corners. The very concept of a tab that contains related information in it is a replication of the physical tabbed file folder. It's pretty much this: https://imgur.com/a/u2WgESW https://imgur.com/a/u2WgESW And that is largely a hold over from the concept of a physical desktop in an office. See: https://onezero.medium.com/the-document-metaphor-desktop-gui-doesnt-work-anymore-d276271bfa40 https://onezero.medium.com/the-document-metaphor-desktop-gui... It'd be nice for some new concepts to be introduced and refined.

layer8 5y ago
IMO this is more about affordance than about skeuomorphism. The traditional tab strip UI is already an abstraction, because it has only two levels of depth (instead of each tab having a different depth like physical tabs) and you don’t see the stack of individual edges of each tab page. (There were skeuomorphic versions that actually did this.) The new Firefox design is lacking any clear affordance that would connect the tab button to the respective tab contents.