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I thought the world decided that skeuomorphism was bad in and of itself and was merely a stepping stone to more usable designs? I seem to remember there was so

I thought the world decided that skeuomorphism was bad in and of itself and was merely a stepping stone to more usable designs? I seem to remember there was something on the front page of Hacker News years ago talking about just how much of a relic it has become because modern design paradigms were just so much better. I tried to find the link but this was the closest I could come up with: https://blog.prototypr.io/i-know-you-like-skeuomorphism-but-youre-wrong-eab6c0515211 https://blog.prototypr.io/i-know-you-like-skeuomorphism-but-... ...and then there's this which really brought back (horrible) memories haha: http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/qtime.htm http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/qtime.htm

marvindanig 4y ago
oh, yes! i remember those angry troll comments on HN as well. as if flattening all UI was the only thing that mattered and everything else was skeuomorphism. no sweetie, not everything needs to be a pictogram. and everything you see or use online is skeuomorphism off of something in the physical world at some level. yeah, that flat design also. Edit: Added "at some level" after helpful comments below.
- giraffe_lady 4y ago
  If everything is something, then something isn't a useful category. Sure, all digital design is in some sense and to some extent a metaphor for real world objects. But skeuomorphism was always referring to things that were to an extreme extent following the design language of the real world, well beyond what was required by their digital constraints or expectations of the user. That is a useful category of visual language description that is lost when you start with all-design-is-skeuomorphism. It's not wrong it's just not a useful model for anything.
  - marvindanig 4y ago
    oh yes, absolutely. fixed my comments above.
jonathankoren 4y ago
Yup. There’s a reason why skeuomorphism died with Steve Jobs.
- marvindanig 4y ago
  ah, but flat design is also skeuomorphic. methinks it was just some strategic intellectualism with no legs to look down on everything else that people made. clever tricks of the hive mind.
  - jonathankoren 4y ago
    > ah, but flat design is also skeuomorphic. Please elaborate
    - qubex 4y ago
      I can see this rapidly ‘degenerating’ into “what is a chair? Is a tree stump you sit on a chair?”- or “is there such a thing as a ‘chair’, after all ‘chair’ is an abstract concept and what we sit on is physical items”-type discussions. “It’s skeuomorphic because it reminds me of icons which are things”

marvindanig 4y ago

oh, yes! i remember those angry troll comments on HN as well. as if flattening all UI was the only thing that mattered and everything else was skeuomorphism. no sweetie, not everything needs to be a pictogram. and everything you see or use online is skeuomorphism off of something in the physical world at some level. yeah, that flat design also. Edit: Added "at some level" after helpful comments below.

giraffe_lady 4y ago
If everything is something, then something isn't a useful category. Sure, all digital design is in some sense and to some extent a metaphor for real world objects. But skeuomorphism was always referring to things that were to an extreme extent following the design language of the real world, well beyond what was required by their digital constraints or expectations of the user. That is a useful category of visual language description that is lost when you start with all-design-is-skeuomorphism. It's not wrong it's just not a useful model for anything.
- marvindanig 4y ago
  oh yes, absolutely. fixed my comments above.

jonathankoren 4y ago

Yup. There’s a reason why skeuomorphism died with Steve Jobs.

marvindanig 4y ago
ah, but flat design is also skeuomorphic. methinks it was just some strategic intellectualism with no legs to look down on everything else that people made. clever tricks of the hive mind.
- jonathankoren 4y ago
  > ah, but flat design is also skeuomorphic. Please elaborate
  - qubex 4y ago
    I can see this rapidly ‘degenerating’ into “what is a chair? Is a tree stump you sit on a chair?”- or “is there such a thing as a ‘chair’, after all ‘chair’ is an abstract concept and what we sit on is physical items”-type discussions. “It’s skeuomorphic because it reminds me of icons which are things”