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I can imagine an entire interface taking advantage of this; the subtle drop shadows on buttons shifting slightly based on the devices gyroscope. Heck, even base
by marknutter 14y ago
I can imagine an entire interface taking advantage of this; the subtle drop shadows on buttons shifting slightly based on the devices gyroscope. Heck, even based on where the sun is at your location. It could really add to the level of immersion.
- mc32 14y agoSo just when other OSes (WP7, e.g.) ditch the physical metaphors realism in UI in favor of more minimalistic/reduced graphics style Apple comes in and doubles down. Personally, to me, it's superfluous, but I can see some people liking it --however, I think it has to eventually retrench.
- farnsworth 14y agoYep, Apple is still big on physical metaphors. See iBooks, etc. I'm not a fan. Build a UI that does X as well as possible, not that emulates IRL thing Y that does X.
- saturdaysaint 14y agoI think it often serves a real purpose. Shadows and textures are useful for subtly separating foreground and background and bringing relevant content into visual focus.
- farnsworth 14y agoSure, but you can use them more effectively if you aren't caught up on making them look like something else. iBooks, for example, has the page crease in the middle, page images around the outside, and goofy animations when you turn the page. It probably helps sell iPads but I think it distracts from what I'm trying to actually do, which is read text. Some day it will look as goofy as the old music player plugins that would add pops and hissing like from a vinyl record player.
- glhaynes 14y agoI personally think skeuomorphism used well can be a good thing, but it has to be used well. Does the leather texture on Lion's iCal harm the app? IMO, no (though the specific choice of texture and color could be argued with), and I think textures/colors like this can give an app a "face", something to visually distinguish it, and that's important. But the stitching underneath it? It's superfluous, takes up extra space, and adds significant distraction and visual noise. Glad to see it's gone in Mountain Lion. Likewise, I thought iBooks on iPad looked great at first glance, but over time the extra visuals got annoying and cluttery. I was very happy to see them add Full Screen Mode.
- teyc 14y agoSony XPeria's photo gallery has a tilt effect. It was passable.
- ZeroGravitas 14y agoShadows cast by the buildings in Google MapsGL are correct for the local time: http://littlebigdetails.com/post/23796537654/google-mapsgl-the-shadows-cast-by-the-buildings http://littlebigdetails.com/post/23796537654/google-mapsgl-t...
- Angostura 14y agoTo make it better, use the inbuilt camera to detect the direction of ambient light and have the reflections erm.... reflect this.
- Angostura 14y agoTo make it better, use the inbuilt camera to detect the direction of ambient light and have the orientation of the reflections erm.... reflect this.
- farnsworth 14y agoNext weeks HN article - "iOS Settings App Constantly Spies on Users With Camera" bad idea
- batista 14y agoBetter how? It would just be more realistic (but nobody would notice the extra realism). On the downside, it would suck lots of battery by using the camera when not needed.
- jcromartie 14y agoWay ahead of you man.