5 ms·

The designer / minimalist half of me eschews ornamentation – I'm a big fan of the "swiss style". But, for all the recent ragging on skeuomorphism, there are tim

by gdubs 14y ago

The designer / minimalist half of me eschews ornamentation – I'm a big fan of the "swiss style". But, for all the recent ragging on skeuomorphism, there are times when it is appropriate. When we released polychord 2 with its dark leather and chrome look, it was in response to feedback from lots of our users who wanted something that fit in with their studio gear. We resisted the urge to use 'knobs' and other physical gadgets that would mess up the UX. It's just a skin, but it made a lot of our users happy. I also observed that the new physical hints made the app less threatening for new users to jump in and start playing around.

MartinCron 14y ago
I just looked at some Polychord screenshots and it looks great, nothing like the bizarre garish skins of iPad contacts or iMovie. Good work.
- gdubs 14y ago
  Thanks! We hired Jonas Eriksson (http://erikssonjonas.com/ http://erikssonjonas.com/) to do the redesign.
  - MartinCron 14y ago
    It seems like the lesson here is that Skeuomorphism is OK if you're modeling it after something that is gorgeous and tactile to begin with. Not all real-world objects are things that I even care to interact with in the real-world.
- arrrg 14y ago
  Contacts is an absolutely awful app on the iPad, truly disgusting (and not just because it looks like a book). But iMovie? The movie browser looks whimsical, sure, but it’s at least very well executed and looks great. Also, the actual interface is very matter of fact, no skeuomorphism at all there. So a very, very small part of the app is a bit whimsical, nothing more.
mikeryan 14y ago
Perhaps my absolute favorite (and one of the most awesome examples of Skeumorphism ever) is Propellerhead's Reason Software (take a look) http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason/ http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason/ Its an extremely powerful and complex piece of software that mimics the pieces of gear in a sound recording studio. This includes the ability to turn the gear around and patch it via cables etc. I've never sat down at a piece of recording software (this complex) and "just got it" off the bat as well as I did with this. A lot of it was understanding how everything worked in a regular studio translated right into the software, seriously amazing. It actually made me more comfortable in a real live studio as well since it allowed me to play with tools and effects "Virtually" that I'd never have at home. Anyway YMMV but anytime someone tells me that skeumorphism is the easy way out and useless I look at Reason and shake my head.
- cameronh90 14y ago
  Conversely, I find audio editing software is usually an example of skeuomorphism gone nuts. I don't mind a bit of it to guide me using concepts I already understand, but what is the purpose of imitating all of the bad parts of real life? * Dangly cables that get in the way of stuff and are hard to follow, and you can't even tilt your head to see around them (and "Each cable plugs into exactly two holes"?) * Physical-styled knobs. Often harder to control and more ambiguous than sliders or other circular controls that don't try to imitate a physical knob. * Lack of selective disclosure and dimming leads to very overloaded UIs * Mode switch/up/down buttons rather than directly selectable options * Pointless ornamentation like screws, fans, handles * Constraints in the physical model will often translate to constraints in the software * Often only intuitive to people who are familiar with the thing it's based on There's no reason you can't take the good parts of a physical interface and use those elements in a virtual interface, but there's no need to try and make it exactly the same. All UI is vaguely based on something that came before it, often something physical ("desktop", "window", "folder"..) That's not to say Reason isn't great software, but honestly, music software does tend to be somewhat confusing anyway, and also tends to be very skeuomorphic.

by gdubs 14y ago

MartinCron 14y ago

I just looked at some Polychord screenshots and it looks great, nothing like the bizarre garish skins of iPad contacts or iMovie. Good work.

gdubs 14y ago
Thanks! We hired Jonas Eriksson (http://erikssonjonas.com/ http://erikssonjonas.com/) to do the redesign.
- MartinCron 14y ago
  It seems like the lesson here is that Skeuomorphism is OK if you're modeling it after something that is gorgeous and tactile to begin with. Not all real-world objects are things that I even care to interact with in the real-world.
arrrg 14y ago
Contacts is an absolutely awful app on the iPad, truly disgusting (and not just because it looks like a book). But iMovie? The movie browser looks whimsical, sure, but it’s at least very well executed and looks great. Also, the actual interface is very matter of fact, no skeuomorphism at all there. So a very, very small part of the app is a bit whimsical, nothing more.

mikeryan 14y ago

Perhaps my absolute favorite (and one of the most awesome examples of Skeumorphism ever) is Propellerhead's Reason Software (take a look) http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason/ http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason/ Its an extremely powerful and complex piece of software that mimics the pieces of gear in a sound recording studio. This includes the ability to turn the gear around and patch it via cables etc. I've never sat down at a piece of recording software (this complex) and "just got it" off the bat as well as I did with this. A lot of it was understanding how everything worked in a regular studio translated right into the software, seriously amazing. It actually made me more comfortable in a real live studio as well since it allowed me to play with tools and effects "Virtually" that I'd never have at home. Anyway YMMV but anytime someone tells me that skeumorphism is the easy way out and useless I look at Reason and shake my head.

cameronh90 14y ago
Conversely, I find audio editing software is usually an example of skeuomorphism gone nuts. I don't mind a bit of it to guide me using concepts I already understand, but what is the purpose of imitating all of the bad parts of real life? * Dangly cables that get in the way of stuff and are hard to follow, and you can't even tilt your head to see around them (and "Each cable plugs into exactly two holes"?) * Physical-styled knobs. Often harder to control and more ambiguous than sliders or other circular controls that don't try to imitate a physical knob. * Lack of selective disclosure and dimming leads to very overloaded UIs * Mode switch/up/down buttons rather than directly selectable options * Pointless ornamentation like screws, fans, handles * Constraints in the physical model will often translate to constraints in the software * Often only intuitive to people who are familiar with the thing it's based on There's no reason you can't take the good parts of a physical interface and use those elements in a virtual interface, but there's no need to try and make it exactly the same. All UI is vaguely based on something that came before it, often something physical ("desktop", "window", "folder"..) That's not to say Reason isn't great software, but honestly, music software does tend to be somewhat confusing anyway, and also tends to be very skeuomorphic.