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Perhaps my absolute favorite (and one of the most awesome examples of Skeumorphism ever) is Propellerhead's Reason Software (take a look) http://www.propeller

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.

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.