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You're the second person that mentioned skeuomorphism. Could you please explain what it is and why it's a big todo? Most of my cursory google searches don't pro
by dclusin 14y ago
You're the second person that mentioned skeuomorphism. Could you please explain what it is and why it's a big todo? Most of my cursory google searches don't provide any particularly insightful definition of what it is. The blogs/rants usually just dive into why it's good or bad.
- sergiotapia 14y agoIt's a design technique where the artist creates user interfaces that tries to mimick the real life object as much as possible. Take for instance some of the apps on iOS. The have book bindings, rings, shadows, etc.
- garretruh 14y agoEssentially, trying to mimic real world (as in the physical world) applications and appearances. See Calendar and Contacts on iOS for a perfect example of skeuomorphism to the extreme.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- rglover 14y agoSkeumorphism is when a user interface is stylized to look like real world materials (e.g. the Calendar.app on OSX is made to look like a leather desk calendar). The big argument toward it is that it either looks tacky or ruins usability.
- harrywincup 14y agoSkeuomorphism is a design approach where digital interfaces retain certain elements from their real-world counterparts. For example, the notes app on iOS looks like a real-world notepad, with its leather binding and yellow lined pages, including a torn paper effect along the top where previous pages have been pulled out of the pad. (Obviously these pages do not exist in the digital world, and therefore this design choice is an attempt to insert "realism" into the UI for the purposes of familiarity == skeuomorphism)
- ricardobeat 14y agoSkeuomorphism is when a product imitates design elements functionally necessary in the original product design, but that becomes ornamental in the new product design Examples: leather/paper/textile textures, hyper-realistic shading, analog controls/displays. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph
- feverishaaron 14y agoSkeuomorphism has been interpreted two ways - as decorative elements (leather stitching), and in functionality that attempts to emulate a real world object (page flipping in an e-book). The former is just a matter of aesthetic preference. Where skeuomorphism gets dangerous is in the latter case. A perfect example is the horrible address book in OS X. It looks like a book, and therefore the user expects it to function like a book. Yet, it doesn't. It's this area of interaction design that has run afoul at Apple.
- eridius 14y agoYou give "page flipping in an e-book" as an example of dangerous skeuomorphism, but then cite Address Book as why it's bad. I'm a bit confused. I get why you don't like Address Book, but do you really think page flipping in an e-reader is bad too? If so, why do you think that?
- MetricMike 14y agoThe dichotomy is what's dangerous. Address Book looks like an book, so I'll try to interact with it like that. When that doesn't work, I get confused, angry, and it's generally a "failure" from a UX point of view. Neither form of skeuomorphism is inherently bad, but it's easier to shoot yourself in the foot and ruin the UX when you move from decorative to functional.
- eridius 14y agoYes, I get the complaints about Address Book. But "page flipping in an e-book" is either really poorly written, or was not referring to Address Book to begin with, since Address Book is not an e-book. Hence my question.
- feverishaaron 14y agoIndeed, they were intended to be separate examples.
- 14y ago