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Gruber managed to spin the whole idea of skeumorphisms being rejected as a praise for retina display and the bright future it will lead us to. WTF!? Skeumorphi

Gruber managed to spin the whole idea of skeumorphisms being rejected as a praise for retina display and the bright future it will lead us to. WTF!? Skeumorphism has nothing to do with pixel density at all. It's being used since the inception of UIs for affordance, reusing knowledge from the physical world and increasing usability. If there's a trend toward a flat design, it's because we're past the mimicry phase, current users were already born in the digital age and don't have a problem understanding new paradigms and touch screens. Now we can focus on UIs that put content forefront (back to print design) and interact in different ways. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance

MBCook 14y ago
I don't think he's talking about real skeuomorphism, but the common practice of referring to anything that that looks like a real world object as skeuomorphic, even when it actively hurts user interaction. iCal has become a classic example. It's been covered with faux leather to make it look "better", even though in the Lion version was actually harder to use than the "digital" Snow Leopard version.
- hcarvalhoalves 14y ago
  A skeuomorph is a physical ornament or design on an object copied from a form of the object when made from another material or by other techniques. [1] In the case of iCal, it is skeuomorphic, just poorly executed. It mimics the appearance of the object, just don't interact like the real one. In this particular case, we can argue it's bad design, because it's not honest: it deceives the user and breaks the mental model. I suppose Apple's heavy use of skeumorphisms is less for usability, and more a result of a culture of design inside the company. They often use it to pay hommage to iconic product designs, like Braun products, the Rolodex, Swiss clocks, etc. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph
  - lloeki 14y ago
    Gruber makes a specific reference of Brushed Metal as what he refers as phony "skeuomorphism". BTW Braun design, esp. Rams's are the closest to "flat" in a 3d world [0]. [0]: https://www.vitsoe.com/gb/about/good-design https://www.vitsoe.com/gb/about/good-design
    - gurkendoktor 14y ago
      Kind of OT, but am I the only one for whom Brushed Metal was an affordance? A brushed metal frame meant "I have a super large drag area, drag me from any edge you want to". Apps like iSync could be dragged basically from any pixel that was not on a button.
- wmf 14y ago
  I preferred when we called it "deliciousness". A quick search shows that very few people seem to have made the connection: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4628588 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4628588 http://www.quora.com/James-Wang-5/answers/Skeuomorphism http://www.quora.com/James-Wang-5/answers/Skeuomorphism

MBCook 14y ago

I don't think he's talking about real skeuomorphism, but the common practice of referring to anything that that looks like a real world object as skeuomorphic, even when it actively hurts user interaction. iCal has become a classic example. It's been covered with faux leather to make it look "better", even though in the Lion version was actually harder to use than the "digital" Snow Leopard version.

hcarvalhoalves 14y ago
A skeuomorph is a physical ornament or design on an object copied from a form of the object when made from another material or by other techniques. [1] In the case of iCal, it is skeuomorphic, just poorly executed. It mimics the appearance of the object, just don't interact like the real one. In this particular case, we can argue it's bad design, because it's not honest: it deceives the user and breaks the mental model. I suppose Apple's heavy use of skeumorphisms is less for usability, and more a result of a culture of design inside the company. They often use it to pay hommage to iconic product designs, like Braun products, the Rolodex, Swiss clocks, etc. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph
- lloeki 14y ago
  Gruber makes a specific reference of Brushed Metal as what he refers as phony "skeuomorphism". BTW Braun design, esp. Rams's are the closest to "flat" in a 3d world [0]. [0]: https://www.vitsoe.com/gb/about/good-design https://www.vitsoe.com/gb/about/good-design
  - gurkendoktor 14y ago
    Kind of OT, but am I the only one for whom Brushed Metal was an affordance? A brushed metal frame meant "I have a super large drag area, drag me from any edge you want to". Apps like iSync could be dragged basically from any pixel that was not on a button.
wmf 14y ago
I preferred when we called it "deliciousness". A quick search shows that very few people seem to have made the connection: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4628588 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4628588 http://www.quora.com/James-Wang-5/answers/Skeuomorphism http://www.quora.com/James-Wang-5/answers/Skeuomorphism