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

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