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Am I the only one who doesn't love the whole flat trend? It seems like once the novelty wears off, it becomes bland more than anything else.
by ericb 14y ago
Am I the only one who doesn't love the whole flat trend? It seems like once the novelty wears off, it becomes bland more than anything else.
- booruguru 14y agoI like flat design, it's basically an extension/re-branding of minimalist design and that's not going anywhere so I don't really see this as a fad.
- ericb 14y agoMy objection to flat design is that it gives up useful visual cues. Items seen as closer deserve more of our attention. Raised items have a greater importance. Yes you could use size to convey this, but unless you want many many sizes, you have limited the vocal range of your website. If we are now horse-trading visual cues in search of ever simpler sites, why not websites in simple, monochromatic black and white?
- colmvp 14y agoFlat trend? Flat design has been around for decades, i.e. Josef Muller Brockmann
- ericb 14y agoSo have argyle sweaters, but if an influx of new people started wearing argyle we could still have a debate about whether we liked the argyle sweater trend.
- swah 14y agoIts ok in moderation though, like.. argyle socks.
- pifflesnort 14y agoJosef Muller Brockmann wasn't designing discoverable interactive UIs, he was designing for print. There's a difference, and flat design advocates would do us all a favor if they'd try to remember it.
- colmvp 14y agoThe fact that he wasn't designing for web doesn't mean his style (or other creatives for that matter) didn't influence the medium. Not to mention there is nothing that says a flat style is superior given that there are so many additional factors in web analytics.
- lhnn 14y agoCome now, you know the parent meant "flat trend in computer UI". This isn't a discussion about art.
- bluekeybox 14y agoOr earlier: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/02/seeking-meaning-in-the-earliest-.html http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/02/seeking-meanin...
- coldtea 14y agoThe two statements are orthogonal. Eighties electro music has also been around for decades, but 5-6 years back in made a comeback.
- anthemcg 14y agoOverall, the core of flat UI which is : solid shapes, contours and hierarchy are good elements to have. But, its an extreme. Gradients, shadows, highlights,etc... give UI elements dimension and help them to occupy space, there has to be some of those pieces to help users distinguish between different types of elements. I am personally not a fan of this trend either. But, I consider it a trend of extreme minimalism with no middle ground which will not work well in the wild. If you look at it, very few products or companies are able to utilize it successfully.
- alan_cx 14y agoNo, I'm with you. I find flat very hard to navigate, lazy, and to me is classic style over function or usability. I also find that non net savy folk just look blankly at it and get no real pointers as to what on earth to do with it. I actually think its very poor design, and slightly arrogant in that is assumes that people know what to do, or where to click. It assumes prior knowledge and excludes those with out. But, its the current fad, trend, fashion, so people will die arguing opposite, until they flock to a new fady design. Try telling your kid that trousers/pants hanging under their butts is stupid and will go out of fashion and they will cry at old photos, like "we" did with 70's fashions!!!! Personally I feel a bit king's new clothes about it. But then, I have been round long enough to see these trends come and go. Flat design = butt pants. One thing I think is going on is that its gained popularity with small screen devices. I think flat works for low res simple old screens that couldn't show much. Now, with higher res screens, it seems redundant to me. I mean, what is the point of a high res screen if all you do with its is simplistic flat designs? (Yes I know about games and video, but that's a different thing)