6 ms·

Post Flat Design

55 points by avree 13y ago

Dirlewanger 13y ago
So...flat design with shadows? OK. Everyone just wants to start a trend, don't they?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- ztratar 13y ago
  Amazing how you can corral your friends to go downvote any dissenters of your own article and get away with it. Grats on rigging the game, OP!
koyote 13y ago
The iOS keyboard is not the best example of flat design. It always bothered me that it does not follow the usual convention of displaying the letters in lower case when the shift/caps lock is not turned on.
- awj 13y ago
  Yeah, you know you're doing something wrong when even the PlayStation 3 UI is beating you on intuitive use.
- wvenable 13y ago
  I don't put a lot of tweaks on my jailbroken iPhone but I feel this one is a necessity. Looks better too.
- IbJacked 13y ago
  I also don't like that it's harder to tell if shift is on or off, now. Pre iOS 7, at least it went blue. Now it goes from black on white to white on gray, I still couldn't tell ya which is which. The case of the keycaps changing with the state of shift would fix that, too.
  - josefresco 13y ago
    Couldn't agree with this more. I still don't get it and have to toggle it on/off a few times before I remember.
  - aspidistra 13y ago
    http://ismyshiftkeyonornot.com/ http://ismyshiftkeyonornot.com/ ;-)
JGuo 13y ago
Designers have been using animations to signal affordances in buttons and actionable elements. Drop shadows are still effective in doing this. Every design trend has been a reaction to the previous one. As interaction designers, we should always be thinking about the end user.
MrZongle2 13y ago
DL;DR: the current 'flat design' fad is a reaction to skeuomorphism overuse and abuse. Flat design isn't really the solution either, since close adherence can hinder intuitiveness. Therefore, a compromise the author calls "post flat design" is a fusion between the two styles with a focus on content and intuitiveness rather than implementation. Personally, I don't know if "post flat design" is the solution, but I'm sick of flat design. I prefer skeuomorphism, but agree with the author that it has been overdone: I don't need a photo-realistic leather binder for my note-taking app, for instance.
ztratar 13y ago
I said this very clearly before and was downvoted into oblivion, but I think it needs to be said: This article advocates for some balance between flat design and skeumorphism. Granted, the article is written decently well, but it does not go into any detailed analysis as to where that balance should lie. It simply states: Hierarchy should use composition and color. Cool -- basic design principle, check. Beautiful, readable typography? Yes -- sure. Strong emphasis on content, not ornamentation. OK. I've read this 1000x times already. What is new? Where are the analyses or case studies to support the principles? We need to start talking about where the balance lies and why it lies there. Different interactions will require different balances to find optimality.
- nsmartt 13y ago
  > it does not go into any detailed analysis as to where that balance should lie That's very much part of the point. From the article: Without strict visual requirements associated with flat design, post flat offers designers tons of variety to explore new aesthetics – informed by the best qualities of skeuomorphic and flat design.
  - secstate 13y ago
    Well then this is just post-modernism applied to flat design. An amorphous ball of nothing that has no rules so do whatever you want. Want drop shadows in two directions, cool, cause we can do whatever we want now! I'm not buying it. Post-modernism has been exposed as a joke by fake academic paper generators. Design loosed from it's moors is called experimentation, not post-flat, or whatever's cool right. Please, experiment, just don't claim you've re-invented magic.
    - nsmartt 13y ago
      I thought of it as being more akin to the programming mantra of “use the right tool for the job.” The part about the pendulum swinging back to some degree seems like a reasonable progression from flat design.
mikek3 13y ago
Your username -> twitter profile links on the blog page are borked. :(
- avree 13y ago
  thanks, fixed
josefresco 13y ago
I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that design, like fashion or any other type of art can't be rationalized or justified using scientific like processes. What "looks right" today looks out-dated and clunky tomorrow. There usually isn't any logic behind it, only changing tastes. Flat looks/ed good because we were so entrenched in a skeuomorphic world and were sick of it. Just like wearing baggy jeans with teens morphed into skinny jeans, or grunge music supplanting glam-rock, tastes of humans change over time and no matter how hard you try to break it down and analyze why one art replaced another, there isn't usually an answer to be found. Extreme flat design has brought about horrible interfaces (see iOS7) yet it has also brought wonderful innovations due to it's tendency to break free of the physical world. Were gradients and company names without vowels of the Web 2.0 era superior to the ones prior? No, but it felt right because of where we had come from. I suspect that trend will continue forever. There wont' ever be a "final" design aesthetic that we all agree is the best, and art will never reach some sort of pinnacle that will never be surpassed. Make your own art, don't worry about what is trending ... you might find yourself on the "right" side of design if you focus on making your art the best it can be.
- wavefunction 13y ago
  I would disagree. I think good design is timeless. It's why eras where design was preeminent like "art-deco" and "Hellenic Greece" still resonate so strongly with audiences today. I think design aspires to a Platonic ideal of simplicity, function and form, but that the fashions of the time influence how that aspiration is expressed. It's why Steve Jobs and his vision were so successful in my opinion, paring the complexity of modern consumer electronics and attendant functionality back to what a user actually wants and needs from a device. If you disagree, I'd be interested to hear why (re: simplicity, not so much Steve Jobs) as I use external opinions to shape and refine my own.
  - jmathai 13y ago
    Design can vary in terms of how "good" it is but even eras like art-deco will go through periods where it resonates more strongly with people. The factors for that can be any multitude of things. Even using Steve Jobs as an example doesn't work. The design of the iPod/iPhone has changed drastically in just 10 years. I don't consider my 2nd generation iPod as "timeless". I can admit that it was great 10 years ago but today it's not so much. That being said I do believe there's elements of science in design. The golden ratio perhaps or using concentric circles. It seems plausible that those could be less taxing on our vision to look at. I don't know if that applies to flat design though.
davidw 13y ago
Maybe we'll get a retro look. Say, the X windowing system in the 90ies... like Motif: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_Open_Motif_screenshot.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_Open_Motif_screensho... http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/images/qmotifstyle.png http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/images/qmotifstyle.png
- sprobertson 13y ago
  Hell, why use GUIs at all anymore? A tired fad if I've ever seen one.
ricardobeat 13y ago
> Can you tell which Shift key is enabled? I've been on iOS7 since release, and I still can't tell when caps-lock is enabled :(
eyevariety 13y ago
The conclusion is a total let down. "Dust off your drop shadows and gradients, and introduce them to your flat color buttons and icons. Do your absolute best work without feeling restricted to a single aesthetic." I feel like the author is admitting that they are completely constrained by the rules or whims of trend- and that breaking out of them is some kind of crazy paradigm shift- and that breaking them only involves mixing in the tired tropes of the last fashion into the tired tropes of the new one. My experience is that its only the non-designers that feel constrained by fashion. The professionals push the boundaries - they are the ones that define it.
sic1 13y ago
Well it looks pretty... But in terms of the web... if you can't create it with CSS3, its not worth it IMO. All those extra little shadows and light reflections... yeaaa. No thanks. More designers should learn CSS and build out little things like this themselves so they can see how far they can take it without using an image.

Post Flat Design

55 points by avree 13y ago

Dirlewanger 13y ago

So...flat design with shadows? OK. Everyone just wants to start a trend, don't they?

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

ztratar 13y ago
Amazing how you can corral your friends to go downvote any dissenters of your own article and get away with it. Grats on rigging the game, OP!

koyote 13y ago

The iOS keyboard is not the best example of flat design. It always bothered me that it does not follow the usual convention of displaying the letters in lower case when the shift/caps lock is not turned on.

awj 13y ago
Yeah, you know you're doing something wrong when even the PlayStation 3 UI is beating you on intuitive use.
wvenable 13y ago
I don't put a lot of tweaks on my jailbroken iPhone but I feel this one is a necessity. Looks better too.
IbJacked 13y ago
I also don't like that it's harder to tell if shift is on or off, now. Pre iOS 7, at least it went blue. Now it goes from black on white to white on gray, I still couldn't tell ya which is which. The case of the keycaps changing with the state of shift would fix that, too.
- josefresco 13y ago
  Couldn't agree with this more. I still don't get it and have to toggle it on/off a few times before I remember.
- aspidistra 13y ago
  http://ismyshiftkeyonornot.com/ http://ismyshiftkeyonornot.com/ ;-)

JGuo 13y ago

Designers have been using animations to signal affordances in buttons and actionable elements. Drop shadows are still effective in doing this. Every design trend has been a reaction to the previous one. As interaction designers, we should always be thinking about the end user.

MrZongle2 13y ago

DL;DR: the current 'flat design' fad is a reaction to skeuomorphism overuse and abuse. Flat design isn't really the solution either, since close adherence can hinder intuitiveness. Therefore, a compromise the author calls "post flat design" is a fusion between the two styles with a focus on content and intuitiveness rather than implementation. Personally, I don't know if "post flat design" is the solution, but I'm sick of flat design. I prefer skeuomorphism, but agree with the author that it has been overdone: I don't need a photo-realistic leather binder for my note-taking app, for instance.

ztratar 13y ago

I said this very clearly before and was downvoted into oblivion, but I think it needs to be said: This article advocates for some balance between flat design and skeumorphism. Granted, the article is written decently well, but it does not go into any detailed analysis as to where that balance should lie. It simply states: Hierarchy should use composition and color. Cool -- basic design principle, check. Beautiful, readable typography? Yes -- sure. Strong emphasis on content, not ornamentation. OK. I've read this 1000x times already. What is new? Where are the analyses or case studies to support the principles? We need to start talking about where the balance lies and why it lies there. Different interactions will require different balances to find optimality.

nsmartt 13y ago
> it does not go into any detailed analysis as to where that balance should lie That's very much part of the point. From the article: Without strict visual requirements associated with flat design, post flat offers designers tons of variety to explore new aesthetics – informed by the best qualities of skeuomorphic and flat design.
- secstate 13y ago
  Well then this is just post-modernism applied to flat design. An amorphous ball of nothing that has no rules so do whatever you want. Want drop shadows in two directions, cool, cause we can do whatever we want now! I'm not buying it. Post-modernism has been exposed as a joke by fake academic paper generators. Design loosed from it's moors is called experimentation, not post-flat, or whatever's cool right. Please, experiment, just don't claim you've re-invented magic.
  - nsmartt 13y ago
    I thought of it as being more akin to the programming mantra of “use the right tool for the job.” The part about the pendulum swinging back to some degree seems like a reasonable progression from flat design.

mikek3 13y ago

Your username -> twitter profile links on the blog page are borked. :(

avree 13y ago
thanks, fixed

josefresco 13y ago

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that design, like fashion or any other type of art can't be rationalized or justified using scientific like processes. What "looks right" today looks out-dated and clunky tomorrow. There usually isn't any logic behind it, only changing tastes. Flat looks/ed good because we were so entrenched in a skeuomorphic world and were sick of it. Just like wearing baggy jeans with teens morphed into skinny jeans, or grunge music supplanting glam-rock, tastes of humans change over time and no matter how hard you try to break it down and analyze why one art replaced another, there isn't usually an answer to be found. Extreme flat design has brought about horrible interfaces (see iOS7) yet it has also brought wonderful innovations due to it's tendency to break free of the physical world. Were gradients and company names without vowels of the Web 2.0 era superior to the ones prior? No, but it felt right because of where we had come from. I suspect that trend will continue forever. There wont' ever be a "final" design aesthetic that we all agree is the best, and art will never reach some sort of pinnacle that will never be surpassed. Make your own art, don't worry about what is trending ... you might find yourself on the "right" side of design if you focus on making your art the best it can be.

wavefunction 13y ago
I would disagree. I think good design is timeless. It's why eras where design was preeminent like "art-deco" and "Hellenic Greece" still resonate so strongly with audiences today. I think design aspires to a Platonic ideal of simplicity, function and form, but that the fashions of the time influence how that aspiration is expressed. It's why Steve Jobs and his vision were so successful in my opinion, paring the complexity of modern consumer electronics and attendant functionality back to what a user actually wants and needs from a device. If you disagree, I'd be interested to hear why (re: simplicity, not so much Steve Jobs) as I use external opinions to shape and refine my own.
- jmathai 13y ago
  Design can vary in terms of how "good" it is but even eras like art-deco will go through periods where it resonates more strongly with people. The factors for that can be any multitude of things. Even using Steve Jobs as an example doesn't work. The design of the iPod/iPhone has changed drastically in just 10 years. I don't consider my 2nd generation iPod as "timeless". I can admit that it was great 10 years ago but today it's not so much. That being said I do believe there's elements of science in design. The golden ratio perhaps or using concentric circles. It seems plausible that those could be less taxing on our vision to look at. I don't know if that applies to flat design though.

davidw 13y ago

Maybe we'll get a retro look. Say, the X windowing system in the 90ies... like Motif: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_Open_Motif_screenshot.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Plan_Open_Motif_screensho... http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/images/qmotifstyle.png http://qt-project.org/doc/qt-4.8/images/qmotifstyle.png

sprobertson 13y ago
Hell, why use GUIs at all anymore? A tired fad if I've ever seen one.

ricardobeat 13y ago

> Can you tell which Shift key is enabled? I've been on iOS7 since release, and I still can't tell when caps-lock is enabled :(

eyevariety 13y ago

The conclusion is a total let down. "Dust off your drop shadows and gradients, and introduce them to your flat color buttons and icons. Do your absolute best work without feeling restricted to a single aesthetic." I feel like the author is admitting that they are completely constrained by the rules or whims of trend- and that breaking out of them is some kind of crazy paradigm shift- and that breaking them only involves mixing in the tired tropes of the last fashion into the tired tropes of the new one. My experience is that its only the non-designers that feel constrained by fashion. The professionals push the boundaries - they are the ones that define it.

sic1 13y ago

Well it looks pretty... But in terms of the web... if you can't create it with CSS3, its not worth it IMO. All those extra little shadows and light reflections... yeaaa. No thanks. More designers should learn CSS and build out little things like this themselves so they can see how far they can take it without using an image.