5 ms·

It looks like UI design is becoming like fashion; you need to completely revamp your visual presentation every few years, unless you want to look ancient. Perso

by tomp 12y ago

It looks like UI design is becoming like fashion; you need to completely revamp your visual presentation every few years, unless you want to look ancient. Personally, I much prefer OSX and iOS before it became flat - I understand why Google jumped on the FlatUI bandwagon (to differentiate themselves from Apple), but I really don't understand why Apple did too - do this people really think that there 5 year old's drawings are the height of visual experience?

moron4hire 12y ago
Yet the terminal never changes :)
mmahemoff 12y ago
This is nothing new. As long as there have been GUIs, platforms have issued style guides to developers and expected them to emulate the look-and-feel of the platform's own OS and flagship apps. Remember "lickable" OSX? Flat itself is a design fad like any other, and the reality is the app's appearance and adherence to trends is a real signal of quality to most users.
- tomp 12y ago
  > As long as there have been GUIs, platforms have issued style guides to developers and expected them to emulate the look-and-feel of the platform's own OS and flagship apps. There's a difference between having a platform-specific GUI/style-guide (which I support), and changing it every few years for no apparent reason (I understand e.g. the change from Apple OS 9 to OS X - they were simply catching up with the hardware improvements - but OS X to OS Y(osemite) seems quite arbitrary).
GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago
"It looks like UI design is becoming like fashion;" How could it possibly be anything else?
- tomp 12y ago
  It could, you know, be useful. It could be developed according to the principle "form follows function", not the other way round.
  - icegreentea 12y ago
    Form follows function is incredibly undetermined. Multiple divergent designs can execute/allow the same functionality to the same degree. This is especially true in software. Some additional constraints must be put on to narrow down on a single design. Maybe the constraint is developer familiarity, or developer laziness, or fashion, or whatever. While there can clearly be 'too much' fashion, its not quite a given that current trends lie in that area, any more than previous trends have.
- DougWebb 12y ago
  It could, and should, be a science. Or at least pragmatic. If you look at clothing design, the fashion side is mostly outlandish and completely impractical. Eventually good ideas filter out of that and get into everyday clothing manufacturing, which is what everyone can actually wear. The problem with UI design is that UIs need to be used every day, like ordinary clothing, but its becoming like clothing fashion: changing too often and usually full of flashy but unusable cruft. This would be ok if it was limited to a small number of fashionable websites, but instead everyone (but most developers) want the flashy.
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    Fashion is a science, or at least it is governed by human behavior in their sense of time. "Freshness" provides a feeling of improvement over time, while "staleness", though more familiar and comfortable, provides a sense stagnation, that time is frozen. It is really no wonder why young people are interested in being "fashionable" (they want time to progress, they want change) while old people are often not so interested in it (they already have a lifetime of change to reflect on). For many websites, sure, it is superfluous, but the psychological effects are massive; ignore it at your own peril.
  - 12y ago
stronglikedan 12y ago
> UI design is becoming like fashion I think it's always been fashionable to have a modern UI. Just look at windows (the concept). I think the trends are just moving faster nowadays, as the tools to related to developing UIs become more accessible.
tomelders 12y ago
I'm with you on this. iOS did go too far with all the skeumorphism that served no purpose (Podcast app being the biggest offender), but "flat design" throws the baby out with the bathwater in my opinion. I'm already tired of guessing what is and isn't a button.
- sampo 12y ago
  If only there was an operating system that would let you to choose from different themes for the desktop environment. /s
  - coob 12y ago
    If only people realised that design is more than a theme.
    - jbeja 12y ago
      If only people realise that Flat UI is more performant in mobile
      - jmulho 12y ago
        It isn't performing for me in mobile. I am pushing a rectangle and nothing is happening.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
Raphmedia 12y ago
It's because flat UI looks good on retina / 5k.
- oneeyedpigeon 12y ago
  Yeah, because we've all had 5K displays for, like, for-EVER now...
- ionforce 12y ago
  > It's because flat UI looks good on retina / 5k. I can't tell if you're being serious. But if you are, could you explain why? Otherwise, this is one of many reasons I don't like flat design. It doesn't take advantage of all those pixels. It's just a flat wash of color.
  - splintercell 12y ago
    It doesn't "look good" because some weird combination of large screen and flatUI, rather its easy to render on the screen because it has the same flat color in large areas than some sort of shading.
    - tomp 12y ago
      Not really, Apple introduced transparent/translucent windows, it doesn't really simplify the rendering. BTW, Microsoft already made this mistake with Vista, and AFAIK regrets it (also, Windows look terrible on Remote Desktop because of that).
  - Raphmedia 12y ago
    A few reasons. Things like gradients and other skeuomorphic components that are usually jpegs look horrible if you don't have fallbacks for retina. The screen is brighter and crisper, so those vector buttons look great. etc. My girlfriend has, I think, an android 2.3 phone. Flat designs are HORRIBLE on it. However, they look crisp on a retina phone, so much that it actually look like the screen is made of physical (material) components. As for people liking it or not? That's just a trend. We are going back to skeuomorphism in a few years, mark my word.
nkozyra 12y ago
This has been the case for the web since day 1. I can remember all sorts of trends that everyone followed, some of them examples of terrible UI. Anybody remember the super-tiny and/or monospace text phenomenon of the early 00s?
- jusuchin 12y ago
  Yep... used to design anime sites with that all the time, font was 04b03. Size 10 with 2 pix border (black text, white border!)
bitL 12y ago
I think it comes from trying to make screens appear like paper prints - some people love the feel of reading books/magazines and skeumorphic design elements feel disturbing to them.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
blueskin_ 12y ago
I have to agree - I predict that in 3 years, metro will look very dated and design will be focusing on actual information density and nice effects again. It's just sad we have to sit through this wave of crap before that happens.
- dkersten 12y ago
  Agreed. Design seems to go through phases. http://gbatemp.net/attachments/windows8-fail-jpg.2755/ http://gbatemp.net/attachments/windows8-fail-jpg.2755/
- bobcostas55 12y ago
  I don't know, I think a lot of the design trends right now are being driven by touch interfaces. When the mode of interaction is the ridiculously inaccurate finger, you HAVE to have giant swathes of empty space, otherwise nobody is able to actually hit what they want.
  - blueskin_ 12y ago
    Exactly. Soon enough, people will stop trying to force the same UI on every device, and mouse interfaces will get better again.
mattgreenrocks 12y ago
Idea: someone should create a slightly snarky design site that tells you all the fonts, styles, and colors you should be using now to look 'modern'. Bonus points if you mention the last time a particular trend surfaced.
orbifold 12y ago
With the new higher dpi displays, they now follow modern print design conventions instead of some pseudo 3d look, which does not look all that good when viewed at high resolution.
v512 12y ago
Honestly I too felt that current OSx redesign is pointless though I like Google material design...kind of strange taste I have.
jasey 12y ago
It's because skeuomorphism worked when you had screens of a consistent size. Ie, iPhone 4s and below. Because skeuomorphism is so bitmap heavy it doesn't scale to different screen sizes. Imo flat design came largely from responsive web design. It's just easier to build nice looking ui which adapts to any screen size when it's flat. This of course was why it suited android, because they have hundreds of diff screen sizes to cater for...

by tomp 12y ago

moron4hire 12y ago

Yet the terminal never changes :)

mmahemoff 12y ago

This is nothing new. As long as there have been GUIs, platforms have issued style guides to developers and expected them to emulate the look-and-feel of the platform's own OS and flagship apps. Remember "lickable" OSX? Flat itself is a design fad like any other, and the reality is the app's appearance and adherence to trends is a real signal of quality to most users.

tomp 12y ago
> As long as there have been GUIs, platforms have issued style guides to developers and expected them to emulate the look-and-feel of the platform's own OS and flagship apps. There's a difference between having a platform-specific GUI/style-guide (which I support), and changing it every few years for no apparent reason (I understand e.g. the change from Apple OS 9 to OS X - they were simply catching up with the hardware improvements - but OS X to OS Y(osemite) seems quite arbitrary).

GFK_of_xmaspast 12y ago

"It looks like UI design is becoming like fashion;" How could it possibly be anything else?

tomp 12y ago
It could, you know, be useful. It could be developed according to the principle "form follows function", not the other way round.
- icegreentea 12y ago
  Form follows function is incredibly undetermined. Multiple divergent designs can execute/allow the same functionality to the same degree. This is especially true in software. Some additional constraints must be put on to narrow down on a single design. Maybe the constraint is developer familiarity, or developer laziness, or fashion, or whatever. While there can clearly be 'too much' fashion, its not quite a given that current trends lie in that area, any more than previous trends have.
DougWebb 12y ago
It could, and should, be a science. Or at least pragmatic. If you look at clothing design, the fashion side is mostly outlandish and completely impractical. Eventually good ideas filter out of that and get into everyday clothing manufacturing, which is what everyone can actually wear. The problem with UI design is that UIs need to be used every day, like ordinary clothing, but its becoming like clothing fashion: changing too often and usually full of flashy but unusable cruft. This would be ok if it was limited to a small number of fashionable websites, but instead everyone (but most developers) want the flashy.
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  Fashion is a science, or at least it is governed by human behavior in their sense of time. "Freshness" provides a feeling of improvement over time, while "staleness", though more familiar and comfortable, provides a sense stagnation, that time is frozen. It is really no wonder why young people are interested in being "fashionable" (they want time to progress, they want change) while old people are often not so interested in it (they already have a lifetime of change to reflect on). For many websites, sure, it is superfluous, but the psychological effects are massive; ignore it at your own peril.
- 12y ago

stronglikedan 12y ago

> UI design is becoming like fashion I think it's always been fashionable to have a modern UI. Just look at windows (the concept). I think the trends are just moving faster nowadays, as the tools to related to developing UIs become more accessible.

tomelders 12y ago

I'm with you on this. iOS did go too far with all the skeumorphism that served no purpose (Podcast app being the biggest offender), but "flat design" throws the baby out with the bathwater in my opinion. I'm already tired of guessing what is and isn't a button.

sampo 12y ago
If only there was an operating system that would let you to choose from different themes for the desktop environment. /s
- coob 12y ago
  If only people realised that design is more than a theme.
  - jbeja 12y ago
    If only people realise that Flat UI is more performant in mobile
    - jmulho 12y ago
      It isn't performing for me in mobile. I am pushing a rectangle and nothing is happening.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

Raphmedia 12y ago

It's because flat UI looks good on retina / 5k.

oneeyedpigeon 12y ago
Yeah, because we've all had 5K displays for, like, for-EVER now...
ionforce 12y ago
> It's because flat UI looks good on retina / 5k. I can't tell if you're being serious. But if you are, could you explain why? Otherwise, this is one of many reasons I don't like flat design. It doesn't take advantage of all those pixels. It's just a flat wash of color.
- splintercell 12y ago
  It doesn't "look good" because some weird combination of large screen and flatUI, rather its easy to render on the screen because it has the same flat color in large areas than some sort of shading.
  - tomp 12y ago
    Not really, Apple introduced transparent/translucent windows, it doesn't really simplify the rendering. BTW, Microsoft already made this mistake with Vista, and AFAIK regrets it (also, Windows look terrible on Remote Desktop because of that).
- Raphmedia 12y ago
  A few reasons. Things like gradients and other skeuomorphic components that are usually jpegs look horrible if you don't have fallbacks for retina. The screen is brighter and crisper, so those vector buttons look great. etc. My girlfriend has, I think, an android 2.3 phone. Flat designs are HORRIBLE on it. However, they look crisp on a retina phone, so much that it actually look like the screen is made of physical (material) components. As for people liking it or not? That's just a trend. We are going back to skeuomorphism in a few years, mark my word.

nkozyra 12y ago

This has been the case for the web since day 1. I can remember all sorts of trends that everyone followed, some of them examples of terrible UI. Anybody remember the super-tiny and/or monospace text phenomenon of the early 00s?

jusuchin 12y ago
Yep... used to design anime sites with that all the time, font was 04b03. Size 10 with 2 pix border (black text, white border!)

bitL 12y ago

I think it comes from trying to make screens appear like paper prints - some people love the feel of reading books/magazines and skeumorphic design elements feel disturbing to them.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

blueskin_ 12y ago

I have to agree - I predict that in 3 years, metro will look very dated and design will be focusing on actual information density and nice effects again. It's just sad we have to sit through this wave of crap before that happens.

dkersten 12y ago
Agreed. Design seems to go through phases. http://gbatemp.net/attachments/windows8-fail-jpg.2755/ http://gbatemp.net/attachments/windows8-fail-jpg.2755/
bobcostas55 12y ago
I don't know, I think a lot of the design trends right now are being driven by touch interfaces. When the mode of interaction is the ridiculously inaccurate finger, you HAVE to have giant swathes of empty space, otherwise nobody is able to actually hit what they want.
- blueskin_ 12y ago
  Exactly. Soon enough, people will stop trying to force the same UI on every device, and mouse interfaces will get better again.

mattgreenrocks 12y ago

Idea: someone should create a slightly snarky design site that tells you all the fonts, styles, and colors you should be using now to look 'modern'. Bonus points if you mention the last time a particular trend surfaced.

orbifold 12y ago

With the new higher dpi displays, they now follow modern print design conventions instead of some pseudo 3d look, which does not look all that good when viewed at high resolution.

v512 12y ago

Honestly I too felt that current OSx redesign is pointless though I like Google material design...kind of strange taste I have.

jasey 12y ago

It's because skeuomorphism worked when you had screens of a consistent size. Ie, iPhone 4s and below. Because skeuomorphism is so bitmap heavy it doesn't scale to different screen sizes. Imo flat design came largely from responsive web design. It's just easier to build nice looking ui which adapts to any screen size when it's flat. This of course was why it suited android, because they have hundreds of diff screen sizes to cater for...