Apple's Designers Clashing Over 'Tacky' Software Skeuomorphisms

[russ99]

I like the skeuomorphic designs. It adds a nice little touch that most people don't usually notice. Sometimes clean design can be taken to a level where things are too clean.

But a bigger issue is the iOS design itself. We're going on 6 years of the exact same UI across many devices. Cool and unique becomes stale and old over time.

Could use a refresher, and maybe even the addition of a few user-editable look and feel functions (like icon distribution/placement options and Apple-designed skins) without distracting from the uniform user experience.

 

[thelatinist]

Doesn't "lipstick on a pig" imply that it was ugly in the first place, and "makeup" won't help?

I think the correct cliche would have been gilding a lily.

 

[drscreenplay]

I like this style

I think the digital things that harken back to things in real life is a great style. I don't understand the criticism just to add some graphics. Do the folks against want no style at all? Seems pretty bleak.

 

[John.B]

I know Apple prefers to decide as many things for its users as possible, but this is one part of the UI I wish we were presented with a choice.

http://macnix.blogspot.com/

 

[milo]

There's more too it than just aesthetics and personal taste. Many of these things result in worse functionality.

Many of them waste space, and on smaller screens every pixel counts. In Contacts, using the "book" graphic means that the three panels available in the view can't be resized independently. And the fake pages on the side imply some sort of turning navigation that doesn't exist.

Hate the look, hate how the actual functionality suffers even more.

 

[diane143]

If the lack of skeuomorphism in designs means that we get more ugly, dull and lifeless applications like iTunes, then keep the skeuomorphism.

Itunes went from having color that was useful to a grey mess that is less friendly to navigate.

That's one reason I didn't like Lightroom, I couldn't find anything in the black and grey. I hoping that Aperture isn't the same (but it probably is)

Personally I don't have a problem with the calendar. I never use Game Center though.

I wish they used more distinctive colors for the mail and safari app on the phone though, I am pretty visual when it comes to icons and continually hit the wrong one.

 

[gnipgnop]

Effective user interface design is similar to effective interior design, i.e., you want to find a balance between form, color, and texture. You want contrasts that work both functionally and emotionally. So, really, the idea that using textures for an OS is a bad idea in and of itself is misguided. Textures can have a very effective role in modern design...it's really about the balance.

 

[guzhogi]

Oh, believe me, you won't find many of us praising brushed aluminium either! That was where it all started to go wrong—with the introduction of the brushed aluminium Quick Time 4.0 Player interface!

I don't mind the brushed aluminum so much, I actually kinda like it. I just like how Calendar & Game Center just use slightly different GUIs to help people identify what the app's use is as well as something a little different.

I'm a little torn between consistency and individuality. On the one hand, having a consistent UI helps people in the "Oh, I do it this way in this app, maybe it'll be the same in this other app" aspect. However, individuality helps if there was a better way to do something specific to that app. Plus, it helps to differentiate which app you're using in.

 

[PeterQVenkman]

I actually did read the whole article and I saw his "disclaimer". It didn't make much sense because he is specifically talking about iBooks and grossly exaggerating how it functions. Thats the weird thing about people that argue against the use of skeuomorphism. They always exaggerate how bad it is in order to prove their point. He could have just said "iBooks is ugly". He didn't have to lie about how it functions.

Nah, you misunderstood. There was a bigger point being made that you missed.

 

[alexgowers]

yeah apple get rid of this looks like a gimmick and just make it functional.

It's ok for stuff to look like sweeties and metal but i really find actual real world thing distasteful

Listen to IVE the man who has brought you so much fortune!

 

[LastLine]

Reminders don't strike me as being a skeuomorphism though, but I tend to agree with your thought process.

Forstall wants it and Ive doesn't; wonder who will win.

Well you're not wrong - I'm not meaning to suggest they are really, only that most of their apps have gone that direction and yet Reminders just seems...odd? Black notebook maybe?

 

[divinox]

You can hate the word skeumorphic all you want. At this point, you're arguing about semantics. Apple took "design cues" from a real calendar when making their digital version, just like Microsoft took design cues from street signs when making their icons, which are digital equivilants of street signs.

No, i am not arguing semantics. You, on the other hand, seem to have a lacking understanding of the word. If i do scandinavian design within a digital design space i can do so without resorting to skeuomorphism, just like MSFT can do design inspired by various signage without moving the real world into the digital one. Digital leather, or birch trees for that matter, is skeu. A digital translation of the essence of leather (what is it about it that is appealing or creates a certain emotion?), or birch trees for that matter (what is the sensation it produces?) is not.

I hate to resort to this, but i honestly think a design class or two would do you good. Would help set your mind straight about these somewhat basic design issues.

 

[Born2run45]

Nah, you misunderstood. There was a bigger point being made that you missed.

No, I think I pretty much hit the nail on the head.

 

[Aidan5806]

Are you talking about 40GB??! That's insane! Will Windows 8 require like 6GB of RAM just for system operations with no applications running?

No joke!. I was running the consumer preview in bootcamp with a 50gb partition so i could write a review for my campus news paper, but when i tried to upgrade it said i needed 40gb of free space even though i had 2 programs installed (safari and iTunes). So basically i had to delete the partition and reinstall everything from scratch. needless to say i gave it a bad review. I MEAN REALLY< YOU CAN ONLY HAVE 2 FRIKEN WINDOWS OPEN AT THE SAME TIME IN METRO. WTF. AND ONE HAS TO BE LIKE A WIDGET SIZED COLUMN. DAFAQU?!?!?!?

 

[MartiNZ]

Lion's fullscreen mode with multiple displays would like a word with you. Metro plays very nicely with multiple monitors upfront, and plays just fine with desktop apps, which are still the main things going on in windows 8.

Not to take it all too seriously, but it is very interesting that after years of not even having a normal 'maximise' option, Apple suddenly went to preferring single app view in fullscreen, and about the same time MS decided to go the same way. This whole tablet malarkey has a lot to answer for; the windows are closing on both sides of the fence. We are now leaving multitaskville.

Oh and that free space thing is just weird; must have been a CP thing? RTM trial on a 32GB partition with <1GB free never complains ... I do, but it doesn't.

 

[faroZ06]

No joke!. I was running the consumer preview in bootcamp with a 50gb partition so i could write a review for my campus news paper, but when i tried to upgrade it said i needed 40gb of free space even though i had 2 programs installed (safari and iTunes). So basically i had to delete the partition and reinstall everything from scratch. needless to say i gave it a bad review. I MEAN REALLY< YOU CAN ONLY HAVE 2 FRIKEN WINDOWS OPEN AT THE SAME TIME IN METRO. WTF. AND ONE HAS TO BE LIKE A WIDGET SIZED COLUMN. DAFAQU?!?!?!?

Sounds terrible. This is good news for me to hear since I'd rather have the standard be Linux or Mac, and this will make more people switch.

 

[Abstract]

Skeuomorphic features in iOS are like mock-tudor beams on a Bauhaus building.

It's like a mock turtle-neck. It's tacky. No wonder Jony Ive doesn't like it. He has taste.

I think its the little things that set Apple apart.

The best example is the volume slider in iOS6, as you change the direction you hold the phone - the reflection changes on the button.

While not having little things like that wouldnt hurt, it would toss them into the pile of simple and lazy like ui design everyone else.

Yes, but those types of things are not what the article is referring to.

 

[AngerDanger]

I hate to resort to this, but i honestly think a design class or two would do you good. Would help set your mind straight about these somewhat basic design issues.

Oh no! Take it back! Take it BACK! Please, anything but suggesting I take a design class! Anyway, simply Googling 'skeuomorphism' cleared things up for me (no horrible design class necessary), and you're completely right. I hereby withdraw my previous posts with the exception of the first one, which claimed Microsoft's designs were not more relevant than Apple's: they aren't. They just aren't skeuomorphic.

No, i am not arguing semantics. You, on the other hand, seem to have a lacking understanding of the word. If i do scandinavian design within a digital design space i can do so without resorting to skeuomorphism, just like MSFT can do design inspired by various signage without moving the real world into the digital one. Digital leather, or birch trees for that matter, is skeu. A digital translation of the essence of leather (what is it about it that is appealing or creates a certain emotion?), or birch trees for that matter (what is the sensation it produces?) is not.

Right on.

 

[Aidan5806]

Sounds terrible. This is good news for me to hear since I'd rather have the standard be Linux or Mac, and this will make more people switch.

Windows Vista 2? Anyone? Except this time Microsoft is already too weak to suffer another defeat like that. Another surprising statistic is that pc users have to pay more for computers of the quality they want. Combined with the fact that a decent pc laptop now costs about $900, and that Windows 8 is projected to be a flop, most people in the market for a new laptop will go mac.

 

[divinox]

Oh no! Take it back! Take it BACK! Please, anything but suggesting I take a design class! Anyway, simply Googling 'skeuomorphism' cleared things up for me (no horrible design class necessary), and you're completely right. I hereby withdraw my previous posts with the exception of the first one, which claimed Microsoft's designs were not more relevant than Apple's: they aren't. They just aren't skeuomorphic.



Right on.

While in disagreement, i wont argue with that.

 

[Mad Mac]

All of the animations and gimmicks in OS X and iOS served their purpose. It was cool when Windows was dull and boring. But now all the animations and gimmicks just seem tacky.

Get rid of all the crap and just make the OS clean, concise and grown up. Or at least take it out of the play-skool era.

 

[el3ktro]

I completely dislike this over-use of skeuomorphism. It's bad, really bad. Why does Contacts have to look like an old leathery address book? If I wanted to store my contacts in an old leathery address book, I'd do it. But I don't want to - I want to use more modern, digital means to store my contacts.

The Calendar app was and is a good example of how this stupid skeuomorphism even limits functionality: In Lion, when advancing through the months, you'd see a completely unneccessary page-turn animation. It was a PAIN to move between months because you always had to wait for the page turn animation to finish.

Take the Notes app as another example. The precise reason why I want to take notes on my computer rather than on real yellow sticky notes is because real yellow sticky notes are a a mess! Sooner or later your whole desk is cluttered with them and you can't find anything. So why the hell mimick this bad 'interface' of sticky notes on a computer? Computers are there to make things easier, more comfortable, not to mimick all the bad things about old analog means of doing things that are the very reason why we don't want to use them anymore!

 

[mex4eric]

Down with skeuomorphism! Up with clean functional design. Go Ive.

 

[AidenShaw]

I saw this quoted in a magazine ad this morning:

“If it is not useful or necessary, free yourself from imagining that you need to make it.”

“If it is useful and necessary, free yourself from imagining that you need to enhance it by adding what is not an integral part of its usefulness or necessity.”

“And finally: If it is both useful and necessary and you can recognize and eliminate what is not essential, then go ahead and make it as beautifully as you can.”


From the book Shaker Built: The Form and Function of Shaker Architecture by Paul Rocheleau, June Sprigg, and David Larkin.
​

http://kerfdesign.com/about-2/

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

A shredder? Seriously? Why not make it go *POOF*, or kind of a transporter effect with sound as it disappears, or *WHOOSH* as it disappears in flames? Anyone for a Klingon blaster effect? Heck, Apple could make it possible for people to have their own effects and create another market... Plus 'shredder' is a bad word around here. Anyone actually gone out pricing a new heavy duty one? Expensive...