Aren't the weather animations skeumorphic?

Skeuomorphism is typically material related, as with the green felt, wood shelves, and leather stitching.

 

I guess you could call it skeuomorphism since the animations mimic a sunny day or rain. But then it might not be because the user doesn't interact with it (that I'm aware of)

 

I think people should stop analyzing whether something is skeuomorphic or not.

What matters, is that icons should be instantly recognizable and they should look pretty.

Nothing more, nothing less.

 

You don't need to interact with the design for it to be called skeuomorphic. Does the animation of the weather make it skeuomorphic? I don't think so. The above poster nailed it. Stitching, green felt, and the likes are skeuomorphic.

In the end though, does it matter? I'd like iOS 7 to function well. I can deal with the icons that look like they were designed by a 5 year old who just found the MS paint application.

 

I think the key difference here is that leather stitching throughout the Calendar and Find My Phone apps add nothing useful to the app, and aren't even a very good analogue to the real thing.

With the Weather app, it is at least showing me information about the weather. It is like a weather icon, only more elaborate using the whole screen. If it is a skeuomorph, it is a beneficial one, as it is trying to tie my app to the world outside, which is kinda the point of a weather app.

 

The thing about skeuomorphism is mainly the idea of taking an interface and designing it as though it was real life.
The previous iOS 6 interface design is said to be skeuomorphic because Apple designed in a way such that many apps resemble things that exist in real life (E.G: Green felt and leather stitches etc in apps like Game center) .

THe weather animations in iOS 7 is not skeuomorphic. Why? Can i ask you, is there any other thing other than the sun itself to represent its sunny? Is there any other way to show that its raining? Instead, the animations are just straight forward designs that allow users to immediate pinpoint the exact idea behind it and there is no other way to represent the same idea.

 

There's a difference between skeumorphism and visual metaphors.

 

Just because it is the best way to show the weather doesn't mean it isn't skeuomorphic. But not all skeuomorphs are bad either.

 

This is skeumorphic. One of the bloggers came up with the witchunt for skeumorphism and everyone else ran with it.

 

They tried falling chocolate buttons for the rain, but it didn't feel right...

 

Maybe if they had a picture of the weather as you look out a window or something.

 

But why? Weather is weather - when you think of rain or snow, you don't think of a window; why make it more convoluted than it needs to be - Apple are about refining and removing the unnecessary, not adding it.

That's like saying that all photographs that are taken should look like they're taken through a pair of glasses; there's no usefulness to it.

 

Totally agree. This was what I was trying to convey as well.

 

Thank you my friend - I am glad to have done this, in your honour

 

Shhhh.

Seriously, the anti-skeumorphic people already ruined iBooks and Calendar. Can we please, at least, have the animations for weather?

 

Agreed on weather, 100%. However, a weather app looks beautiful with a representation of the climate conditions - that's the point of the app - the weather, just as the point of a calendar is dates and appointments - that IS the content you want; anything more is visual noise, and a distraction.

 

Yes, but all design is based off reality. The mere button on screen was established by the button long before the screen. Some design is more blatantly based off of real objects, like iOS 6's notepad, but that doesn't make it a sin nor an example of "bad" design. Weather animations are not ornamentations. Here's my issue: people think that digital objects have their own form and figure, but they don't. Software doesn't have it's own set of rules, logic, and style, so mimicking real life is natural and understandable. The question is completely irrelevant.

 

The idea for using real world objects was to give the user cues for how to use the app. The old weather app was made to look like a card to show that it can be swiped. Is the new one more or less skeumorphic? I don't know. But what I see in the new app is that focuses more on the relevant information: the weather. The card look in the old app is redundant because people know exactly what those dots at the bottom of the screen signify, so there's no reason for using the card anymore.

 

I don't care if something is skeumorphic or not. I do care about whether the information is easy to see. Using the whole background to represent the current weather is nice, but in the "sunny" picture, you have white fonts on a light blue background. Hard to read because of lack of contrast. The new icons, being mostly made up of white lines, are also hard to see on this background. So basic idea good, execution needs improvement.

 

I wish Apple wouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater in its drive to eliminate all things skeuomorphic. I mean, I'll be the first to stand up and cheer when the last bit of green felt and stitched leather is gone, but some things, like the wooden bookshelf in iBooks, add value to the app and assist in the intuitive use thereof. Not to mention simply looking nice.

Oh well, at least we still have an analog clock in the clock app.

 

Why is a wooden bookshelf needed to know how to use an ebooks app? I use the Nook app on the ipad and have no problems navigating it. Some people might like it design wise but I don't see where the wooden bookshelf adds value.

 

I am on board with this whole "less is more" approach. I think apps need to feel real and useful, and that the content needs to be front and center.

iOS 7 is going to allow just that. With the new translucent menu bars, the encouragement of apps to use the entire screen rather than blocking off the top and bottom with "buttons" and prompts that encourage you to use it right (we understand how a touch screen works now).

iBooks was AWESOME when it came out. I loved the bookshelf look. That was then. Now I need to see my books and PDFs front and center. Now the page turn animation, that still works for me. I think that's "real" and makes sense. I hope that if anything remains its that.

 

I don't suppose anyone would be completely baffled without the bookshelf for guidance, but I do think it assists in conveying the idea "here is a collection of books you can read."

Granted, a grid of book covers floating in space would probably convey that, too, but not as well, in my opinion, and certainly not as stylishly.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think some skeuomorphic elements, like a bookshelf in an ebook reader, help to create the right atmosphere for the app in which they appear, and others, like stitched leather in a "find my friends" app, don't.