Do you like Apple's Apple's skeuomorphic software design?

[zbarvian]

As a design philosophy, it's horrible and inexcusable. But I understand their logic for employing it.

We are moving to an age without leather stitched notepads and calendars, without bookshelves or reels (those are hardly existent today), and mimicking those items virtually is pointless and foolish.

However, Jobs and Co. were and are adamant about computers being approachable and unintimidating, and skeumorphism goes a long way to achieving that mindset. Seeing a digital representation of a calendar or a bookshelf can be much more reassuring and user-friendly. Also, I hate metro UI because it discards all design and simplifies the aesthetics to squares, colors, and text. Very boring, if you ask me. Google seems to have found a good hybrid of the two.

 

[JS82712]

here's how i look at it
1. it doesn't change/interfere with the way I work
2. still a better design than windows 8.

 

[AQUADock]

Some of it is done well, some not. But I prefer any of Apple's skeuomorphic UIs over the god-awful brushed metal.

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And keep in mind that brushed metal was in the HIG. You were SUPPOSED to use it for apps that mimicked real-word devices.

I forgot the pinstripes as well:

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Am i the only one who liked those? Maybe except the way Quicktime was done. To me it fitted really well in the Tiger desktop.

 

[Rogifan]

As a design philosophy, it's horrible and inexcusable. But I understand their logic for employing it.

We are moving to an age without leather stitched notepads and calendars, without bookshelves or reels (those are hardly existent today), and mimicking those items virtually is pointless and foolish.

However, Jobs and Co. were and are adamant about computers being approachable and unintimidating, and skeumorphism goes a long way to achieving that mindset. Seeing a digital representation of a calendar or a bookshelf can be much more reassuring and user-friendly. Also, I hate metro UI because it discards all design and simplifies the aesthetics to squares, colors, and text. Very boring, if you ask me. Google seems to have found a good hybrid of the two.

This all makes sense. I just wish they could find a better balance or tone it down a bit. Some of the stuff like Game Center is just garish.

 

[rorschach]

This all makes sense. I just wish they could find a better balance or tone it down a bit. Some of the stuff like Game Center is just garish.

How about the fake wood in Garageband:

Yuck

 

[Nevzorus]

I like the skeuomorphic software design really much, i wish they did it more on the iPhone too.

Game Center does make sense, but not for all games.. it looks more like for chess, bingo and such things.

 

[Hexiii]

After reading this thread I don't know if I like it or not :/

But as somebody wrote here, the flat design is not really for UI when you don't know where to tap.

 

[Rogifan]

Information Architects founder Oliver Reichenstein called out Apple on their UI design in an interview on The Verge.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/24/3...nterview-good-design-is-invisible#add-comment

...SB: What are your thoughts on operating system design in general? Individual apps often have their own interface innovations, but can you see room for improvement in the general UI paradigm of iOS, for example?

OR: iOS is the Windows XP for mobile devices. It looks a lot like Windows XP, if feels like Windows XP, and it is loved like Windows XP. It doesn’t have the same market share Windows XP had back in the day, but Windows XP was liked so much that Microsoft had a really hard time replacing it. Sooner or later Apple will have to radically evolve its UI paradigm. For example, it has to create stricter internal guidelines on the use of metaphor. That being said, UI design for operating systems is the highest form of GUI and interaction design. It is incredibly hard to create something iconic and functional on that level of the user interface.

Personally, I hope that Jonathan Ive is working on it. Some of my friends see his fingerprints in the chrome of the new mobile iPhoto and maps app, but that's probably all wishful thinking. Personally, I hope that they don't need Ive there. That he keeps on focusing on making great hardware. If iPhoto and the new maps app are test balloons for upcoming iOS chrome, I hope that they work harder on the icons and smash the tacky glass shelves. Metaphors are good if they simplify things. Metaphors that draw attention to themselves are detrimental, and double metaphors in a user interface are suicide bombs.

What I wanted to see for as long as I can remember is a perfectly white user interface. It’s incredibly hard to do with backlit devices, but it is possible. This is just a random opinion from someone that has very little experience with designing user interfaces for operating systems.

In any case, I am more excited to see the next big iteration from Apple than I am about Microsoft’s Metro. What I’ve seen so far is more graphic than interface design, it’s too Cartesian, too flat, too cold. It tries too hard to sway the hipsters who are not Microsoft's target group.

But, hey, a lot of my designer friends are troubled about how much they like Metro. I might be wrong and Microsoft might get the early adopters, and in a couple of years then the monster market share they’ve been dreaming of. But I doubt it. Metro is not design for the masses. iOS is. And by trying to do what Steve would do, they won’t beat Apple's avant garde.

The only thing that makes me think that Microsoft might have a chance on mobile devices is that they seem to invest a lot in typography, while Apple doesn’t seem to. For example, Microsoft’s latest future video uses Gotham as a system font. And while I don’t think that Gotham would be a good system font, it has the warmth and friendliness that Neue Helvetica on iOS lacks. I read that as “we care about typography”. With good typography you can score on a level that is subconscious to most users. Hardly anyone can discern good from bad typography, but everybody can feel it....

 

[Razeus]

It's terrible and reminds me of cheap 90's software. It shows a lack of forethought in designing the app, resorting to cheap gimmicks.