If someone doesn't like the market felt font in the notes app how would they intuitively know how to change it? As far as I know there's nothing in the notes app itself that allows you to change the font, you have to do it in settings. Which begs another question, why is it more intuitive to go into settings to change the settings of an app rather than doing it right in the app itself?
Market felt immediately communicates to someone that they are using a notepad, for taking short notes. It, as well as the yellow paper background communicates this succinctly. It is abundantly clear when using notepad, that one is not using a replacement for a word processor, which apparently is something that you are already confused about. In fact, it's so obvious, that no ordinary person even asks why it should be necessary to change fonts, which is as it should be. You don't want people asking for features for a notepad that shouldn't be there, and for the most part, because it's so obvious what the appropriate use of the app is and what the appropriate use of it is not, people don't ask. Except maybe for a small sub-segment of geeky weenies. I should know. I am a geeky weenie, but I understand what it means for a 55 year old who barely knows computers using this phone, if he thinks to himself "how can I insert a table or photograph into my notepad note like I could do in microsoft word." The way the interface is now, he doesn't ask that question. You don't want him to. If he wants to insert a table or a photograph, he knows he needs to find another app, not try to fiddle around trying to figure out how to do it in his notepad "word processor."
You say skeuomorphism does mean something...what exactly does faux leather and stiching mean in find my friends?
I suppose its supposed to look like a pocket address book of some sort. Not the greatest skeumorphism, but given that there isn't really a "old world" analog of something like find my friends, what alternative might there be? Maybe they should have thought of a better one. The symbol of two people holding hands makes things pretty clear. I would have tried to find a better metaphor than the leather bound thingie, so that people understand it's not address book and it's not anything private. But hey, at least they tried.
It means And is green felt the best representation of Game Center? When kids think of games these days are they really thinking of a poker table?
Green felt clearly communicates, "games." It could be a pool table. It could also be a card game. I don't use game center, but my understanding, is that it is not just for any games, but made for games involving shared play / competition in multiplayer games. I would assume that the majority of such shared games are going to be card games and board games, but I don't know really. Video arcades, in the U.S., frequently have pool tables as well, so there is an element to that. You're right. I don't know if it's the best metaphor for first person shoot-em-up video games, but then again, I don't personally think that the iPhone is the right kind of device for those high intensity, quick-reflex types of games. Perhaps the green felt motif was made to convey a reasonable expectation as to the types of games that are going to be easy to play on a device like an iphone. It gives a pretty clear metaphor about what expectations are for performance of the device, though of course people are free to try to exceed those if they wish.
The contacts app looks like a brown spiral book (how many people keep contacts in a book these days?), yet if you swipe left and right the pages don't turn. How is that intuitive? A lot of the skeuomorphism in iOS doesn't mean anything other than an example of fugly. Seems to me Ive & Co. figure after 7 years they can stop patronizing us.
My parents keep addresses in a red spiral book. My wife did in a black spiral book until very recently at my urging. The brown spiral book is just the icon. When you go into the app on the iPhone, it doesn't look like it has pages. On the mac and iPad it does look like it has pages, but I suppose there is a compromise between page turning and making a quickly accessible interface. I kind of like the look & feel of address book on the Mac. It clearly communicates its use as an addressbook, rather than some of the fancy "social networking" "addressbook plus" apps which allow for all sorts of additional features that most people wouldn't use. It communicates a sense of privacy about its contents, which people can't necessarily count on when dabbling with a social networking type "addressbook plus" (e.g. Google plus).
And once again, it's clear to most people, that if you want to do social networking, you need to find another app. It communicates not only just the immediate use, but also the intended scope and use of the product using a metaphor that people can understand.
In fact, most people intuitively understand these things about addressbook without ever explicitly being aware of it. Which is great. How does the color blue or green convey any of that?
Using your google account through the web is pretty ****** in that respect. You have to read all the little tabs and headings in your browser to try to figure out where you are in their website. You look at a page. You see your name. What happened to my email? Oh, ****it, I somehow inadvertently navigated my way into this google+ crap. Where are my contact? Oh there they are. No, wait, those are my google+ friends, not my contacts. Where is my addressbook. Oh ****. I have to find my way out of google plus into gmail. Read read read. Oh yeah. "Gmail" link. There are my contacts. Who the **** knows? It all looks basically the same, like any given page could be used for anything.
