Skeuomorphism is a learning tool (and why this matters for VR)
Skeuomorphism is when a design borrows the visual features of something different. Often it is used in digital design to make digital interfaces look like real world things.
Over the past few years there has (rightfully) been a strong movement to get away from skeuomorphism. It looks outdated, it is inelegant, it is noisy, and it is distracting. Skeuomorphism now makes a product feel like a cheap toy from the past, rather than something sleek and modern.
But all this hate targeted towards skeuomorphism distracts from the value it provides in the early lifecycle of a product.
When a product emerges that has a new form of user interaction it is often difficult to persuade people to use the product. There’s a lot of instinctual trepidation with regards to using something new. These feelings are not unfounded: using new products can be a really terrible experience if you’re not the sort of person who relishes trying out new tech gadgets.
The best designers can sidestep these fears by making their interfaces fun and inviting. That is exactly what skeuomorphism did for mobile interfaces. The buttons on iOS (seen above in the left image) look like plastic that will indent in a fun way when you touch it. The buttons on the bottom bar have a reflection to make them look physical; like something fun to play with. Most of the app icons have strong visual associations with something real and physical, which ensures the user has a clear association and understanding about what the app does.
Even seemingly unimportant actions were carefully crafted to help users understand the new interface. Long-holding on an icon with your figure makes all the icons wiggle as if they are loose bricks in a cartoon. The use of animation connected to a physical metaphor makes it clear that the icons are now dislodged and you can move them. The animation, in its charm, almost makes the act of rearranging a bit more fun.
Contrast this style of skeuomorphism with the solely visual style applied in Windows Phone 6 (an interface that came out around the same time)
Skeuomorphism is certainly used here, but as garnish and not as a way to enhance the usability for a new user. The reflective appearance of the buttons and icons is solely visual garnish. Look at the ‘Contacts’ button in the corner: because it does not have a border where the reflective effect ends the idea that the plastic is indentable when clicking that button is totally lost.
This is bad skeuomorphism: the type that is about following a visual trend and not about useability.
The ‘Start’ menu uses skeuomorphic icons because there is an expectation that a menu item must have an icon, but they accomplish very little other than being a way to quickly visually separate programs after you’ve already learned the device. Because there is no treatment to these menu entries to make them look physical a new user would likely have very little confidence about where to click. I can imagine a scenario where an inexperienced user initially attempts to only click on the pictoral icon because the region with the text seems less clickable. The result is a user interface that looks finicky and unreliable to the user. This is not an interface a user would be excited to pickup and try.
But why did skeuomorphism go away if it can be such a useful tool? The reality is that digital interfaces, like those on our phones, became so ubiquitous that their digital forms became more recognizable than their physical counterparts.
The phone app is the modern phone. The calendar app is the modern calendar.
The digital manifestation of the physical became just as real as the physical. This made the skeuomorphic design seem unnecessary and tacky. Once this happened skeuomorphic design started to feel like a designer’s attempt to be cute and fun, while falling short of both.
This natural evolution over time of digital product design from skeuomorphic to lacking skeuomorphism means that good design cannot be static. The best design changes its users, and as a result the design must change to accomodate the new user it has created. In this way product design becomes a conversation between an ever changing user and an ever changing product.
Skeuomorphism is coming back
Skeuomorphism is actually reemerging now in VR in a very different style. VR is a strange medium where the digital mingles with a world that feels real to the user. It is difficult to accept the presence of digital interfaces in the real world, and as such skeuomorphism plays a critical role in encouraging the user to interact with the world. Designers must effectively become diplomats who’s job is to present the best qualities of a new medium.
As with any new medium many designs in VR attempt to bring the existing digital interfaces into VR and adapt them, but because the interface is entirely different this can be confusing to the user. If the user sees a 2D button floating in front of them it is not intuitive what will happen when they try to physically “click” on it. Unlike a touch screen there is nothing bounding you from moving your hand through the flat surface; what happens then?
Because of this many VR games have tried giving their buttons ‘travel’ so you can actually see the part of the button that presses in. This gives users a clear sense of how they must “press” the button for it to trigger.
This has been done in a subtle way for the interface of Oculus Quill:
The buttons have the slightest amount of 3d depth to them, so when you move your controller to press them you have a small clue about what will happen next. Another great detail in Quill is they added a scratching pencil sound as you draw with your virtual pencil. This gives the user a sense of when they’re drawing even when their controller is out of view, and makes the sensation of drawing feel more physical and satisfying. RoadToVR wrote an interesting article about the interface of Quill which you can read here: http://www.roadtovr.com/oculus-quill-is-spectacular-but-its-the-interface-that-surprised-us-the-most/
Even menus like the Oculus Quill menu can be daunting to a new user. Some VR applications have gone the route of just offering “menus” as a table where you can pick up tools. Once users learn how to pick up objects they immediately understand how to swap between other tools. This to me seems like the equivalent of the first iPhone’s menus: inviting and intuitive.
Some of these ‘menus’ can manifest in more comical ways like in Owlchemy’s Job Simulator with their exit burrito mechanic.
As time goes on people will find VR to be second nature and will grow tired of the more inefficient interfaces, and VR design will have to evolve to accomodate the changing userbase. VR menus will likely have a transitionary period, like mobile interfaces did, where the interfaces change to be more “flat”.
In the emerging VR landscape it’s worth rethinking skeuomorphism to be aware of where it works and where it doesn’t work. Early VR applications need to entice the user, and do their best to not scare them away. Over the long term these applications will have to learn how to adapt their design to appeal to experienced users. In the meantime skeuomorphism is a great tool in the early phases of a product to make a user’s experience vastly better.
