Rumours of Skeuomorphism’s Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

The era of Scott Forstall’s green felt poker table and leather-bound yellow notepad has now passed and is fading into the rear view mirror. Long live Jony Ive’s glass palace of translucence or Google’s Material Design pack of cards, as you see fit.

Skeuomorphism has become marginalised in the context of visual design, yet it’s a term that’s rarely considered applicable to audio, even if the conversation ever comes to discussing sound design qualities.

At last year’s Evernote EC4 conference, the company announced a slew of new features, including a new presentation feature, that took aim at productivity softwares’ use of skeuomorphic terminology for features, such as slides for a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation.

This is a step away from the reliance on the physical to inspire digital products, but where’s the equivalent for audio?

Audio skeuomorphism is still apparent in apps and interfaces, and iOS is still littered with examples in spite of the recent visual changes in iOS 7 and 8.