Neumorphism — It Shouldn’t Be Called a Design Trend
The Internet is on fire because of a not so new trend, neumorphism. There is a clear division between designers — ones voting for neumorphism as a break from looking-a-like, boring designs and the other part that it wishes it dies as quickly as it came popular.
I wouldn’t call it a DESIGN trend as I consider design a bit more than just a fancy interface.
As designers, we have a much greater responsibility then creating interfaces that look pretty. We are here to listen, think and solve the problem our users are facing, make their lives easier and bring that moment of delight when they use our products. Something a lot of designers forgot about…
So why are everybody so crazy about it?
When we started our journey in the design and development world, Dribbble was a place to share your real work, get some constructive feedback and of course get inspired by other designers. It was about showing a problem you solved for the end-user and your client, not to gain likes. Unfortunately, this has changed, quite some time ago.
In today's ever-changing environment where we should put all focus on the users, use the human approach to our work, it seems that what designers care the most about is acquiring more likes and shares on dribbble, no matter the cost.
Some of the products we worked on are from designer’s perspective, a bit ugly and harsh, but guess what… They work perfectly for non-technical, older users they were designed for, where it is crucial for them to find the right information quickly and navigate easily.
I remember when we conduct user research on a group of managers in their late 40s about new trends on websites (the ones you see getting awards on awwwards.com and similar websites), what they like, what they found frustrating, etc., and so many of them said that websites are going in direction where they have to constantly learn how to use a navigation.
Don’t get me wrong, those kinds of websites are looking marvelous, but even I have problems figuring out how some of them work :D. it will probably land you a job working for a young startup and that’s great if that is the audience you are targeting.
Just “ignore” the trends and focus on your users!
I am not against neumorphism attempt, but I am against following it blindly without using my head, where most dribbble “designers” are going for.
Design is much more than following fancy trends. Until we put real humans in the center of what we do, we won’t see any breaking UI future that will both delight the user and become a trend worth following.
Focus on your users, talk to them, the real humans that re going to use our products, test your thoughts often and sure there will be a breakthrough we are all cheering for.
Thanks for reading. Hopefully, you’ll get outside your office/apartment/hub after reading this article and go talk to real humans to get some healthy inspiration for your next design adventure :).
