Skeuomorphic Design is Dead, Long Live Skeuomorphism

I know, I know — a Medium article on skeuomorphism ? What is it, 2012?

I’m not talking about Skeuomorphic design (where digital things look like real-world things e.g. your bin icon looking like a ... well… bin). I’m talking about skeuomorphism in the way users think about your product in relation to other products in the marketplace.

Skeuomorphic design

In the beginnings of human computer interaction (HCI) we helped users along by employing visual metaphors via skeuomorphism to aid comprehension, some of which may be alien to younger readers:

• Ah, a folder for me to put files in, like in my filing cabinet
• Oh, this is a desktop so it’s where I put things I would have on the top of my desk
• This spreadsheet looks like my ledger, so I know how to use it
• If I hit this floppy disk picture, the file will be saved to my floppy disk

Sometimes these went a little bit too far, Microsoft Bob anybody?, but for the most part they served their purpose well.

Microsoft’s Bob — Click the clock on the wall to set the system time Source

Now that users, for the most part, understand computer interaction paradigms we can flatten our designs, use fewer sign-posting icons and images and simplify language e.g. to ‘close’ rather than “use…