In the UI design world, two competing styles are fighting for dominance. On one hand, the traditional skeuomorphic 3D designs, popularized by Apple in the iPhone, have been the centerpiece of design ethos for the last ten years. On the other hand, Flat Design, popularized by Microsoft’s Windows 8 Metro, is rapidly gaining ground. Which of the two design styles will emerge victorious?
Skeuomorphic design, in its basic sense, relates to rich visual styles created by using photo textures or heavy gradients to give computer interfaces 3D real-world effects. For instance, the Apple iBooks app is the prototypical skeuomorph. The app displays a set of books in 3D on a bookshelf. The goal is to give users the feeling of interacting with the real world through their tablet.
While several attempts had been made to popularize this design style in the past, including the failed Microsoft Bob in 1995 and Office’s Clippy, most had been mocked by design nerds until the Steve Jobs and the Holy Grail deemed skeuomorphs ready for prime-time in the early 21st century.
Flat Design, on the other hand, was recently re-discovered by Microsoft in an effort to simplify complex user interfaces, and take advantage of the high-resolution fonts now available on most PCs. Microsoft’s new Metro design in Windows 8 draws heavily from the typography and layout of Bauhaus – the highly influential German art school that gained prominence following Germany’s defeat in World War I. The basic concepts of Flat Design user interfaces are very light and subtle gradients and shadows, and easy-to-read fonts.
Although skeuomorphic design had its role in leading Apple’s devices to ubiquity, it looks like that era is slowly coming to an end. The new OSX Yosemite is borrowing flat UI concepts from Microsoft, and many startups and modern web interfaces, from Facebook to Google, have built their sites with a minimalist approach.
As a design gets ubiquitous, however, it also often becomes obsolete. As the Metro Flat UI design is gaining prevalence throughout web interfaces, it will be interesting to see what new design methodology will capture users’ hearts and minds ten years from now. If Surrealism is on the table, count me in!
Written by Andrew Palczewski
About the Author
Andrew Palczewski is CEO of apHarmony, a Chicago software development company. He holds a Master's degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has over ten years' experience in managing development of software projects.
Google+
