The perfect example of this is an old version of the BlackBerry UI that looked like this:<p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/FypcA.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/FypcA.jpg</a><p>Fortunately, they wised up and the next version looked like this:<p><a href="http://i.imgur.com/3o2CF.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.imgur.com/3o2CF.jpg</a>
This article was badly missing the word:<p><pre><code> 'skeuomorphism'
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph</a>
Invaluable information for a UI designer. As I'm a bit of a novice in the field, I can say it is a struggle at times to pick out the right iconography and dictate what you want the user to accomplish. This article definitely helps to clarify that process. It also mentions a book worth reading which seems quite interesting: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_Comics" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_Comics</a>
This article is pretty decent, but have you seen the homepage for UXMag? <a href="http://uxmag.com" rel="nofollow">http://uxmag.com</a><p>It has some serious problems. My eyes glared over the entire thing and I didn't really catch much. The boxes don't work and I didn't consume anything. They need some usability testing bad.
Everyone loves the Apple UI, therefore everything the Apple UI does is an axiomatic truth of UI design.<p>Except... maybe not. The trash can icon on OS X is photo realistic. The HDD icon is photo realistic. Transmits icon is a pretty detailed truck from where I am sitting. I waaay prefer Chrome's shiny & detailed icon to the flat simpler one... et cetera, et cetera.<p>UI design articles have a tendency to be a little lazy on the science IMO, but I think that's a reflection on the fact that UI design sits between art and engineering and it's hard to be a master of both.
I'm no designer (though I have put together a handful of icons in my day), but the part about too much realism in an icon seems fairly obvious. Are overly-realistic icons actually a problem? If so, a few real-world examples might have been more useful than the fully rendered house icon, which seems far-fetched.<p>Also, I don't really agree with the comment that the icon shouldn't include any details other than the bare minimum needed to convey function. Things like shading/shadows can give icons a more polished look. For example, I wonder if the author would argue that the red/yellow/green indicators in his home button example shouldn't have shading or specular highlights because that's just adding unnecessary detail.
I find it remarkable that the "Apple toggle button" is shown the wrong way: <a href="http://www.uxmag.com/uploads/realisminuidesign/toggles.png" rel="nofollow">http://www.uxmag.com/uploads/realisminuidesign/toggles.png</a><p>The real one is set to the left while the others are on the right, or am I once again misinterpreting this button? I never ever understood their design and they utterly confuse me wherever I encounter them. Is it "On" if it shows "On" or does it mean I can click "On" when it is shown. Aaaargh.
The say so at the end of the article, but it's a repost (original: <a href="http://ignco.de/240" rel="nofollow">http://ignco.de/240</a>). Still all valid points though.
Previous discussion from original article: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1067333" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1067333</a>
I was just writing a bit about realism for my book the other day. Interfaces, such as Mac OS X's Aqua, actually represent a sort of "hyperrealism," with buttons that are impossibly juicy, reflective, and glowing.<p>It's funny, because interfaces have always represented reality in a metaphorical sense (desktop, window, document, trash), but now we take it up a notch to represent things that couldn't actually exist.