Metro UI does have gradients and drop shadows, though they are very subtle.<p>If you are good at design, you wouldn't need to start from Bootstrap. If you are not so good at design, Bootstrap is a great framework, but using flat, all-square UI elements can cause some problems, you may be unaware of.<p>If you use Flatstrap, your <code> tags, labels and buttons will all look the same. If, in the spirit of flatness, you'd also removed the inset shadow on form inputs, then all visual cues for either clicking (element is higher than the page) or form input (element is lower than the page) are gone. This reduces usability and discoverability. [1]<p>Rounded boxes serve another function, where they draw the attention of the eye to the contents of the box -- It flows more pleasantly too [2]<p>Designers going for the flat design trend, should carefully strike a balance between a completely flat design, and using subtle gradients, underlines, rounded corners, color, shadows and pseudo-3D to convey information that matches our expectations and wiring of our brains.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.useit.com/alertbox/windows-8.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.useit.com/alertbox/windows-8.html</a> Flat styles reduce discoverability<p>[2] <a href="http://uxmovement.com/thinking/why-rounded-corners-are-easier-on-the-eyes/" rel="nofollow">http://uxmovement.com/thinking/why-rounded-corners-are-easie...</a>
With all due respect, changing a few settings in 1 or 2 LESS files is now a top #2 story on HN? One of three things are happening as approach the end of the world...<p>1) Slow news day<p>2) What quantifies a hacker is being grossly influenced by what has quantified a startup the last few funding cycles.<p>3) Get off my lawn.
The striped progress bar... isn't.<p>I don't know... I guess 'flat' is the hip thing and everyone should run out and change to it, but I'm not sure it's an improvement. I kind of like buttons to stick out a bit.
I, actually, like this, since android, windows 8 and even google are now using this simplified flat almost-not-rounded components. Feels much cleaner to me.
I really, really, really hate this flatshit design trend. Not so much by the way it looks –or works– but because of the sense of superiority of their proponents. I hate that it is being touted as some kind of movement that is liberating us from the evilness of skeumorphism. It's bullshit. A good designer should put the user experience above his own snobbish idealisms. Function over form.
I am very very very pro rounded corners for clickable buttons. Rounded Corners is one of the main things that lets a user know a button is clickable. In fact roundedness was so important in UX that in the past before we had the border-radius: property in CSS we used an actual image made in photoshop as the button. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.
A good next step for Bootstrap would be to create a centralized theme repository with the ability to select and change themes from a centrally-managed repository of approved themes. Almost like an npm for Bootstrap themes.
Heh, I think its funny that your "Examples" in the "Get Started" page have rounded corners in the thumbnail preview :)<p>You guys forgot the "edit" in copy -> paste -> edit
Awesome. Although you would think since they are using a css preprocessor in the bootstrap project they could allow a flag on compile for things like these?
Nice. I did it by myself some months ago!<p><a href="https://github.com/tagliala/bootstrap/commit/0b9d96517870009760063a5af1350d0e199c2020" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/tagliala/bootstrap/commit/0b9d96517870009...</a><p>I removed gradients, shadows, round corners...<p>You did a step forward: button gradients!<p>As many of you pointed out, the problem are bootstrap's updates. Maybe a script that removes .border-radius and converts #gradient in plain color is better
"We <3 Bootstrap"<p>I didn't go to college so please help me out here.
If Flatstrap < 3 Bootstrap is true then is Flatstrap > 2 Bootstrap also true?
I think a worthy discussion question is:<p>Are rounded corners a bad thing, and not a part of the "flat design" movement?<p>My 2¢: I'm not sure they are a bad thing. I think you can still have a flat design and use rounded corners. Frankly, I dislike when buttons are flat _and_ right-angled because too much affordance is lost.
I wrote about this and the general defacto styling of Bootstrap being used everywhere here: <a href="http://xn--d28h.tumblr.com/post/36805803730/apps-and-bootstrap" rel="nofollow">http://xn--d28h.tumblr.com/post/36805803730/apps-and-bootstr...</a>
Awesome, easier to trick around and make metro UI like web design.<p>Though I think this could be easible compiled directly from bootstrap, just by stripping rounded corners and gradients.
Or is there some other new ingredient?