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O-Namazu t1_iubsqa1 wrote

Reply to comment by anlumo in Scott Forstall was fired from Apple 10 years ago today by stanxv

I, for one, like my Notes app to not be some skeumorphic legal pad. :P

Jony wasn't perfect (his hardware decisions were atrocious, reducing the ports on MacBook Pros was a crime against humanity), but Apple's UI design matured and looked decidedly less toy-like and more professional. Even as someone who geeks out over the Material Design docs, Apple's UI suite is still marvelous today (and I say that with the macOS 13 System Preferences revamp, too).

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GoldWallpaper t1_iuf6f9t wrote

I don't love all skeumorphic design, but having spent over a decade doing UX testing on various interfaces at a university, using gradients and other visual effects to mimic real-world elements can be vastly superior to flat design. This is especially true for new or non-savvy users (which includes a shitton of college students, despite many people believing otherwise).

I remember very clearly testing interfaces of various iPhone apps (and iOS, and even some MS products) after Ives made his "Skeumorphism is dead!" proclamation, and it was sad how users struggled with usability -- particularly of buttons -- because "I didn't know I could click there." Fortunately there was some backpedaling involved.

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O-Namazu t1_iuf9bh9 wrote

Now this is fascinating. Do you still do UX testing, or are those days long gone?

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