The Skeuomorphism Nobody Talks About [video]

Skeuomorph a day ago | parent | next [-]

Skeuomorphs are cultural algorithms, borrowing functional forms of the past to make the new objects of similar function more comfortably familiar. The ribs on the handle of a knife are skeuomorphic of the vines wrapped on the hand end of a sharpened stone.

Apple's felt or leather served no functional purpose. They are faux realism, not skeuomorphism. Similarly, a digitally simulated voltmeter is not skeuomorphic, it is not a new object made familiar by borrowing a past form. It's just a digital replica.

Meanwhile, buttons with drop shadows, buttons that appear to depress complete with haptic feedback, are skeuomorphic. Apple Notes being yellow lined note paper could be called skeumorphic. And certainly, the rolodex tabs for letter groups in Contacts were clearly skeuomorphic.

This is an interesting video, and it initially defines the term correctly, but then incorrectly buckets many things as skeuomorphic to make a point, when in fact the objected to them tended to be they were not skeuomorphic at all.

Borrowing functional forms of the past to make new affordances comfortable and familiar, given them the right feel in your use, remains a good idea, at least for a transitional time.

	▲	jchanimal 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The other half of the venn diagram you describe might be better understood as the manufactured normalcy field. Useful concept for product creators: https://www.urbanhonking.com/ideasfordozens/2012/06/24/desig...
	▲	andrewflnr 31 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		> The ribs on the handle of a knife are skeuomorphic of the vines wrapped on the hand end of a sharpened stone. What? No. None of that. Even if vines wrapped around a sharp stone were ever common, no one alive today (outside an uncontacted tribe maybe) is "familiar" enough with them to make a difference. Texturing handles is just an obvious mechanical thing to increase grip that probably gets invented every time someone makes a handle from a smooth material.

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TechSquidTV 23 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I just released a UI framework based on VST designs. https://analogui.com/

	▲	thrance 19 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		This page is very broken for me (Firefox on Android). It looks there's some kind of Z-fighting happening on the buttons? Also, they scroll slightly faster than the rest of the page, such that when at the bottom they're completely out of their sockets.

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gyomu 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The voiceover in this video is in a weird uncanny valley where I don't think it's purely AI generated, but it doesn't sound 100% human either. Some sort of AI processing filter maybe? I'm not familiar with what tools are common those days.

Eg at 00:30, for a few seconds there's a marked difference in how the speech sounds - like the filter is turned off or something.

I think the video also mixes things up a bit. For example it compares the skeuomorphism of "Find my Friends" with that of a car maintenance training program - but the latter isn't an example of a skeuomorph ("a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues (attributes) from structures that were necessary in the original"), it merely adopts a realistic graphic design style to mirror the operation it's depicting.

	▲	Wowfunhappy 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> The voiceover in this video is in a weird uncanny valley where I don't think it's purely AI generated, but it doesn't sound 100% human either. Some sort of AI processing filter maybe? I'm not familiar with what tools are common those days. What?! Your AI detector is way too sensitive, that's a human narrator with a natural accent. I can hear what might be a slight editing artifact at 0:30, likely the result of using a different microphone or some such. (I mean, I guess I can't state things like this with certainty anymore. Feel free to prove me wrong. But I'll be extremely surprised if I'm wrong.)