Now that Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference has receded into the past, and the tympanum-shattering chatter about the Jony Ive-led redesign of the iOS interface and its (almost) complete abandonment of skeuomorphic design has begun to devolve into an Internet screaming match over whether the colors and gradients of iOS 7’s newly redesigned icons are the cat’s pajamas or the dog’s breakfast, reasoned discussion of when skeuomorphic design is appropriate and when it is not has been lost in the cacophony.įor those late to the polysyllabic geek-jargon game, here’s one of the several definitions of “ skeuomorph” that Wikipedia offers:Īn element of design or structure that serves little or no purpose in the artifact fashioned from the new material but was essential to the object made from the originalĬommon examples of skeuomorphs in Apple’s user interface designs cited by the anti-skeuomorph faction include such popular whipping boys as the leather and torn-paper look of the current Calendar app, or the green-felt-table appearance of Game Center - examples where the look of the app’s interface adds no real clues about how to use it but is simply reminiscent of real-world artifacts that have a similar function (you can’t tear a virtual page off the Calendar - I know I’ve tried).

#1631: iOS 16.0.3 and watchOS 9.0.2, roller coasters trigger Crash Detection, Medications in iOS 16, watchOS 9 Low Power Mode.

#1632: Apple Card Savings accounts, SOS in the iPhone status bar, Tab Wrangler, Focus in iOS 16.

#1633: macOS 13 Ventura and other OS updates, 10th-gen iPad, M2 iPad Pro, 3rd-gen Apple TV 4K, Apple services price hikes.

#1634: New Messages features, Apple Q4 2022 results, Preview drops PostScript, iOS/iPadOS 15.7.1, Dvorak on iPhone and iPad.

#1635: Adobe/Pantone quarrel, does Matter matter yet?, OneWorld 65W international charger, corral your email with SaneBox, e3 Software sponsoring TidBITS.

Hypertext footnote endnote