Interface Design Doesn’t Need a Metaphor
For those who finally got their parents comfortable with computers by heavy reliance on the familiar metaphors of our Skeuomorphic* interfaces, brace yourselves. John Biggs at TechCrunch points out that we’ve started to leave all that behind. What replaces them is hard to describe, since it’s dependent on the specific information manipulation needs (Biggs article is ostensibly about the vanishing from Logic Pro X audio processing software of slider controls), and the whole point is that it raises the level of abstraction. But it’s true, applications that make heavy use of buttons, windows, sliders and check boxes have started to look kind of old-fashioned.
*Skeuomorphic design involves the inclusion of elements that are no longer necessary or functional but hark to an earlier generation of the object. Spokes on a hub cap is one example, or a corner image of a curled page in your e-reader that shows where to tap to turn the page.
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