The Real Definition of Skeuomorphism

To kick off this blog (of hardware and software design), let us find the crossroads between the "real" world and the digital world of design. We can all agree that no one wants to do math on paper anymore, and no one wants to look at an MS DOS screen (or whatever Microsoft is calling their new 2D interface, 8 or something...), yet neither do we want to see the leather-bound-stitches-come-undone-and-sully-the-beautiful-pages on our Mac Calendar application. The term where the real meets the digital: skeuomorphism.

Technically, “skeuomorphic” design refers to software that mimics the elements in an older device that were functionally necessary for that device to work. In that way, the iPhone calculator’s three-dimensional buttons are an archetypal example of skeuomorphism. You needed three-dimensional buttons in physical calculators; on a flat screen, 3-D buttons aren’t necessary. (On the other hand, leather stitching in the Calendar app isn’t skeuomorphic, because the leather isn’t functional, just decorative). Steve Jobs brought the idea to the table, and Scott Forstall took it over the edge (no doubt his thats-what-steve-would-have-done attitude got him fired).

Bring in Jony Ive, the dude behind all the things Apple you put your hands all over, the iMac, iPhone, iPod, iPad, the MagicMouse, and the iSub. Basically every product Steve Jobs created after his return to apple, he put in the industrial design. And he was knighted by the Queen for his design work (she must read the BBC on her iPad). Yet this is aside from the point. The item here is that he brought true skeuomorphism to the table at Apple in the UI with the first (and current) iPhone calculator. He created this from mirroring the calculator that his role model, Dieter Rams, had thoughtfully designed in the 50's for Braun. This is truly skeuomorphism: it brings "real world" visual familiarity to help people navigate the digital world- versus the masturabatory skeuomorphism of mandatory bookshelves applications and green-felt-lined applications that you cannot delete. Simple.

The Braun vs. iPhone calculator. Proper skeuomorphism. There it is: skeuomorphism is ripping off designs that WORK in the real world. Not coating interfaces with textures and structures that don't actually help the user. 

To add one further point, nothing is original in design. Everything is a tweak or a repackaging of an existing design, whether "inventors" want to admit to it or not. 

Signing out,

CMAC