12 votes

Neuomorphism — A passing fad or is it here to stay?

4 comments

  1. [3]
    Pun
    Link
    Despite the article being from early 2020, I've yet to come across anything that uses this style. Though my immediate reaction was positive. I've grown so tired of the samey-looking flat design...

    Despite the article being from early 2020, I've yet to come across anything that uses this style. Though my immediate reaction was positive. I've grown so tired of the samey-looking flat design that seems to permeate not just big corporate platforms, but even those whose ethos is completely different from said corporations. I've slowly tried getting into Linux, and boy, is it hard finding any custom UI style that isn't super flat.

    But looking more into it, there seems to be the same problem as with flatness/minimalism: ambigious design choices. Sure, most designers have settled into certain choices for specific actions; gear for 'Settings menu', three dots for 'More options menu', down arrow for 'Save'- oh wait, not everyone gets even that right. (That's AMD's Radeon Software.) When you have only one color and a few lines to use, you better be really good at representing complex ideas in abstract ways. I've uttered "What the hell is this icon supposed to mean?" more than once using modern apps.

    We don't have to (but god, I wish we could) go back all the way to using floppies to indicate "Save" again, but we could at least add some color and detail to distinguish not only the buttons from each other in the application, but the application itself from others.

    7 votes
    1. [2]
      babypuncher
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Have you seen Windows 11? While it isn't a radical departure from the current trend of neumorphism, I noticed it brings some of the natural looking materials and subtle shading and depth cues...

      Have you seen Windows 11? While it isn't a radical departure from the current trend of neumorphism, I noticed it brings some of the natural looking materials and subtle shading and depth cues reminiscent of Windows Vista and 7.

      I think neumorphism was born from a combination of factors: An increased emphasis on mobile, and growing user comfortability with computers. The former benefits from flat designs because they are easier to read on small, low res screens and the lack of complex effects simulating real world materials (like glass) is good for battery. The latter meant that designers could rely less on making their UIs resemble the real-world objects they are replacing.

      With mobile screens getting bigger, higher resolution displays and ever more processing power, the mobile-friendly benefits of flat UI design are becoming less pressing and we are seeing some of these elements slowly get updated to reflect that.

      4 votes
      1. Pun
        Link Parent
        Yes! I think I came across this Medium article in another, Windows 11 related article. I do like it better than 10, that's for sure. Windows 7 was also a treat for the eyes. Simple, flat design...

        Yes! I think I came across this Medium article in another, Windows 11 related article. I do like it better than 10, that's for sure. Windows 7 was also a treat for the eyes.

        Simple, flat design definitely makes sense for mobile devices, it's just a shame that it bleeds into desktop. I've got 3.6 million pixels spread across 27 inches (ladies!), so I can handle some detail on my UI.

        3 votes
  2. the_funky_buddha
    (edited )
    Link
    I don't know anything about design, maybe a bit more after reading that article, but I wished Microsoft, and Linux ecosystem for that matter, would employ the same kind of design seen in the first...

    I don't know anything about design, maybe a bit more after reading that article, but I wished Microsoft, and Linux ecosystem for that matter, would employ the same kind of design seen in the first image. With MS's design, everything's so flat that, as a layman user, sometimes it's hard to tell which buttons are actionable and which aren't. It's like we've taken a step back since the Windows 7 era. I do like the clean aesthetic potential of flat, or more accurately minimal design, but it needs some dimensional element. I've had the joy of using MacOS for a brief time and I think it's one of the many things Apple gets right or better than most.

    Edit: To reiterate how we've stepped backward, I used to use a KDE Bespin theme back in 2009 that I think is much more accessible than what's default today.

    3 votes