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Comment by Tloewald | Hacker News Reader

I assume an embargo was lifted and we'll get a bunch of these. Another possible implication may be that Mac OS X becomes a free update for everyone.

The three tiered app security thing is huge and great. I love it. I hope they've ditched some skumorphism.

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> I hope they've ditched some skeuomorphism.

It's worse than ever—have a look at some of the screenshots[1]. My favourite is the tweet dialog[2].

[1] http://www.macworld.com/article/165407/2012/02/hands_on_with...

[2] http://images.macworld.com/images/article/2012/02/tweetsheet...

It's worse than ever—have a look at some of the screenshots[1]. My favourite is the tweet dialog[2]

Actually there's nothing of the "bad skeuomorphic UI" about the tweet dialog --it's just that its' background resembles a lined notepad.

Other than that, it looks and behaves like any other text entry box and has non skeuomorphic send etc buttons.

So, "worse than ever"? Hardly.

What about Game Center[1]?

[1]: http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/953451/Screen_Shot_2012-02...

If it’s only a skin there really is no problem (except if the skin makes it harder to identify standard UI elements).

It’s only when skeumorphism impacts behavior that it becomes a serious usability issue. For example: The Address Book used to have three panes. Since Apple pressed the app into book shape for Lion they had to ditch one pane to keep with the book aesthetic. That’s a problem.

Funny you should mention that particular case, because it is fixed in Mountain Lion: http://screenshots.dustincurtis.com/Contacts-20120216-082547...

I agree, the Game Center screen looks jarring every time I open it in iOS, and no better in OSX.

It's too much design. It's distracting. You notice it. Is the clip necessary? The lined paper background?

I've never seen a dialog box like that. What was wrong with the standard and universal "plain" native dialog box?

It's too much design. It's distracting. You notice it. Is the clip necessary? The lined paper background?

You notice the first time you use it. The 10th? The 20th? After you've used it for a while, it's just a nice detail on the back of your mind, and you're immersed in your text.

I've never seen a dialog box like that. What was wrong with the standard and universal "plain" native dialog box?

It was too plain and boring?

Besides being nice in itself, beauty also inspires productivity.

I don't think it can be both un-noticed after awhile and 'a nice detail in the back of your mind' - particularly since many users will not find it a 'nice' detail from the start. It might become a niggling detail, and that's not good.

Also, I've never felt 'bored' from seeing a native dialog box, and I've never thought of a paper clip on lined paper as a thing of beauty.

Neutrality for these kinds of quick-and-functional interfaces is probably the better UI design decision.

The tweet dialog has a paperclip, tilted askew, holding a printed page of linked content to the dialog.

And? What’s the problem with that? Are there plausible usability problems with that?

Aesthetics have no impact on usability? Aesthetics have no impact on enjoyment of a product?

First and foremost: Aesthetics are subjective.

You cannot plausibly tell me that the Twitter dialog has bad usability because you don’t like its aesthetics, at least not without extensive usability testing.

You might not like the aesthetics, others might. (I hate most of Apple’s skinning attempts but the Tweet dialog is actually one of the few exceptions to that. I think it’s aesthetically very pleasing and I like it very much.)

And because its subjective its not important? Because its subjective you cannot criticize it? A good product is not made from cut and dry rules and usability testing. Taste is involved.

Sure – but it’s much harder to make that argument.

I do think that the Tweet dialog is awesome and fits perfectly. I also cannot see how the paperclip negatively influences usability. I just cannot. It seems extremely implausible to me.

When it comes to the Tweet dialog, Apple exhibited exemplar taste. It’s well done and none of the metaphors are wonky or introduce strange behavior. That is my opinion.

I think you must have missed the paperclip.

skeuomorph - an object or feature which imitates the design of a similar artifact in another material.

I think that definition misses most of the point that the similarity is a deliberate throwback. I'd say a skeuomorph is a (often otherwise unnecessary) design feature that makes a new object feel familiar.

"Skeuomorphs are material metaphors. They are informational attributes of artifacts which help us find a path through unfamiliar territory. They help us map the new onto an existing cognitive structure..." — Nicholas Gessler

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