UI/UX: The Dark Art of Skeuomorphism in 2020

Learn to leverage uncommon methods, and new approaches, to create interfaces and experiences that are hard to ignore.

TL;DR:

If you’d just like to play around with the buttons in the title image, you can actually get a free template file that I have made just for you here.

What is Skeuomorphism?

In a word, realism. In more words, skeuomorphism is defined as pertaining to:

“An object or feature which imitates the design of a similar artifact made from another material.”

This is to say that skeuomorphism is design pattern that favors the replication or proclivity towards realism, with respect to the object that it is
attempting to replicate.

Why Skeuomorphism fell out of favor

Performance and ubiquity. Crucially, the reason that Skeuomorphism fell out of favor was that high-resolution bitmaps performed badly on smartphones.

Loading times were poor on mobile connections, image mapping did not translate well to mobile platforms or responsive design, and after multiple years-long iterations of “Web 2.0”-style designs, people
wanted something fresh.

Enter Flat and Material design, which really hit their strides in 2010 and 2014, respectively, and have been with us ever since.

Why should you care about it?

Regardless of your stance on it as a design approach, you cannot deny that skeuomorphism carries a certain weight to it that is hard to ignore. It conveys a sense of honesty, solidity, and relatability that Flat, Material, and Minimalist design patterns just don’t convey.

Design is going full minimal, and while it’s good in some places, it’s terrible in others. We are all succumbing to postmodern minimalism. In a world of drab pastels, weird flat-mix gradients, and bland applications of the same thing over and over again, I believe that skeuomorphism is the cure.