What’s Flat Design?
Flat design is shorthand for a design philosophy…
Think about your computer’s desktop. Or your iPhone’s calculator. Or your iPad’s newstand. Those things are designed to sound, and more importantly look, just like the real-life analogues they’re named after. Do we really need all of those visual cues and extra details? People who advocate for flat design don’t think so.
…that argues for simplicity, clarity, and honesty of materials in user interfaces…
Instead, flat advocates (flatvocates?) argue that GUIs—graphical user interfaces—should eschew style for functionality. That means getting rid of beveled edges, gradients, shadows, and reflections, as well as creating a user experience that plays to the strengths of digital interfaces, rather than limiting the user to the confines of the familiar analog world. In web design as well, “flat” pages rarely introduce dimensionality, shadows, or textures into the equation, relying instead on parallax scrolling and visual clarity to communicate.
A great example of flat design is Google Now, which uses a card-like system to display information brackets. Rather than ghettoizing information inside of static icons, Now displays data on a standard-sized card that’s easy to read and easy to swipe away. Another example? Windows 8, descended from Microsoft’s Metro design language, which values typography—or the delivery of information—over graphics that help the user understand what type of content they’re reading.
…usually couched as a reaction to the problems of skeuomorphic design…
To understand flat design, you have to understand the thing it’s revolting against: skeuomorphism. Skeuomorphism boils down to visual trickery, or the use of details and ornamentation to make one thing look like another. In architecture, false facades are skeuomorphic. In car design, fake wood panelling is. Skeuomorphism in UI design usually refers to a digital element designed to look like something from the physical world. That can mean anything from Pinterest’s “pin board” to the rich leather stitching that boarders Find My Friends.
Examples of skeuomorphic design.
…which uses gradients, textures, and other details to make digital objects look “real.”
Skeuomorphism in digital space dates back to the early 1980s. For example, Apple’s first consumer GUI, from 1984, introduced the concept of a “desktop” and icons that looked like folders and pieces of paper. Back then computer interfaces were a totally foreign concept to most users, which made skeuomorphism a valuable tool. It let designers create visual metaphors between old, familiar objects (a manilla file folder) and a new, confusing tool (a digital file). Skeuomorphs helped us learn.
An Apple Lisa desktop in 1984
But as personal computers became ubiquitous, fewer and fewer people needed those visual cues to understand the function of an icon or button. Skeuomorphism became an overwrought style—a kind of digital Potemkin that cluttered screens and overburdened the user with unnecessary details. And so it became a pariah for a new generation of designers—most of whom don’t remember a world without computers.
This should all sound pretty familiar. Modernists have argued these same basic ideas since the turn of the last century: don’t add extraneous details that don’t support functionality. Do be honest about materials and structure. Don’t create a fake front just to make users feel safe. It’s the same basic war cry of every modern designer since Le Corbusier came screaming into the world. In a way, “flat design” isn’t anything new—it’s just the contemporary shorthand for modernism with a capital “M.”
And what’s after flat?
Though the world is definitely going flat, it won’t be flat forever. We can glean where UI and UX are going, after flat design runs its course, by looking at the last century—during which each wave of modernism revolted against the one that had came before. For example, after the strict modernism of the Bauhaus and the International Style took the world by storm in the 1930s, a second generation of designers introduced the concept of Critical Regionalism into the discussion, arguing that one-size-fits-all credo of early modernists was sort of… reductive. It’s likely that the same thing will happen with interface design. After radical flatness, we’ll probably see designers carefully reintroduce dimensionality where it’s really needed.
But that’s all a few years down the line. For now, we’ll wait and see whether Jony Ive takes the flat design bait, or if he revolts—in which case, things are about to get a lot more interesting.
by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan via Gizmodo
Why the Design Industry is Rapidly Growing
Ever since the early days of technological inventions, technologists have been competing with one another. Battles span across functionality, horsepower, intelligence, robustness, and more. Techies make things work, and naturally, they compete on whose creation works better. They’ve competed on which device solves the problem more effectively, what features triumph the other set of functions, and so forth.
This competitive environment has led to a decade of ultra-rapid development, especially in digital technologies. For example, there are now 900,000 apps on Apple’s App Store. This (somewhat) new market opportunity created a huge demand for technical talent. More than ever, people want to learn coding. Junior developers are enjoying salaries of 60k – 80k, right out of school.
The result is that functionality has become standard. Everything must work, simply because everything else works. There is no longer excuse for functional shortcoming. As new smartphones come out, we begin to realize that their actual functionality have become marginally different. The competitive metric is no longer “which works best”.
So what is the new secret weapon? Design.
Market leaders (in digital media) these days are seldom those who excel in functionality alone. This is because functioning software has become standard, it has become a simple expectation, and no longer a differentiator by any means. The companies that succeed nowadays are those who tend to invest heavily in design. The winners are those who are absolutely meticulous about every minor graphical detail, every piece of user experience, every corner of visual appeal, and endlessly more. Great examples include Evernote, Mailbox, Clear, Haze, and etc.
The growth (and arguably, plateau) of developers has given birth to a huge demand for designers. Design is the new differentiator. The commercial world has become, literally, design or die. Seldom will you find successful software without offering an absolutely delightful experience. Function was the focus of yesterday, design is the star of tomorrow.
Not only has this trend become increasingly clear amongst startups, we’re beginning to see this on an enterprise level as well. Companies like Google are consistently paying closer attention than ever to the fine touches of design, and Apple continues to pride themselves on designing every single product to be “insanely great”.
How much emphasis do you put on design in your own business?
Posted by Michael Cheng
Michael is the Cofounder of Needle, a platform for hiring creative talent. Prior to Needle, he spent over a decade in the creative space as a freelancer, worked at agencies, and founded numerous companies providing creative services. Michael is an award-winning entrepreneur who has been featured on news publications around the world. He is a thought leader within the creative hiring space as well as an active blogger on the subject.
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