Which of the real-world objects in your life have neon-green consoles with monospaced character cells? Presumably naught but all the the neon-green consoles you have stashed somewhere.
This just in: OS X's window chrome is a skeuomorphic replica of OS X's window chrome.
This does not replicate the form or function of some random non-digital thing in the name of usability or user comfort.
No, when the system you're interfacing to is itself a console, it is not "skeuomorphism" to present the user with a console interface.
Skeuomorphism is an aesthetic strategy for making software appear familiar or comfortable (or "retro" and stylish) by evoking parallel hardware/real-world solutions to the same problem. A console, on the other hand, is a way of interacting with software using typed commands.
An overlay for HN that presented it as a Renegade BBS instead of a series of web pages and web forms might be skeuomorphic, because that Renegade BBS interface would exist for aesthetic reasons only. But aesthetics aren't the reason you make a web SSH prompt look like a console.
>No, when the system you're interfacing to is itself a calendar/moleskin-notebook/radioknob, it is not "skeuomorphism" to present the user with a calendar/moleskin-notebook/radioknob interface.
That's the precise definition of skeuomorphism.
It's skeuomorphism not because it's a command line interface but because it's green and black, which is a nostalgia based design decision not a ux based one.
I can't remember exactly but there was some CRT based decision for earlier consoles to be green and black, that this console is aping it just screams skeuomorphism.
The example I looked at wasn't green-and-black; it was a monospace font, cool light grey on warm dark grey, with a colored directory listing. In other words, an xterm.
Wikipedia: skeuomorphism is when a product imitates design elements functionally necessary in the original product design, but that becomes ornamental in the new product design.
So CSS that emulates terminals / phosphor displays is still skeuomorphism - the definition mandates only that the design evoke older designs, not necessarily "real-world" designs.
The point is to give some flair to the plain old forms. There's nothing wrong or annoying or misplaced about it. Furthermore I don't think a 1 to 1 match of one digital interface to another is skeuomorphism. Skeuomorphism is mimicking a physical object or interface in a digital form. If this were to look like a piece of paper it'd be skeuomorphic but it looks like a terminal window. If this design is skeuomorphic then by your logic then terminal windows themselves are skeuomorphic in that they mimick any physical printing of text.
Besides disliking skeuomorphism I'm not sure why you're so down on this. Why is that?
Maybe you don't use this but some people will use it because they find this useful. Why so many startups doing the same thing? Why reinvent the wheel? Why another Facebook? Why spotify or Pandora? Why not iTune and Youtube?
Comments
I'm not sure what the point of this is, it's more skeuomorphism that is becoming more and more misplaced in a digital age.
Which of the real-world objects in your life have neon-green consoles with monospaced character cells? Presumably naught but all the the neon-green consoles you have stashed somewhere.
This just in: OS X's window chrome is a skeuomorphic replica of OS X's window chrome.
This does not replicate the form or function of some random non-digital thing in the name of usability or user comfort.
Console interfaces to console systems aren't "skeuomorphic".
Yes it is...
No, when the system you're interfacing to is itself a console, it is not "skeuomorphism" to present the user with a console interface.
Skeuomorphism is an aesthetic strategy for making software appear familiar or comfortable (or "retro" and stylish) by evoking parallel hardware/real-world solutions to the same problem. A console, on the other hand, is a way of interacting with software using typed commands.
An overlay for HN that presented it as a Renegade BBS instead of a series of web pages and web forms might be skeuomorphic, because that Renegade BBS interface would exist for aesthetic reasons only. But aesthetics aren't the reason you make a web SSH prompt look like a console.
>No, when the system you're interfacing to is itself a calendar/moleskin-notebook/radioknob, it is not "skeuomorphism" to present the user with a calendar/moleskin-notebook/radioknob interface.
That's the precise definition of skeuomorphism.
It's skeuomorphism not because it's a command line interface but because it's green and black, which is a nostalgia based design decision not a ux based one.
I can't remember exactly but there was some CRT based decision for earlier consoles to be green and black, that this console is aping it just screams skeuomorphism.
The example I looked at wasn't green-and-black; it was a monospace font, cool light grey on warm dark grey, with a colored directory listing. In other words, an xterm.
Wikipedia: skeuomorphism is when a product imitates design elements functionally necessary in the original product design, but that becomes ornamental in the new product design.
So CSS that emulates terminals / phosphor displays is still skeuomorphism - the definition mandates only that the design evoke older designs, not necessarily "real-world" designs.
Is your Terminal.app window "skeuomorphic"? Is xterm, or Putty.exe? No? Then I don't understand your argument here.
The point is to give some flair to the plain old forms. There's nothing wrong or annoying or misplaced about it. Furthermore I don't think a 1 to 1 match of one digital interface to another is skeuomorphism. Skeuomorphism is mimicking a physical object or interface in a digital form. If this were to look like a piece of paper it'd be skeuomorphic but it looks like a terminal window. If this design is skeuomorphic then by your logic then terminal windows themselves are skeuomorphic in that they mimick any physical printing of text.
Besides disliking skeuomorphism I'm not sure why you're so down on this. Why is that?
Maybe you don't use this but some people will use it because they find this useful. Why so many startups doing the same thing? Why reinvent the wheel? Why another Facebook? Why spotify or Pandora? Why not iTune and Youtube?