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.
Comments
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.