If you reversed all shadows and gradients, wouldn't your active control's lighting become completely inconsistent with the rest of your interface? Or did I misunderstand?
But you're right that flat design takes away some of these tools. That's why it's important to look at each situation as its own thing.
For example, a big call-to-action button on a homepage cannot be toggled and lives by itself, so making it flat works. On the other hand, making an "on/off" toggle flat can potentially create a lot of ambiguity.
But even then, it's up to the designer to find workarounds and new solutions, such as http://drbl.in/giHY
You're probably right, I'm still trying to figure out how to express this idea properly.
I like the good old fashioned red and green on your example, but I feel any toggleable control should have two two-axis modes: unpressed/pressed, and on/off (e.g. in Cocoa Touch, UIButton can be highlighted, and/or selected), which is typically difficult to convey with flat shapes and colour alone. If you can do it, awesome.
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If you reversed all shadows and gradients, wouldn't your active control's lighting become completely inconsistent with the rest of your interface? Or did I misunderstand?
But you're right that flat design takes away some of these tools. That's why it's important to look at each situation as its own thing.
For example, a big call-to-action button on a homepage cannot be toggled and lives by itself, so making it flat works. On the other hand, making an "on/off" toggle flat can potentially create a lot of ambiguity.
But even then, it's up to the designer to find workarounds and new solutions, such as http://drbl.in/giHY
You're probably right, I'm still trying to figure out how to express this idea properly.
I like the good old fashioned red and green on your example, but I feel any toggleable control should have two two-axis modes: unpressed/pressed, and on/off (e.g. in Cocoa Touch, UIButton can be highlighted, and/or selected), which is typically difficult to convey with flat shapes and colour alone. If you can do it, awesome.