alt Hacker NewsSkeuomorphs are cultural algorithms, borrowing functional forms of the past to make the new objects of similar function more comfortably familiar. The ribs on the handle of a knife are skeuomorphic of the vines wrapped on the hand end of a sharpened stone.
Apple's felt or leather served no functional purpose. They are faux realism, not skeuomorphism. Similarly, a digitally simulated voltmeter is not skeuomorphic, it is not a new object made familiar by borrowing a past form. It's just a digital replica.
Meanwhile, buttons with drop shadows, buttons that appear to depress complete with haptic feedback, are skeuomorphic. Apple Notes being yellow lined note paper could be called skeumorphic. And certainly, the rolodex tabs for letter groups in Contacts were clearly skeuomorphic.
This is an interesting video, and it initially defines the term correctly, but then incorrectly buckets many things as skeuomorphic to make a point, when in fact the objected to them tended to be they were not skeuomorphic at all.
Borrowing functional forms of the past to make new affordances comfortable and familiar, given them the right feel in your use, remains a good idea, at least for a transitional time.
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The other half of the venn diagram you describe might be better understood as the manufactured normalcy field. Useful concept for product creators: https://www.urbanhonking.com/ideasfordozens/2012/06/24/desig...
> The ribs on the handle of a knife are skeuomorphic of the vines wrapped on the hand end of a sharpened stone.
What? No. None of that. Even if vines wrapped around a sharp stone were ever common, no one alive today (outside an uncontacted tribe maybe) is "familiar" enough with them to make a difference.
Texturing handles is just an obvious mechanical thing to increase grip that probably gets invented every time someone makes a handle from a smooth material.
I want to poke at this a little. I don't think the ribs on the handle of a knife qualify as skeuomorphism, since they serve a distinct functional purpose independent of their origin (namely, better grip).
I do agree that "leather for every app" starts to deviate away from the definition of a true skeuomorph. One could argue that the iPhone was trying to evoke the personal organizer of yesteryear, and therein lies the skeuomorphism, but since the functionality of an iPhone was so much broader than a personal organizer, it may be conceptual smear to call that skeuomorphism too (but I still think a good argument could be made that it is skeuomorphism, since the functional form of a prior design is still being evoked intentionally for aesthetic / emotional cueing purposes).