skeuomorphs

The Greeks had a word -- skeuomorphs -- for designs that evoke outdated technologies, reports Joshua Brustein in the New York Times (2/14/11). That's why digital cameras feature "a reassuringly retro but artificial shutter snap when you push the button to take a photograph; cellphones have keyboards with layouts originally meant to keep typewriters from jamming; and blue jeans have pockets that are a throwback to a time when watches dangled from chains." It's why some cars still have spokes on the wheels, even though they don't serve any function.

Sometimes innovators may be too quick to drop such familiar features, though. Amazon, with its Kindle, originally had "location numbers" since e-books don't really have pages -- where you are in the book depends on the size font you're using. However, as Adam Greenfield, author of Everyware, points out: "The location numbers on a Kindle are rational, and they make sense for the medium -- but they don't correspond to the emotional expectations of what a book is." Even more important, page numbers are still meaningful to book-club readers so that everybody knows they are on the same page. Amazon has now restored the page numbers.

However, Bill Moggridge of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, thinks that too much skeuomorphia "dampens the imaginations of designers working on disruptive products. "The tendency is to use a form of conservatism," he says. Craig Mod of Flipboard thinks that Apple is "too skeuomorphically heavy," but says the Kindle has done a great job of creating "a fresh take on the idea of a paperback book." And yet, notes Joshua, shopping for books in the Kindle store "feels more akin to searching a database than browsing in a bookstore" -- although at least its customers "are less likely to judge e-books by their covers." ~ Tim Manners, editor.