Skeuomorph

[yummyfajitas]

If I remember correctly, Ayn Rand detested Skeuomorph's very strongly. Howard Roark (of the Foundainhead) criticizes them on the grounds that they hold back creativity.

I can't say I disagree, though I do kind of like the little handle on maple syrup jars.

[tptacek]

The Latin Alphabet is riddled with nonfunctional historical flourishes, but that doesn't seem to hold back typography; sometimes constraints can be lenses for creativity, instead of shackles.

[Isamu]

Ayn was echoing the modernist critique of architecture - she probably agreed with it but it would be in Roark's character to argue the point. Modernism is/was at least in part about using materials honestly, letting the structure reflect the construction and not just continuing a deception by putting a non-structural greek facade on everything.

For a good peek into the modernist mindset, I recommend Towards a New Architecture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toward_an_Architecture) by Le Corbusier.

As a contrast, I recommend the post-modernist view in Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Venturi).

These days I have NO IDEA where architecture is now that we are post-post-post-modern.

[javert]

It's not that Ayn Rand detested skeuomorphs. It's that she wanted to demonstrate Howard Roark's independence and honesty. AFAIK Ayn Rand did not have a position on architecture; she just used it as a device in (one of) her novels.

Unfortunately, many people read Ayn Rand way too literally.

[mikecane]

I don't know if it qualifies, but it should! PageCurl in Apple's iBooks. And those "wooden" shelves.

[kingsley_20]

http://www.useit.com/papers/anti-mac.html is a 1996 paper by Jakob Nielsen & Don Gentner that criticizes too-literal visual metaphors in the Macintosh user interface. Good read.

[tptacek]

Apple's UI is littered with stuff like this, and it's been the cause of some famous criticisms; there's a good one tearing down the old overly-literal Quicktime interface, for example.

[jimfl]

The Apple User Interface Guidelines for the iPad specifically encourages this sort of thing, which I found interesting. The phonebook app is a prime example.

[nooneelse]

I wonder how much material/effort is wasted in our civilization on the entirely non-functional ones that continue to be used, like tiny little cargo cults to the past, each adding a little friction within the engine of modern life, progress, and bettering our world.

[celoyd]

Yes, but … some of these can be seen as removing the cognitive friction of relearning unimportant things every time their implementations evolve. Rigorous situational efficiency would be inefficient overall, because everyone would lose time to codeswitching.

[jberryman]

I think the word you are looking for is "culture" :)

[lkozma]

Also known as kitsch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch

[kingsley_20]

Not quite the same. They're overlapping sets.

[mikecane]

It turns out this blog post is about skeuomorphs in the Apple UI: http://speedbird.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/what-apple-needs-t...

Right now, number 40 under New. Should be voted up, I think.

[jcw]

So that's what those tiny pockets are for, pocket watches.

[gaius]

I'm not sure I believe that. Pocket watches were worn with waistcoats. I am not sure when the average man stopped wearing a waistcoat, but wristwatches were "mass-market" during and after WW2 (massive economies of scale necessary to equip armies with them), probably around the same time. When was the period of history, pre-wristwatch, when men who could afford watches didn't wear waistcoats?

[jimfl]

That's what I use them for. I carry a pocket watch, and wear Levis 501 jeans almost exclucively.

[bombs]

I've always referred to it (and used it) as a change pocket, as have jean manufacturers.

[tesseract]

That hubcap has a non-functional knockoff (aka spinner), too.

[beeker]

http://www.rekeeb.com/2009/08/09/on-skiamorph/

[Skeuomorph]

I suppose now the cat's out of the bag.