What’s the next UI design trend?

Most apps are starting to look the same again…

From Skeuomorphism to Modern Design and beyond.

How to break the ice?

When the first iPhone launched, the idea of interacting with a small device using multi-touch gestures was quite new. To make people more comfortable with the interface, the initial designs used Skeuomorphism for the UI.

Those were the days. It may look “dated” but it was definitely cute.

It basically meant they used “real world” elements like wooden shelves for books, stitched leather in notes and CD covers you flip through to give you a sense of the new digital world. By using familiar objects it was lowering the entry barrier for new users. The interface was unlike anything you’ve seen before, but it was still familiar.

People got used to touch devices.

After a while however people got used to their phones and the wood, metal and leather started to look dated and boring. We craved something new. Something fresh and slick. Something more digital.

Something flat?

It all boils down to the fact that we understand the “flatness” of our phone screens. Faux 3d elements and real-world textures mentally clash with that flatness creating some dissonance.

Since the glass of our phone is 100% flat, it looks like the interface is a diorama housed within.

Let’s go flat!

So with the release of iOS 7 in 2013 Apple decided to “go flat”. Most shadows were gone. Buttons were now mostly just text-links. Everything was purely two-dimensional without pretense of the faux 3d.

And the people hated it!

By going flat the idea was that the interface is what it is — a bunch of pixels displayed on a flat surface. While accurate and modern, people understood something was missing. Some playfulness of actually “pushing” a button down instead of touching a flat surface.

Windows Phone tried this bold approach (and in a pretty beautiful way) but that sense of “no-fun” combined with…