Snippet: Skeumorphism & Storytelling ☇

I used to hate the brushed metal look in prior versions of Mac OS X, and thought the interfaces in iCal and Address Book in Lion to be a little cheesy, but Tobias Ahlin makes some good points (this was in my reading list from yesterday, so sorry if you already saw this one):

Photo Booth is a digital toy. The first version of Photo Booth, however clean and functional, did not look like a toy. It wasn’t fun, and it didn’t encourage you to play around with it. In the new fullscreen mode, Apple uses skeumorphism to invite users to play.

Skeumorphism is about communcating and reinforcing feelings – getting an application to become a memorable experience, not just a tool. It’s about communicating the purpose of a UI, not only the functions it enables.

I originally wasn’t a fan of some of the interface choices on iOS, especially from Apple, but I do think the interface comes across as a bit more fun, less sterile, and I got used to it.