This showed-up on The Register today.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/...ign-a-bad-name

I'm posting this in the 2 groups where Microsoft is aping Apple in UI
design, and why the hell not, in the Android group. It explains way
better than I can what I think of these new flat, undiscoverable user
interfaces Apple is making, with Microsoft and Google following it.
Adobe (with light grey on white unreadable menus on Acrobat DC), and
Even Mozilla, are doing it too. Screw them all; Skeuomorphic design
rocks! Buttons that look like buttons, what a concept!

Some choice bits:

"However, when Apple moved to gestural-based interfaces with the first
iPhone, followed by its tablets, it deliberately and consciously threw
out many of the key Apple principles."

"The legibility of the text is only one of Apple’s many design failures.
Today’s devices lack discoverability: There is no way to discover what
operations are possible just by looking at the screen. So often, the
user has to try touching everything on the screen just to find out what
are actually touchable objects."

"Worse, other companies have followed in Apple’s path, equating design
with appearance while forgetting the fundamental principles of good
design. Google maps becomes more attractive and more confusing with each
iteration. Same with the Android operating system."

"Today’s Apple has eliminated the emphasis on making products
understandable and usable, and instead has imposed a Bauhaus minimalist
design ethic on its products. Unfortunately, visually simple appearance
does not result in ease of use, as the vast literature in academic
journals on human-computer interaction and human factors demonstrates."

"It’s important to note that these principles reflect the needs,
desires, and abilities of human beings, not the machines they use. The
principles are as applicable to today’s interfaces as those of the
1980s, and they will remain applicable until people evolve, a rather
slow process indeed."

"The most important principles largely or completely missing in iOS are
discoverability, feedback, recovery, consistency, and the encouragement
of growth."

"Simply put, discoverability means making actions discoverable — visible
— so that they do not have to be memorized. The menus in the traditional
desktop computers served this purpose well. Labeled icons do as well.
Unlabeled icons most often fail, but the worst culprit of all is the
complete lack of any cue. Note that discoverability no longer appears in
the Apple Guidelines."

Regards,

--
! _\|/_ Sylvain /
! (o o) Member-+-David-Suzuki-Fdn/EFF/Red+Cross/Planetary-Society-+-
oO-( )-Oo I can't believe it, I've heard of this disease! -Beverly