Retro Design is Crippling Innovation ⇥

A very well-written take on skeuomorphism in used interfaces by Clive Thompson. I only take real issue with one sentence:

[Apple’s] iPhone app, Find My Friends, includes astonishingly ugly, faux stitched leather that wastes screen space.

A toolbar of any other texture uses the same amount of space. This seems like a weak argument driven by aesthetics but attributed to function. That said, his critique of iCal for Mac is sharp and accurate, yet he neglects to point out the even more egregious offences of Address Book.

Thompson’s thesis, though, is sound: skeuomorphs that are hard to shake are marring innovative progress.