I’m gonna say it. The only people who shit on “skeuomorphism” or rich design in software are people who didn’t know how to do it or work with it.

The aesthetic with gradients, shadows, highlights, *color*, shading— it all worked well. It’s just not something everyone could do.

*That* is why it disappeared. To make it easier for everyone to make apps that looked “default.”

Not because it's better this way.

@louie @simonbs The other problem is that they never established a consistent visual style across until iOS 7. iOS was also getting worse to look at. Perhaps Apple’s visual designers were ready for a change too. iOS 6 was significantly uglier than the versions before and after IMO.

A big shift was necessary.

@louie @simonbs The situation today isn’t as dire, so the evolution is slow, but another big change is overdue.