All that chatter about the death of skeuomorphism and the rise of flat design
Apple’s iOS may be undergoing the biggest change since its inception, but that doesn’t mean the spirit of the operating system hasn’t been floating around designer’s heads for hundreds of years. In 1525, before the iPhone was even a twinkle in Steve Jobs’ eye, German polymath Albrecht Dürer was espousing similar design principles using the same, now-infamous letters: I, O, and S.
This time, just a year ago, very few people knew the terms “skeuomorphism” and “flat design." We complained about the kind of leathery design of some apps on iOS and OS X, but in general, the UI of Apple’s mobile operating system was just fine. Then, in just a few weeks, everything changed—and suddenly flat design was the new style everybody was talking about.