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The new world in the dress of the old

The new world in the dress of the old
Skeuomorphism on smartphones: the former Instagram logo shows a camera, Twitter is a little bird that tweets something to users.
Image: ROLF VENNENBREND (EPA)

“Mom, what is a cell phone?” my daughter asked me recently. It took some disentanglement to resolve my confusion about the question and my child’s confusion about my confusion. Makes sense of what a cell phone is, I thought to myself. But in the world of a nine-year-old, a telephone only comes in the mobile version: cable, fixed location and a telephone for the whole family?

Remnants from this gray past can still be found in many places in the now contemporary version. Because the telephone icon still shows a very outdated telephone receiver even on the smartphone. And that is by no means the only example of how an (almost) obsolete thing represents its successor in the digitized world. The photo icon on the smartphone looks like an analogue camera. The symbol for “save” is still a floppy disk, which has been followed by several generations of storage media.

Many examples of skeuomorphism

Once you start paying attention, many examples will throw you off. Deleted data is moved to a recycle bin, the clock icon represents an analog clock with hands. The display of how full a battery is or whether it is currently charged could have many representations. Actually, a number would suffice. Instead, the battery level is displayed as a battery. The shopping cart for online shopping looks like a shopping cart, the light on the smartphone is represented by a flashlight symbol. The logo of many email providers resembles an envelope, and YouTube was initially represented graphically with an old television. The list could go on for a long time.

This phenomenon has a – not very euphonious – name: skeuomorphism. According to Wikipedia, a style in which objects imitate the shape of an object in their design, without this being justified by their shape. In simpler terms, something new looks or is presented like the thing it replaces. So retro chic. The phenomenon is not new at all, and the chandelier on the ceiling, whose lights are modeled on candles, is also a skeuomorph.

Designs move away from their ancestors

Skeumorphism in smartphone design bridges the gap between the physical and digital worlds. It makes the transition from the old way of doing things to the new way easier. However, the designs and symbols on the smartphone are becoming more and more abstract, moving away more and more from their ancestors – with whom they also have less and less in common. If you only know a lot from the digital world, you don’t need the bridge. For everyone else, it is still a comforting anchor that the new world sometimes comes dressed up as the old one.

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