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Ask HN: Why is Apple's new design referred as flat design?

9 pointsBuddhaSource13y ago6 comments

Is flat design over hyped?

Apple design still have gradient, layers of transparency and text shadow to show depth. How is it flat? Well it is less skeuomorphism but I don't think that means flat.

I agree Microsoft's metro is flat, no shadow, no gradient and feels everything is on same plane.

6 comments

6 comments · 5 top-level

2718281828413y ago· 1 in thread

It is actually an old, old, old, design term. "Flat design" isn't new to the designers I know who were designing back in the 1960s.

Just like everything else, software has fashion trends. Right now, flat is in. Once people get used to flat, something else will appear with the "innovative" look.

BuddhaSourceOP13y ago

I am also a designer and my style is also pretty much flat. However we all know its not new, I never knew it was called flat, I thought it was minimal design or whatever.

In last few months all I see is FlatUI in news & the way its changing everything. It is all hype, without understanding some associate it with anything they see "minimal" now, to the extend of saying iOS7 is flat design.

kevinchau13y ago

Apple themselves isn't calling it flat.

It was just rumored that Apple would move to a flat designs before the keynote, and people just stuck with it.

meerita13y ago

It's clearly not a flat style as we know it as the actual trend. It has some parts that show flatness, but overall is pretty not uniform. I watch the whole documentation, even installed on my iPhone and it's clearly buggy in terms of design's unity. It has a lot of work ahead to make it well executed.

hugovie13y ago

I think this style is really bad for iOS. Actually, I dislike the way Apple changes its style.

sp33213y ago

"Flat" is the name of the style. It doesn't always literally mean flat.

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