The New Trend – Flat Design

2013 has been the year of flat design with many big brands including Microsoft, Google and Apple leaping on the bandwagon to upgrade their products from skeuomorph designs to ‘flat’ graphics.

What’s the difference between skeuomorphs and flat design?

Skeuomorph is a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues to a structure that were necessary in the original.

Flat design is a graphical style that aims to have any graphic element, therefore keeping the design flat with no decorative element with colours and shapes kept simple.

So who started the ‘Flat Design’ trend?

Microsoft

Flat design has been around for a while. Microsoft first implemented their Metro design philosophy. Metro aims to make the user interface simple and to not rely on the graphics so much which they have achieved above.

Google

Later, Google shifted towards flat design quite subtly by slowly introducing new design pieces to each of its products. This month, Google unveiled their new logo which took away the bevelling and shadows and introduced a more flat, clean look.

Apple

Now Apple have moved in a similar direction with the new iOS 7 release next week which embraces simplicity with their icons and user interface.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Flat Design

Advantages

• Clarity
• Easy to use
• Modern
• Responsive in design
• Fast to load

Disadvantages

• People are not used to the design
• Unclear on what you’re supposed to click on
• Difficult to execute well
• Design can be boring
• No personality

Is flat design here to stay?

Most certainly yes! A recent study by Usabilla found that 68% of the industry of web professionals believes that flat based designs will continue to thrive for more than 5 years because it’s so simple to use.

What do you prefer, Skeuomorph or Flat based designs?

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