How is Apple defeating the folder skeumorph?
Finally! We are leaving behind the folder skeumorph* – that old icon for organizing things. We have tags combined with searches! We don’t need folders any more. Tags let us do ad hoc organizing, depending on how we want to see our stuff. And the tags can be combined – try that with the old folder skeumorph.
*A skeumorph is a representation that, unnecessary to functional operation, imposes a form based on cultural history. Typically the form actually impedes functional operation, because of the inflexibility of the representation, arising out of physical and cultural constraints on design based on the past. We haven’t needed folders since tags and search engines were created. And yet, there are those among us who still create folders for gmails. It’s ok – trust the tag.
For more, take a look at the video of the Apple WWDC Event, June 10, 2013
And thank you to those fathers of design, Norman and Gibson, who conceptualized cultural affects on design and perception, even if they didn’t invent the word.
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Vicki Suter 