Over the last 50 years, humanity has undergone many transformations many which are depending on technology as a tool enabling us to think and interact in different ways. As technology becomes cheaper, faster, and more accessible to people of all social and economic stature, the boundaries between the rich and the poor, the elite and the common man will diminish leading towards de-centralisation of power.

In the past, information flowed in one direction from top of the authority figure going to the bottom. Due to current advances in technology such as social media, we are moving away from a strict structure toward a looser structure where information flows much more freely and openly. This can create a lot of gossip, rumours and misunderstanding. However for creatives it can also enable a sense of freedom for the individual enabling innovative thinking and ideas.

Just as we interact with information online, the future is being built right now, and further connectivity is quite obvious with digitisation of many sectors, such as taxi ordering apps like MondoTaxi, going towards gadgets such as wearables, that enable people to monitor their health in a consistent and measured manner. Apple’s upcoming watch, will soon display the best of what is expected in the wearable sector, the user experience of this product will be highly important, since if this product is not easy to use and attractive at the same time the product will fizzle out, because instead of enhancing quality of life, it will create further confusion in the minds of it’s users.

The most important aspect in for the common person to use technology is an easy and well thought out ‘User Experience’. Primarily designers should create clean, and effective design solutions that simplify complex workflows via good taste. This requires good alignment with the project stakeholders to understand the requirements, case problems, so that the end-user can enjoy a pleasurable and un-cluttered experience. Further on they should create visually demonstrable design mockups that can prove to senior management in a visual manner, the exact outcome of a design effort. Thus create no surprises in the final delivery stages. For such a process to be efficient it is highly important to maintain transparency in the UI/UX Design process, by developing and documenting via a style guide, that depicts the exact visual standards that shall be used.

The current debate in the design world is Skeuomorphism vs Flat design. To put it simply, skeuomorphism is simply a design that implies a visual connection to a past design of a real object. A style that tries to imitate real materials and textures to have a sense of familiarity with the end-user. Skeuomorphic User Interfaces look realistic to a common user, however there are several issues with such a direction.

To put all this in perspective, this whole debate actually started with the advent of the most popular smartphone of all time, which is the iPhone. Previously when technology was extremely expensive, realism was only found in computer games which required high end computing power which was not possible at the scale of a portable device like a smartphone. However since the miniaturisation and further advances in hardware, it became entirely possible to depict everyday textures such as wood, metal and stone on a smartphone.

The iPhone was a disruptive force in the world of communication and society itself, it bought an entirely new kind of experience for the consumer. It was a new gadget with unprecedented impact on the history of human computer interaction since it effected people of almost all calibers, and social stature. However there are many issues with using skeuomorphic design on a smartphone platform. The apps of a phone, unlike a laptop or desktop computer use almost 100% of the screen space. When trying to incorporate consistency of such a visual style and bringing them over to a display size of a watch, there are numerous challenges to be faced. How can a designer replicate consistency on such a smaller screen. Since most smartphones are designed to be used with fingers, and not stylus which tend to get lost over time, it became apparent via rapid prototyping that skeuomorphism will not help to maintain consistency in cross-platform UI design. Making something visually look similar, but not work quite like the real object is quite a challenge, and can create a lot of confusion in the mind of the end-user. For example a monthly calendar can fit on the size of a smart-phone screen, and be quite readable, but that is not possible on a smart watch. So perhaps show a daily calendar on a smart watch with ability to swipe left and right for days and up and down for months. To fix a lot of the issues faced with skeuomorphism, a new design style emerged called Flat Design.

Flat design resonates with a lot of love that many designers have of minimalism and typography. However there is a technical and functional need for flat design, which is Responsive Design. Responsive design is the concept that instead of creative multiple versions of a for multiple devices a single consistent design that adapts to screen size. This is currently achieved by multi-column grids morphing in to a single-column layout, large fonts getting much smaller, and menus that work by click on a desktop/laptop work by tap of a human finger on your smartphone or tablet. An easy example is how Facebook looks different on your smartphone, than it does on a computer. Fixed size-visual assets are pain to deal with on cross-platform devices, thus flat design solves much of the problems faced by software that runs on multiple devices.

However flat design has it’s own problems unless done by a skillful designer with good taste. Knowing in advance what to choose Skeuomorphism vs Flat comes only with experience and willing to prototype several solutions before diving into a particular solution.

So why should anyone care about all this?

Brand experience or how a customer feels when they use a product/service adds great value to an organisation. Customers have to like what a brand offers to them. A good user interface maximises interaction, and proves to the end-user that this product fulfills, what it claims to fulfil. It communicates to the end-user that this product/service responds to my needs and requirements, and is approachable as a technology and adapts to the needs of the consumer.

If a product at time of delivery and completion is still confusing to use, and makes the end-user approach the product with hesitance, than what is the point of having such a product, and all the energy and sweat that went into making it?