A flat icon set for OS X • Hacker News Board

Re: A flat icon set for OS X

#51

Post by zephjc » Wed, Jul 16, 2014, 8:19 PM UTC

flohofwoe wrote: post #50

zephjc wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a jump back to the 80s exactly. For example, here is an old NT screenshot: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/ca/Windows_NT_3.1... A lot of it is flat, but they use simple bevels for buttons and other clickable elements, and its reuse on, for example, the buttons in the file manager window, looks tacky because it appears cluttered and overused. Also, excessive lines (e.g. for the window borders), hig…

The Windows 3.x UI was always ugly and didn't make any sense ;) But that's the 90's, I'm talking about the 80's. For instance: AmigaOS 1.3 (notice in the bottom-most screenshot how the buttons don't have '3D edges': http://toastytech.com/guis/amiga1.html '3D' UI elements were introduced later in AmigaOS2.0, and I remember how the user interface style guide made a big fuzz about how UI elements that appear raised are…

Everyone knows the early 90s was part of the 80s!

Older UIs like the Amiga OS one suffered from an even more limited pallet, and even worse typography.

I used BeOS as my main OS for a while and really liked it - it was very snappy and felt more "homey" (that is, more like classic MacOS) than early OSX versions did. (The browser, NetPositive, was absolutely awful though).

Re: A flat icon set for OS X

#52

Post by poopsintub » Wed, Jul 16, 2014, 8:21 PM UTC

msutherl wrote: post #41

jarrett wrote: post #20

Philosophically or practically: What's the justification for nearly everyone switching to flat design? Is there any articulable reason it's "better" than the rich, three-dimensional style[1] that was previously popular? Or is it just an arbitrary trend? Some say the change is driven by high-DPI displays. I disagree. I don't see any intrinsic reason that flat designs look better than rich, three-dimensional designs on…

Flat design is successful because it's a system that allows unskilled designers to produce acceptable results.

It's a fad. Apple came out with it 'first', making it automatically used among millions of people, then designers followed with other software packages and apps.

Re: A flat icon set for OS X

#53

Post by msutherl » Wed, Jul 16, 2014, 8:55 PM UTC

poopsintub wrote: post #52

msutherl wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flat design is successful because it's a system that allows unskilled designers to produce acceptable results.

It's a fad. Apple came out with it 'first', making it automatically used among millions of people, then designers followed with other software packages and apps.

"an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something ..."

Yes.

"... esp. one that is short-lived and without basis in the object's qualities"

No. I explained why.

Also, Apple did not do it first. Google, for one, launched "flat" redesigns prior to iOS7.

Re: A flat icon set for OS X

#54

Post by gumby » Wed, Jul 16, 2014, 10:49 PM UTC

refrigerator wrote: post #26

jarrett wrote: post #20

Philosophically or practically: What's the justification for nearly everyone switching to flat design? Is there any articulable reason it's "better" than the rich, three-dimensional style[1] that was previously popular? Or is it just an arbitrary trend? Some say the change is driven by high-DPI displays. I disagree. I don't see any intrinsic reason that flat designs look better than rich, three-dimensional designs on…

I think 'flat design' is really just an example of minimalist design (which has been around for ages) applied to graphical elements. With many things, especially apps/websites, minimalist design often ends up being a good experience for users because it's not distracting, but that's not to say that you can't have great UX without a minimalist design. For me, I like flat design (to an extent) because it gives the prod…

> With many things... minimalist design often ends up being a good experience for users because it's not distracting...

As long as too many cues aren't discarded (iOS 7 went a bit overboard in this regard) I completely agree; shiny or complicated visual elements with "pop" demo well at first but become tiresome.

It's the same reason our keyboards don't make musical tones like they did in Star Trek -- it would quickly become distracting and annoying.

Re: A flat icon set for OS X

#55

Post by EpicEng » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 12:19 AM UTC

poopsintub wrote: post #52

msutherl wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flat design is successful because it's a system that allows unskilled designers to produce acceptable results.

It's a fad. Apple came out with it 'first', making it automatically used among millions of people, then designers followed with other software packages and apps.

Even if we're only counting recent times, Apple did not come out with it first, they followed Windows 8?

Re: A flat icon set for OS X

#56

Post by yaeger » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 7:52 AM UTC

themoonbus wrote: post #19

TarpitCarnivore wrote: post #16

I may be in the minority, but these feel really boring and dull to me. I think there is a way to have a "flat" icon while still providing some depth to them. I've also seen dozens and dozens of flat icon sets for Android that basically have this same exact look. Just go to XDA or the Play Store and search "flat icons", I'm sure you'll find a bunch that have a mix of these designs.

I think one of the main issues for me is the lack of saturation... the color palette is a little pastel.

Everything looks like it is covered in a thick layer of dust.

Looking at these icons makes me want to lick my finger and swish across my screen to remove the dust from those.

Re: A flat icon set for OS X

#57

Post by csixty4 » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 4:41 PM UTC

EpicEng wrote: post #55

poopsintub wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a fad. Apple came out with it 'first', making it automatically used among millions of people, then designers followed with other software packages and apps.

Even if we're only counting recent times, Apple did not come out with it first, they followed Windows 8?

Yep, but that's how it works. A year ago, people were complaining that Apple sucks because iOS was still using skeuomorphs instead of flat design like Android and Windows 8. Now they've switched their style, and they suck because they invented flat design and everyone is just copying them.

Re: A flat icon set for OS X

#58

Post by hlfcoding » Fri, Jul 18, 2014, 5:47 AM UTC

If you want to implement minimalist design, you might as well go the full nine yards and use no more than 2-3 (properly contrasting) colors. This is middle-of-the-road and frankly evokes neither elegance nor brilliance.

To elaborate on why the above may be interpreted as harsh, by limiting the ingredients at your disposal to flat colors and simple shapes, you run the risk of amplifying the severity of any mistakes in their selection. The less visual information that get presented, the more the visual units come under closer scrutiny.