UX Glossary · S
Skeuomorphism
Interface design that imitates physical objects, using familiar appearance to signal function.
A skeuomorph is a design element retaining decorative features from the object it replaced. The word predates computing: it describes pottery imitating rivets from metalwork, or vinyl made to look like leather.
In interfaces it means notepads with paper texture, buttons with bevels and shadows, switches that look like physical switches. Apple’s software through iOS 6 is the most cited example, including a calendar with stitched leather and a bookshelf with wood grain.
The argument for it
Familiarity. A control that looks like something the user has operated before carries its own signifier. Early graphical interfaces genuinely needed this, because users had no prior model for what a screen control was.
Why it fell away
Two reasons. Users learned. A generation that grew up with touchscreens does not need a button to imitate plastic to know it is pressable.
And it constrained. Imitating a physical object imports its physical limitations: a skeuomorphic address book is bound by the metaphor of pages, when the digital version could search instantly.
Flat design was the correction, and it overcorrected by removing the cues along with the ornament.
In practice
The useful residue is that metaphor is a tool with a cost. Borrow a physical model when it teaches something, and abandon it the moment it starts limiting what the software can do.