Thoughts on Neumorphism?

[tbelldesignco]

As a designer I am constantly looking a new trends and what is in the pipeline for trends in the design world. One thing that I have seen is the return of Skeumorphism through the styling of Neumorphism. I had a huge aversion to it at first, but I have started to come around to it. What I like about it is the minimal and thoughtful use of color while focusing on texture and visual hierarchy through the use of shadows and highlights. I am still primarily using a flat design style as made popular in iOS 7 and on, but I have noticed that even Apple is starting to embrace this styling in macOS 11. What are your thoughts? What could be improved on with the trend?

 

[Kreesher]

Apple is starting to embrace this styling in macOS 11. What are your thoughts? What could be improved on with the trend?

Apple is starting to use neumorphism, not for the reasons you think. The idea here is not iOS or macOS but for the upcoming AR glasses, they will present next year. For AR you have to integrate some depth of field and these icons and language are essential for that. For consistency reasons they will start using across ios and macOS so the transition is easy like they start the AR apps on iOS to have a big catalog for the upcoming hardware.

 

[tbelldesignco]

Do we have any confirmation on this or is it still just a rumor? From my developer sessions I had over the supper I asked about the use of Neumorphism and the engineers I talked with were shocked that I noticed it in the icons and told me that this is their way of bridging the style of pseudo-skeuomorphic icons of macOS 10 and the style of iOS so that it isn't a huge jarring transition with the platform hitting the OS 11 cycle.