NEIRZHEI

Most interfaces today give me the ick. Every element screams at once. It feels like they break some fundamental law.

A thing in architecture is: truth of materials. Wood acts like wood. Steel acts like steel. This is also relevant for thinking about digital interfaces. Neumorphism tries to look like a button you can press. But the screen is flat glass. So it feels like it's lying; promises something it can't deliver.

If it must lie anyway, it got to become something else entirely. Perhaps give a different kind of pleasure; make the movement beautiful even if unrealistic, make the clarity in usage worth it. Then it'd become its own truth.

But user's trust breaks when it's just mimicry with no replacement offering. Because now our brain has to work harder figuring out what element serves what. Cognitive load ruins pleasure. Even though art makes one think, design shouldn't. The answer needs to appear to the user before he forms the question.

A harmonic system that isn't simply built on few independent loud elements creates personality. On the other hand, nothing comes across if the icons, buttons and block of texts all demand primary attention at once. The design fails to communicate and guide (which is its primary duty) and user's flow breaks.

Honest intentional design, that isn't pretending to be something else, doesn't give the ick.