Flat design has become Lately popular for apps and websites. This is not to say that everyone absolutely loves this style, but it is definitely not suitable for all applications and sites. If there are many advantages of a flat design, such as simplicity and minimalism, making it easier to use. For some applications, flat design may be too simple. That is, it’s worth adding some shadows or gradients to make it look better.

Many argue that flat web design is effective design. They say this is a way to make the project as user-friendly as possible. Here are some inspiring examples of flat design projects. This selection from various portfolios is great for understanding flat designs that actually work.

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January Creative

Minimal Monkey

What is flat design?

• Flat design focuses on the user
• Flat design is simple
• Flat design - less gradients
• Flat design includes straight lines and square corners
• Typically use strong color contrast
• Flat design has no shadows, bevels, textures or anything that looks 3D
• Flat design only exists in 2 dimensions
• Flat design - a trend towards simplicity and minimalism
• Flat design - do not use additional effects
• There are no extras
• Flat design - fewer buttons and body kits
• Flat design means focus on fonts
• Color combinations, contrasting colors, and interesting color variations are important components of flat design.
• Flat design is one of many designs. It is suitable for some projects, but not for others.

What is not flat design?

• Flat design is not skeuomorphism or design that emulates the shape and contours of “reality.”
• Flat design does not include shiny buttons
• Flat design does not include decorations
• In flat design you won’t find traditional ideas about “depth”
• Flat design doesn't suit all projects

Is flat design just an efficient design?

Some people consider flat design to be an efficient design in itself. That is, it simplifies the use of sites and applications, allows you to find necessary information without being distracted. Of course, flat design is not the only one that makes information easier to find. If everything is done well, then users will not have any problems. The project should be simple and easy for those who are able to use it. Some people prefer to use flat design, while others prefer a different design style.

Elements for flat design

Do you like flat design? Here are a few elements that can be used for a "flat" design

Flat Icon Pack

From the author: Greetings, friends! Today we will talk about what it is flat design, or flat website design. This term has long won the hearts of web designers and is still confidently trending today. The largest companies (Google, YouTube, Microsoft, Apple Inc., etc.) use it to design their websites and applications. Are you still not in the sect of flat website design supporters? Then we go to you!

What do you think is the reason for such wild popularity of flat design? I’ll answer you in a nutshell: it really works! In this article, I will explain to you what this style is, tell you about its pros and cons, and show you some excellent examples of flat website design that will surely inspire you to do great things. So, let's go!

It all started with skeuomorphism

For those who don't know, skeuomorphism is not a dirty word, but another web design style. Flat design is often presented as the opposite of skeuomorphism, which, in my opinion, is not entirely correct. This is rather a simplification than an antagonism.

Until 2010, skeuomorphism was the dominant style in interface design. He displayed elements as they appeared in reality, actively using textures, shadows, reflections and other attributes of a three-dimensional image. I tried especially hard in this regard Apple company, which carefully copied most software objects from real-life objects.

Soon, pseudo-convex icons ceased to attract the majority of users and web developers, which marked the beginning of the era of flat website design. The world has come to the conclusion that all decorative elements need to be removed, and only what is convenient for the end user to interact with should remain.

“The best design is as little design as possible”

How Dieter Rams looked into the water - a famous industrial designer who opposes intrusive design, animation effects, etc. In June 2013 Apple of the Year Inc. introduced the revolutionary iOS 7, which received all the attributes of a flat web design style. However, the plane did not immediately “defeat” realism and volume.

For a long time, users could not forget the magic of Steve Jobs and the icons “that you want to lick.” Many even said goodbye to the “poor Seven” and switched to “radiant Android”. Added fuel to the fire and a large number of bugs present in iOS 7, and a whitish, translucent design with parallax and “snot” animation when opening applications.

Those who resigned themselves to the inevitable reality and stayed with the Apple operating system eventually realized that flat web design not only looks interesting, but also brings order and uniformity to all applications. visual style.

Pros and cons of flat design

The advantages of using this style include:

clarity of composition and conciseness of visual aids. Responsive interface in the “nothing superfluous” style, thanks to which users quickly realize what they wanted to convey to them;

emphasis on good typography. Content comes first, which is extremely important in today's abundance of information;

smaller size of web pages and faster site performance due to the minimum number of visual effects. This is especially useful when creating adaptive versions, because the simpler the forms, the easier it is to display them on small screens mobile devices.

Flat web design also has its disadvantages:

limiting the web designer’s imagination to simplified colors, typography, and iconography. Therefore, the risk of creating a boring and inexpressive website is higher;

the lack of three-dimensionality and shadows sometimes makes it difficult to understand whether an element is clickable or not;

lack of specific fixed rules.

If you've decided to use this style on your site, congratulations - it shows that you care about the user experience and keep up with the times. If you're just starting out as a web designer and don't know how to properly use flat design to make your site look relevant without looking simplistic, try the following tips:

Forget about “brick walls” and bright backgrounds. Flat web design tends to use simple, smooth, soft images for the background.

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No gradients, 3D icons, animated transitions or other special effects. All this will make your site heavier and add fuss - do you need it?

Use flat icons with clear contours, adding convenience and functionality.

Use a bright, rich color palette. Now the trend is tones of the solar spectrum: light yellows, pinks and greens. The main thing is not to overdo it - there should be no more than 3 colors on the page.

Focus on typography. In flat design, preference is given to bright, original inscriptions that create a call to action and provide easy navigation around the site. Here, too, it is important not to overdo it. Forget about “handwritten” and other fancy fonts. To highlight headings you can use capital letters.

Feel free to use a variety of geometric shapes. Squares, circles, lines and other shapes will not only improve the structure of a website, but also create a clear hierarchy and divide content. Users will appreciate this, believe me.

Simplify as much as possible navigation menu and other elements of the site. For buttons, use regular rectangles without shadows or highlighting.

Thus, over the years, flat design websites have become the standard accepted by absolutely everyone. Look at most modern websites - they are flat to the core.

Finally, I will give the promised examples of successful flat design, which can serve as inspiration for you to create your own masterpieces.

1. Website http://dunked.com.

A popular platform for publishing portfolios, aimed at representatives of various creative professions. Minimalist flat web design evokes the feeling of a reliable and understandable service that does not distract with unnecessary special effects.

2. Microsoft interface.

Microsoft is one of the companies that made flat style so popular. Maybe you remember the Zune player, a competitor to the iPod, which Microsoft released in the mid-2000s? So, the design of this product was sharply different from most applications of that time, largely due to large typography, flat icons, large and bright shapes.

This interface, which was called Metro, later migrated to personal computers(Windows 8 OS), Xbox 360 interface and others software products Mircosoft.

3. Website http://www.vox.com.

Well, are you inspired? Down with pseudo-realistic 3D aesthetics!

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In this article I will tell you about flat design. You've probably already heard something about this, since flat has become one of the leading trends on the web over the past few years.

Today we'll look at what flat design is, how it came about, and what you need to create a clean, bright, and responsive design.

You can find good examples of flat design at http://market.envato.com/. There are tons of layouts, icons and templates that will give you a clear understanding of what modern design looks like .

1. What is flat design?

Flat design is a modern style of user interface and graphic design, characterized by minimalism. Flat design is characterized by the use of a minimum of elements and the absence various effects textures, shadows and lights, for example: mixed colors, gradients, highlights and so on.

Flat is opposed to skeuomorphism( Skeuomorphism is a design principle when one product is given the appearance of another, i.e. When various elements interface are copied from real objects - approx. translation.) , as well as rich design. However, it is worth saying that flat design is not at all as simple as it seems at first glance. It includes some features of skeuomorphism, but we will talk about this a little later.

In general, flat helps the user focus on the content, without being distracted by visuals. Flat design emphasizes the simplicity of elements, while at the same time making the interface more responsive, pleasant and easy to use.

2. A little history

Flat design, as you know, existed long before it became a global trend on the web. Flat design was quite popular in the 80s due to the fact that technology at that time was not yet developed enough to support complex effects, textures and shadows. However, even then the design was striving for skeuphomorphism, trying to make the interface elements as realistic as possible.

Flat design, in the form in which we see it now, began to gain popularity after Microsoft began producing products in the so-called metro style. Metro is a UI design from Microsoft that is striking in its style and simplicity.

In 2010 Microsoft released Windows Phone 7, which used a flat design with sharp edges and simple graphics inherited from one of the earlier products Microsoft (Zune). Later, inspired by the success, Microsoft released the operating system Windows system 8, based on the same flat Metro style.

After all, flat design reached its peak in popularity in 2013 when Apple released iOS 7 demonstrating fundamentally new design with completely redesigned user interface elements, including icons and fonts. Apple has created visual principles of UI and icon design .

Soon after, Google also began using the flat style in its applications and web pages, calling it Material Design. Google even has an entire section dedicated to this style, including a description of the goals of web design, its principles and guidelines for creating various objects design: icons, layouts and so on.

Since then, flat has become a key trend in web design, making websites, applications and interface elements elegant, clean and stylish.

Thus, there are three global examples of flat design from companies, without which it is difficult to imagine modern world technologies:

Microsoft's Metro design

Apple iOS 7 design

Google's Material Design

3. Remember to be clean

Flat design is apparently called “flat” due to the lack of three-dimensional elements and realistic effects such as gradients, textures, highlights, halftones, shadows. Remember, flat style is a two-dimensional (flat) way of depicting objects.

Moreover, in flat design, objects are depicted in a very simplified and stylized way.

And sometimes even just the silhouette or contours of the object are used, i.e. just enough to make the object recognizable, but not overload it with minor details.

Minimalism has become a global trend these days: simplicity of shapes and the use of sharp edges create a clean and pleasing design. Simple forms more understandable and easier to understand. This keeps the design minimalistic and clean without giving it a busy, cluttered look.

4. Bring it to perfection

Know that when it comes to creating flat icons and UI elements, you have to make them look crisp, neat and pixel perfect, i.e. as much as possible. Moreover, this applies to both raster and vector graphics.

Adobe Photoshop is clear here: it works with raster graphics, which are based on pixels.

Regarding the program Adobe Illustrator, then it uses vector graphics, consisting of curves and lines called vectors, which are specified by mathematical formulas.

Once upon a time, Adobe Illustrator was not a particularly convenient program for creating pixel-perfect graphics. Good news is that latest versions Illustrator has become a great tool for creating good graphics.

I must say that Vector graphics mainly involves working with simple, flat shapes, pure colors and grids. Adobe Illustrator is very flexible in settings and allows you to adapt the grid to your needs, align objects and use Various types snapping. This makes it easier to create the perfect design that looks clean and stylish on any display. If you want to learn how to create perfect graphics, then you should read the article: How to create pixel-perfect artwork using Adobe Illustrator .

5. Color

One of the most specific features of flat design, besides shadows, is the use of color. Most of the colors that flat design uses in its elements consist of just a few basic colors.

Color in flat design is bright, rich, and rich.The flat color scheme is not limited to a few special colors. It contains many shades, and their choice depends only on what you are depicting, be it icons of sweets or retro-style objects in a sophisticated retro palette.

Let's say you are a UI designer and are well versed in color palettes, you are experimenting with the color panel in Photoshop programs and Illusstartor, mixing colors as you please. However, this process is quite complex and requires good intuition, experience and skills. Here you will find some tools that can help you create your own color palette.

Some of them are suitable for all types of design and illustration, not just flat design. For example, Adobe Color CC, better known as Cooler. Today there is access to it, both through the website and directly through Adobe products. Cooler is a very flexible tool that allows you to either create your own color palette or choose from a custom palette from a library.

Another simple and convenient color palette generator is Coolors. Just press the spacebar and the program will generate a color palette, you can adjust the colors, there is also an export function.

There are several other similar services with custom palettes that may be useful. However, there is one tool created specifically for flat design. FlatUIColors.com by Designmodo - a service with a set of “flat” colors, very convenient for work. This site has become very popular among designers looking for good color solutions for a perfect design. Try it!

And you can also find a greater variety of colors and palettes in Google's Material Design guide.

6. Long shadows

As mentioned above, flat design is characterized by simplicity, many free space- that’s why flat rejects the use of any effects. However, there is one effect that is typical for flat design. This effect has become a trend and characteristic feature flata.

We're talking about long shadows now. They have some typical characteristics that make this effect recognizable, namely: a 45-degree tilt and big size(the shadow can be several times longer than the subject itself. As a result, long shadows give the flat some depth effect.

This effect makes the object more three-dimensional, but at the same time keeping it in the context of flat design.

7. Working with fonts

Typography plays a big role in flat design. Often the text becomes the main element of the composition.

Flat designs typically use simple font styles, making the entire design overall clean and readable. You can find many free fonts in Adobe Typekit if you use Adobe products. You'll also find a lot of good free fonts on Font Squirrel. But don't forget to read the license if you intend to use the font for commercial purposes.

Most often in flat design it is customary to use upper case and contrasting colors, this makes the text more legible.

Use fonts sparingly, remembering that they should complement and complement the design rather than appear as a separate element. This doesn't mean you can't use serif or handwritten complex fonts. Just remember to be minimal and keep everything in balance. However, flat still often uses sans-serif fonts, as they look more strict and neat.

8. Pros and cons of Flat design

Even though flat design has become so popular due to its many advantages, there are still some disadvantages that designers face when using this style. Let's look at the pros and cons.

pros

Popularity

Flat design has become a trend, gaining more and more positive reviews from designers and web designers, and it doesn’t seem to be losing its position at all. On the contrary, it is spreading more and more, acquiring some new forms and features, becoming more and more creative.

Simplicity

Flat design is simple, minimalistic and clean. Flat on the web helps users focus on the content rather than being distracted by visuals. This also works for interfaces mobile applications: Clean design with large buttons makes the mobile experience perfect.

Brightness

Color is another cool plus in flat design. Bright and rich colors look attractive and clean, and the lack of gradients makes the design stylish. Moreover, such pure colors make it more positive and presentable; flat design creates the right mood.

Flaws

Flat has many more advantages, but no design is perfect, and we cannot idealize it. Here are some disadvantages of flat design that we must mention:

Unresponsiveness

Sometimes the lack of important details or visual effects makes the process of creating a user-friendly interface difficult, and this generally makes the entire design unresponsive. Not all users feel comfortable with flat because it can be difficult to find elements on a web page that you need to click or tap on the screen mobile phone because they are not interactive.

Problems with typography

As mentioned earlier, not every font can be suitable for flat design. Sometimes such a rich font with sharp edges looks really balanced and stylish. However, if the font is chosen incorrectly, it can ruin the entire design. You should have a really good feel for which fonts are suitable for flat and which are not. Lack of experience makes choosing a font very difficult.

Weak visuals

Due to limitations in the use of effects, colors and fonts, flat designs can look too simple and cold. Its minimalism can also be its main drawback - other flat designs end up looking exactly the same as yours. So it's very difficult to make your icons or web pages look different from someone else's design because you're using the same simplified shapes, limited color palettes and similar fonts. As a result, flat design can become boring over time.

9. Future flat design trends

It cannot be said that flat design has fully formed and stopped in its tracks. Perhaps this is because of its shortcomings mentioned above; flat design strives for development and change, acquiring new features and enhancing visual expressiveness.

If you look closely at the last example of flat design, you may notice that it reallygradually away from its strict tools and begins to add subtle effects such as: gradients, shadows, lighting and other visual effects.

These little touches give the flat design some depth without being overly detailed like skeuomorphic designs. These subtle improvements make the flat more responsive and comfortable, and also bring a fresh look, making the flat more flexible and versatile.

Thus, flat does not lose its features, but becomes more interesting and flexible- he's really getting better.

conclusions

Thus, we discussed some facts from the history of flat design, and talked about colors, shapes and typography. We looked at different points of view, focused on the advantages and disadvantages of flat and learned some of the main principles of creating a good design.

I hope that you gained new information from this article or at least found it interesting. You owe it to yourself to try creating a flat design if you haven't done it before.

After all, what else is there to mention about flat design?

If you really like flat with its sharp edges, rich colors and crisp fonts, its cleanliness and minimalism, then go for it!

It's trendy, but as with any graphic style, don't limit yourself to just one technique. Just because flat is trendy doesn’t mean you can’t use other styles in your project. Skeuomorphism, with its tiny details and textures, can also become good decision. The main thing is to remember that the design is different for each project, it must express its spirit, purpose, essence, while remaining convenient and functional. Forward!

Who develops mobile applications and websites, wrote a column for us and put everything in its place regarding flat and material design.

By and large, the difference between Flat design and Material Design is subtle. To a person who does not have deep knowledge of graphic design, they may indeed seem very similar. In this article I will try to “shed light” on some of the differences between them. You will receive additional knowledge that is so necessary so as not to accidentally injure the designer’s delicate nature.

A little history

Before we start talking about the differences between the two most popular design trends, let's find out where they come from. There is an opinion that the material design is created on the basis of a flat one. Where did flat design come from, then?

Skeuomorphism

When it comes to user interface and web design, the concept of skeuomorphism refers to an approach whose main idea is imitation. Without going into too much detail, let's just remember Apple's pre-iOS 7 interfaces with their “realistic textures, lighting, and bombastic effects.”

The attempt to make digital objects resemble their real-world counterparts was motivated by the need to facilitate user interaction with the device. In fact, it is for this reason that all interfaces with realistic textures dominated digital world for many years. Skeuomorphic design does a great job of helping users seamlessly transition from the real world to the digital one.

However, with the flourishing mobile technologies gradually there is a need to focus primarily on convenience and ease of use. Agree, in this area there is a need to create mobile solutions, available from different devices, increases significantly. And at this very moment, simplicity becomes the new design standard.

Note: Do not under any circumstances think that skeuomorphism has completely disappeared. It is widely used in games where it is necessary to create a realistic world and help players feel their character in order to deeply immerse themselves in the game process.

Flat design

This style is completely devoid of any three-dimensional objects. Roughly speaking, flat design lacks such stylistic elements as drop shadows, textures, gradients, but pays attention to the play of fonts and colors and icons. But why was all this necessary? The answer is simple.

Firstly, flat design significantly reduces page loading time. The absence of “heavy” skeuomorphic details (think: layers, serif fonts, gradients) makes flat design elements “lighter,” which in turn significantly speeds up loading times. Moreover, flat elements look equally attractive on both screens. high resolution, and with low.

Secondly, simple images can convey your idea to users faster than detailed illustrations: they are schematic and therefore quite easy to understand.

And, of course, flat icons with a relatively simple font can direct users' attention to truly important content.

Today, flat design has received well-deserved recognition, but it still has its problems. The most obvious example of such problems was Windows edition 8 by Microsoft. This operating system is considered a pioneer of flat design and supports the concept of Metro design. What led to the problems was that the company considered it necessary to pay more attention to the typography than the graphics themselves.

Results from a Windows 8 usability test conducted by NN Group showed that users had difficulty distinguishing clickable objects from non-clickable ones. Users complained that objects that appeared static were actually clickable. As a result, the company's main mission - to help users correctly interpret the system - failed.

Another company that is often associated with flat design is Apple. They moved away from skeuomorphic design elements in the mobile operating room iOS system 7, released in 2013. This time the transition was received a little better, mainly due to the fact that the company did not try to completely update the user interface concept, but simply added a few changes towards a flat design. This gave users the opportunity to use the product by relying on their previous experience with operating systems and websites.

Material design

Let's be clear right now: material design is more of a branded product than a spontaneous design trend that has gained widespread acceptance. This is what mainly distinguishes it from its flat design.

By calling a design material “branded,” I mean that it has a whole set of clearly defined recommendations and principles that every self-respecting designer follows. It is quite obvious why Google introduced its Material Design: there was a need to unify the design so that applications looked the same on any of the many Android devices.

Although quite functional, flat design is still considered difficult to understand. The truth is that flat objects on the screen can confuse users (especially those who are not experienced in using mobile and web interfaces). Therefore, material design tries to bring back the elements of skeuomorphism, but in a greatly simplified form. Images look flat, especially when we're talking about about colors, but are still multidimensional due to the presence of the Z axis.

In other words, material design can be called an improved version of flat design with elements of skeuomorphism - animation, shadows and layers. This way you can make the product more intuitive in terms of navigation, and avoid unnecessary complexity within the overall style.

Pros and cons of flat design

Let's leave behind the history of the evolution of styles and move on to something more significant - let's list the strong and weak sides flat design.

• Minimalism and style
• Intuitiveness. It will be easier for you to convey your idea to users.
• Saving time and resources. Pages load much faster with less bandwidth consumption.
• Focus on content. The interface is free of unnecessary details that can distract from truly valuable information.
• Looks equally good on various devices, be it a PC browser or a smartphone.
• Speeds up the website or app design development process by eliminating unnecessary design touches.

• Minimalistic style.
• Quite intuitive on an intuitive level. The material design will be equally easy to perceive for both experienced users and beginners.
• Moderate skeuomorphism. Everything looks more realistic thanks to the use of the Z-axis (a unique Google concept).
• There is a set of manuals that are constantly updated. Therefore, any designer can always turn to them if difficulties arise during the work process.
• Animation for web solutions is encouraged. There is no need to remind you how much people love movement. In addition, animation allows you to make the interface more clear and intuitive.

• Has an owner (Google company). Therefore, any questions and suggestions for improvement should be addressed to the owner.
• Due to the Z axis, the design process may take longer to complete.
• Animated elements require more resources.
• Rigid adherence to guidelines can limit the originality of a design.

Summarize

In fact, one of the design approaches under consideration should not be considered to have a clear advantage over the other, since flat and material styles go side by side. They are both incredibly popular and both are devoid of excessive realism. Material design is a successor to flat design, while flat design itself was a reaction to solutions that were too heavy and realistic. Material design added something that flat design has always tried to move away from - a little skeuomorphism. Although one thing will always be different between these approaches: material design is a proprietary product Google, and flat design is the result of the fusion of several design practices, which strives primarily for overall simplicity.

In truth, flat design has evolved a lot in recent years, from a completely “flat” style to a “semi-flat” style. It now allows for the use of layers and subtle shadows to allow objects to appear deeper than they previously appeared. So, you and I are happy contemporaries of flat design 2.0.

Lastly, nothing prevents you from trying to combine these two approaches to create a truly functional and user-friendly product. So, take inspiration from the gurus of flat and material design and get to work!

We don't know if you've noticed or not, but lately (especially in the last year) there has been a clear trend in web design around the world towards simplification, brutal minimalism and visual lightening of what we as users interact with every day. Simply put, the design has become “flat”: in contrast to the convex icons of the times of rapid growth social networks and web 2.0, now we are increasingly greeted by simple icons of new services. All this got its name - flat design. Not apartment, but flat.

With its yesterday's presentation of the new mobile OS, iOS 7, Apple finally confirmed the rapid growth in popularity of this trend, traditionally delighting some of its fans, but also encountering significant dissatisfaction among experienced users and designers. What's the matter? What is the use of this flat design and does the world really need it? We decided to turn to experts from Ukraine and abroad.

We asked them to answer three main questions:

• why the world began to move towards flat design on the web and mobile and what it is;
• what this will give to Apple and iOS 7;
• how this will affect designers on the one hand, and users on the other.

Denis Sudilkovsky, Kyiv
Interaction Design specialist, producer Prodesign.in.ua

The “pendulum effect” in predicting the future is manifested in the fact that if there are two extremes on some issue, humanity will swing from one side to the other. This is no doubt true for the design of interactive systems. The flat and uninterestingly primitive web at one time changed to voluminous web-based buttons. Interface visualizations have reached their peak of realism and the pendulum is flying towards reverse side- flat&simple.

What will Apple get from this? It will retain its place in the trend and hundreds of thousands of comments that their iOS is becoming very similar to Android.

Designers will have to evolve (and don’t joke about when flat design will come to mechanical engineering and give us flat cars :). When there is no decoration, all the work consists of creating a mood with content for a specific scenario with the user. This profession will have more and more in common with the Director than with the Artist. Users, on the contrary, receive new experience and new impressions. Personally, I was an iPhone adherent for 4 years, but this spring I changed my phone to Android for the only reason - I was tired of the monotonous ideality of the Apple interface.

Daniel Bruce, Stockholm
Senior Digital Creative, danielbruce.se

First off, I'd like to point out that I don't like the term "flat design". Most graphic design for centuries has been "flat". I also think it limits your ability to do outstanding design, when the choice is between flat and something else. Design can be much more than this. Cheerful, bright, dark, positive, minimalistic - you can call it whatever you want. But today I rarely hear anyone consider design to be anything more than flat or scleromorphic. It's a little sad.

Why are web and mobile slow to move towards flat design? The way I see it is that it's just a trend. I've never seen an article about the benefits of flat design in user interfaces and still am not convinced of this. Simple and clear design - yes, but this is not the same as “flat”. Look at Google for example. They don't do completely flat designs, they - and I share this point - still see the need for some depth and variation.

I was very surprised when Microsoft chose this direction for themselves several years ago, presenting the famous Metro style. In fact, they used graphic design for large signs that people look at from certain distances and never interact with small screens with a significant number of elements. They look nice, but do they have good usability?

What I saw from Apple last night was just a bad copy of several interesting designs, which have appeared on sites like Dribbble and Behance throughout last year. I didn't see anything new - except that this is far from the same "old Apple" of Steve Jobs. The company showed that it is not at the forefront of design mobile interfaces. Of course, we'll see fans adopting all these white designs and creative gradients over the next few months, but I don't think that aspect will be as impactful as Google's recent shutdowns. But on the other hand, be that as it may, Apple has always been a trendsetter and an inspiration for many people, including me.

Concerning ordinary users, then they like bright colors.

Ivan Klimenko, Kyiv
mobile interface designer, 5tak.com

To a large extent, I'm a little philosophical about this flat styling fascination situation. This is not the first time that designers have become interested in minimalism and artificial materials. Everything passes.

The Bauhaus era of the 20-30s brought a huge contribution to design, but still, the tonal tightness and artificiality could not withstand the desire and inner urge of people to exist surrounded by more natural things.

Then in the 60s everyone started to admire plastic.

Furniture, dishes and even clothes are all made of plastic. It seemed that this new Hope humanity, but again no - people very quickly returned to natural forms or to copies of natural materials.

The harsh contrast of forms and minimalist graphics have always expressed the accumulation of internal conflicts within society. Design is just a mirror that shows our inner world. There's too much going on. Life speeds up very much, and we simply don’t have time to think and consider anything. We often don't have time to just live.

Minimalism and all these electronic hardware are just a step on the road to something more natural and human. More than just another computer. I'm even sad that Apple, which knew how to look deeply, no longer exists.

Olesya Grichina, Kyiv
UI designer at Componentix, twitter: elendiel

I think that the designers were greatly influenced by the large number of gadgets with different sizes screen and resolution - for all this variety it is easier to create a design without textures, complex shadows that correctly take into account lighting, etc. They began to think more in the direction of “how to make it more convenient for the user,” rather than “how to draw beautifully.” Content is the main thing, and in our work it is important to present it in the best possible way.

It seems to me that external changes(flat UI, icons) we especially didn’t notice any serious changes in ease of use, and how people swear about this topic. When they check that it’s working, it will start to say, “Ohhh, how convenient, and why didn’t they do this before?” I hope this will influence designers in such a way that they will pay more attention to the usability of the interface, rather than textures and shadows. In the end, it will be possible to explain to customers that this is a trend :)

I think flat design will not particularly affect users - if it is convenient for them to create and consume content, there will be a lot of satisfied people. But the icons on home screen still acidic :)

Pavel Grozyan, Kyiv
Product Designer at MacPaw, grozyan

"Apple! A-ha-ha, stop it! - The designers are shouting. - Hurray, it became easier. - users are chanting." I understand both points of view. Today, after the presentation from WWDC2013, many of my colleagues stood up and said, “Screw this profession! Anyone can draw such stupidity now. And these icons for $30?!” And at first glance, they are right. But if you dig deeper, you realize that there are thousands of objects that for a long time differed from one another only in the scenario of use, then in shape, then in color, and only then in artistic details. I remember the times when all these guys in LinkedIn profiles which today is written UX, UI Designer, nervously copied the effect of white shadow on the letters. Like Apple. Then light and light sites. Like Apple. Then interfaces rich in textures and realism. Like Apple. All their work consisted of copying, since there was no original, unified and convenient development concept for everyone. This is exactly the problem that flat design solves today. Although it seems wrong to me to call it that way. It’s good that Microsoft didn’t invent it, and it was formed over ten years before digital era, in the field of publishing.

Flat - it is not for clicks, it is for clicks, taps, taps. You can’t call it flat - the absence of “thick” textures and shadows on the buttons makes it rather simplified, and without visual aggression. And you can’t do without gradients for buttons. I support this trend. If it doesn't interfere with the quality of the user experience, it will be easier for everyone to live with. First of all to the user. Secondly, for the creator: it will be easier to technical implementation, more clickable (hello underlined links), and multi-platform - combining web, mobile and desktop into one unified experience. Without a doubt, this is a bold move for Apple. And only they can decide on it. Their story has dozens of confirmations, so they are more likely to succeed than vice versa.