As you will have read, Apple’s internal political battles have recently led to the firing of Scott Forstall, the person behind most of the “skeuomorphic” design in the Apple operating systems and apps: i.e. making things on the computer of phone look like real-life equivalents; and the consequent promotion of Sir Jony Ive.

Skeuomorphic Apps include things like calendars with torn off paper, podcasts players that look like tape decks, wooden bookshelves, the desktop metaphor in the first place; and so on.

Apple has now dropped the skeumorphism that made it big. More than dropped: in a near Stalinist move, the good is now the bad: “we’ve run out of virtual felt”, “no virtual cows were harmed in the making of this calendar”, and so on, at the recent developer conference.

Way to go, dissing your clients, the clients that chose your OS and made it big precisely because of that design. Thanks, Apple, and for the record, I despise your recent examples of taste too, and will make fun of it in public whenever I like.

I loved that tape deck. It made me listen to podcasts; I have not listend since Apple killed the deck. Because the Apple Supreme Soviet, in its infallible knowledge of what is good for me, dropped it without even leaving it as an option.

The tape deck is a good example of why these interfaces can make sense:

• It showed me that the podcast was actually playing. Near impossible today.
• It shows me how much was done, and how much left (yes, the quantity of tape slowly moved from left reel to right reel). Not easy to see today.
• It showed the speed of fast forwarding, etc. No way you can see this today.
• It was the same for each podcast (now, you watch a company logo, or a portrait, or whatever graphic is embedded in the Podcast)
• It was active (now, 90% of the screen is dead, static; most of the screen now doesn’t do anything).
• Above all, it was fun.

In the 1980s I could never afford a proper tape deck; now I had one, for two weeks, until Apple killed it in favour of something technically inferior and bland and boring.

Skeumorphic design is a dead idea in today’s Apple and Microsoft world, but I think we ignore it at our peril. Was windows 8, which forgoes the desktop metaphor in favour of flat squares, a great success? I didn’t think so. Abject failure.

So why the criticism? Most of the thinking, it seems, is that the metaphors we use (desktops, paper waste baskets, reel-to-reel tape decks, legal paper pads, drop shadows) are for old fogies, like 50 year olds, who have no business thinking about interfaces (much of the criticism, of course, comes from 22 year olds who have never yet worked in an office).

The criticism is missing the point in many ways.

• The metaphors are much easier to learn than bare “flat” interfaces. Even if you have never used a paper notepad or a reel-to-reel tape deck, it would not take you long to figure out the interface. The same cannot be said of  “flat” interfaces, whose user interface is up to the software writer, and for 1,000 software writers, you will get 1,000 interfaces.
• We learn by touching – have you ever seen a baby learn? Have designers forgotten this? The metaphors have physical equivalents you can go and actually see and hold at Staples/Office Depot.
• The skeuomorphic interfaces are often more functional than their flat equivalents. Like the tape deck above, or a desktop with hierarchical “folders within folders” and paper baskets, and so on.
• They are often clearer, since their design idea in the first place was to make it clear. In the new “flat” world, clarity is not a design goal; coolness and scoring political points is.
• The metaphors impose some kind of a standard.
• They are fun.
• They show that loving care was taken in the apps’ design.

So it seems to me that the current trend to dismiss them out of hand is not a great example of clear thinking.  It’s not gone; it’ll be here fore a while; you cannot ignore your clients because you are so cool, witness Windows 8.

I just downloaded a Yamaha audio recorder app onto my iPad:

Not as good that the Apple player was, but not bad.

In the long run, however, the skeuomorphism pushed for by Steve Jobs is probably dead. But not all progress is good. We used to have Concord, now we have 737s. We used to eat ion individually owned restaurants; now we have McDonalds and other chains.  Welcome to tomorrow: get ready for a flat and humourless future and buy glasses to be able to see the illegibly thin Helvetica Neue font that will power all i-device icons.

Would you like fries with that?

Those of you who did NOT receive my mailing yesterday about the new e-book: I send occasional information emails. No more than a couple per month, and they contain info about new products, new courses, special deals, tips and tricks. If you did not get the mail yesterday, and you would like to, sign up here!

(Note: you can always unsign, and I will never sell or share my list with others.)

Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO, said this the other day, when introducing a layout change that makes Flickr look like Windows 8 (ugh):

…there’s no such thing as Flickr Pro, because today, with cameras as pervasive as they are, there is no such thing really as professional photographers, when there’s everything is professional photographers [sic]. Certainly there is varying levels of skills, but we didn’t want to have a Flickr Pro anymore, we wanted everyone to have professional quality photos, space, and sharing.

Thanks. Another reminder of why I dislike Yahoo.

“There is no such thing really as professional photographers, when there’s everything is professional photographers”. Don’t you need to know basic grammar to be CEO? But worse, it is nonsense in terms of content as well.

Airport Security V2 Roller Camera Bag

Ubiquity does not mean professionalism. Everyone having pots and pans does not mean everyone is a chef. First, professional just means “makes his or her living at something”, i.e. having it as a profession. And as that sentence may well lead you to conclude, something as a profession means that you are good at it.

In particular, it means that as a professional photographer (and pay attention, Marissa):

1. You thoroughly know your craft. Having a camera does not imply that. I would not be a teacher if it did. What does even an advanced amateur really know about exposure, composition, or flash techniques? Unless they have been professionally trained, very little.  That’s why I teach (call me!). As a pro, you know more about the interaction of aperture, distance and focal length to create depth of field than most people know about their spouse.
2. You have professional grade equipment. No “1:3.5-5.6” amateur lenses, but “1:2.8” lenses or even better, “1:1.4” prime lenses. You have water-sealed cameras. Many flashes: studio strobes as well as speedlights. Yes, many flashes, not just one. (What, you think studio strobes are unnecessary “today”, Marissa?)
3. You understand light. This is not a given: it takes a while after you acquire the basic skills, to then understand light.
4. You know how to use the latest modifiers and other light-shapers.
5. You understand composition. This is not a given: it takes a while after you acquire the basic skills, to then understand composition.
6. You know about all types of photography – portraits, fashion, product, studio, event, creative, food, the list goes on.
7. You have spares for everything – and I mean everything.
8. You are a highly analytical problem-solver.
9. You are quick and nimble when problems occur – as they always will.
10. You know post-production techniques and software – software like Lightroom and Photoshop, which you have spent many weeks (in the case of Photoshop, months) mastering.
11. You have a proven ability to deliver all the above – proof including a good portfolio, and good references.
12. And, ah yes,  it is a business. Meaning, you need business skills, the ability to (and proven track record to show that you do) deliver in time, the ability to invoice, to write contracts, to be there when promised; to make off-site backups, to charge tax, to budget; you know the law; you understand releases; and so on.

So, yes, Marissa, there certainly IS today “such as thing as professional photographers”. Buying an SLR does not make you a pro. Learning how to use it does, and that takes time. And money. Not that much money today – see www.cameratraining.ca – but it doesn’t happen all by itself, just because Flickr gives you a GB of storage, or whatever.

Pros like myself not only find your statement ignorant and insulting, but worse, think that it does a great disservice to the many people who would like pro skills. Yes, you can grow these, and yes, it is rewarding, and yes, you should.

My advice to everyone: don’t listen to Marissa, she apparently knows not whereof she speaks. Instead, read this site every day, take training (call me!), and head out with your camera and shoot, shoot, shoot, and then shoot some more. And don’t forget: have your portfolio reviewed regularly. Yeah, by a pro.

The power of social media.  Tiger Direct just sent me a message:

“Thank you for the email. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We understand that you do not have the original shipping box. We processed request so we can send you the replacement item and you may use the packaging of the replacement item to send the defective item back to us.

Thank you for visiting our website.  We  appreciate your business.  If you have further inquiries and reply to this email, please make sure to include your entire message, so we can address it appropriately.  Please feel free to contact me at the phone number below should  you require any further assistance.

Sincerely

Thanks! Not exactly the point I was making, and I will still end up paying for the shipping and insurance, but nevertheless, the effort is appreciated. My blog post, and me pointing to it, apparently helped. I’ll keep you all in the loop.