[huhtenberg]

That's not what cliché is.

Noise is there to make the design easier on the eye. It simply works better than a solid fill in a lot of situations as it improves visual quality of the design. It is more natural if you will, similarly to how rounded corners look subjectively better than the straight ones. The noise was not extensively used before because it does not compress well, and spending 20KB on a background tile was just too much. Now it is lesser of an issue, so the noisy fill is seeing a wider adoption.

In other words, if it were just a decoration for the sake of decoration, then - yes, you would've been right, but since it carries a useful function, then it is not a cliche.

[lwhi]

No, when something is overused, it actually does become a cliche.

Perhaps noise can improve the visual quality of a design when it's used subtly.

However, I'm increasingly seeing it (over) used in a conspicuous way, and I think it's become a trend. In some cases, I think there's an element of 'lets jump on the bandwagon'.

Round corners definitely became a cliche.

EDIT: re. noise - see dribbble for proof.

[jedsmith]

Do you mean dribbble uses noise subtly or that it's contributing to the overuse? Your point is a bit vague.

I would guess the former, because I think the noise really adds to their presentation. It almost feels like I can rub the lettering on the paper.

[arnorhs]

I could be mistaken, but I think he means that if you browse through some of the submitted designs on dribbble, you can see a clear trend of noise being added into many designs these days. Not dribbble's design itself (although, it DOES use noise in its backgrounds)

[lwhi]

I think dribbble highlighted the use of noise to a wider group of people. I agree it can add to a design - but I think their use of it is largely stylistic.

[mcav]

If you look back at trends in web design over the past 10-20 years, you'll notice the progression of different styles. Heck, go back to circa-2004 "Web 2.0" designs, work your way forward, and you'll see that web design trends change every year.

In another few years, noise will be out, and something else will be "in".

[lwhi]

I agree - noise will reach saturation point (no pun intended) .. and will eventually be forgotten about. When it's used properly, you don't notice it.

I sometimes wonder why we actually need trends. It's an interesting subject - in a way trends are a just part of the commodification of design. They provide a way to transfer values (through loose connotations) to an audience .. I think there's something quite cheap (throwaway) about the concept. Without trends, progress is less able to drive commercialisation and the need to update is less essential.

[dhotson]

Also, a bit of noise helps reduce banding in gradients.

Actually, in Firefox if you use a CSS gradient (ie -moz-linear-gradient) and look carefully.. you'll notice Firefox automatically adds noise/dithering to make it look smoother.