[chrisseaton]

> Not sure why the fixation on "kids pick it up just fine".

Well that was the original claim in the thread.

> by observing what parents do

My daughter seems to pick things up by experimentation rather than by observation, and material design works for this.

[srvmshr]

The spirit of the comment was to demonstrate usability among absolute beginners. It is well established that people connect with visuals which are descriptive of inanimate objects in the real world. Some people find it comfortable, while some - simply don't and want futuristic interface. There are people who swear by Metro UI till today. This was not an argument for the sake of an argument.

I grew up with a 386 which was locally available. Then Windows 95 & 98. I shifted to Mac OSX around 10.4. I still feel the skeumorphic iconography was simply beautiful. And by saying that I am saying it as a subjective opinion. And an aggregate opinion which I observe, specially among elderly, is that the icons and UI layout is hard to navigate.

[chrisseaton]

> It is well established that people connect with visuals which are descriptive of inanimate objects in the real world.

Is it really? Or is it just assumed that they do?