[ckz]

I've actually starting incorporating the Vista/Aero aesthetic again in some recent UI work. Not explicitly in anticipation of the 20y trend cycle returning to it and not nearly the same level of overall gloss (yet?), but I wouldn't be surprised if it feels fresh and new soon enough. :)

Though from a hobbyist perspective I probably own more interesting designs falling under Y2K. Transparent PDAs, game systems, etc. have always been cool in my book!

[eternityforest]

I've been getting back to that too, along with deep selectable theming and skinning based on more organic textures like old parchment.

One thing I noticed when building my new CSS framework is that skeuomorphic design is less forgiving of deeper UI issues. You can just skim over badly organized form controls when everything looks like just a run of text with big spaces and the same 2 colors.

When you do skeuomorphic design, that button nobody uses that really belongs in a separate tab really stands out.

And if it's cluttered with 20 inputs and they're all equally important, it makes the need for deeper UI changes to the whole workflow really obvious. Some stuff can be automatic, some stuff can be done with more advanced controls, maybe some stuff should be a guided dialog rather than 10 scattered inputs you have to hunt for and know which ones to use in which cases...

Modern UI practices in a lot of apps are really good. They're instantly usable, with most things automated and uncommon stuff in hamburger menus. We also have high res displays. It's easier than ever to do skeuomorphic stuff!