[padolsey]

> On desktops, it's not clear until you hover that it's even an interactive element.

Have you considered that this is due to you and others being conditioned to believe that beveled/3d elements indicate interactivity whereas flat elements do not? Maybe a change is in order...

Also related to the abandonment of "fake" depth in web design is the latest A-List-Apart article, "Material Honesty" - http://alistapart.com/article/material-honesty-on-the-web

[ajacksified]

It's more likely that the problem is because there's very little perceived affordance[1] that differentiates interactive elements from inert design.

[1] http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/affordances_and.html

[argonaut]

The fact is that your average internet user is conditioned to think the beveled elements are clickable. Whether or not that ought to be the case is an utterly useless discussion for your 905% of jQuery theme users, people who want to just build a website quickly.