Yeah, yeah. I know what you're thinking. "Josh, what is this word, and how do I even pronounce it?" Well that is a very good question. But just as a brief intermission, care to see what my family said when I asked them what a Skeuomorph is?
Dad: "A dry fly used for bass fishing"
Mom: "Something that twists itself inside out to change its shape."
Jessie: "A shape that is a series of lines that are arrayed."
Okay, so at least Jessie and Mom got the whole "shape" thing right. But oddly enough, Dad gave a really good example of a Skeuomorph.
See, a Skeuomorph is an unnecessary decoration on an object. For example, the blue dye in jeans. It doesn't need to be there, because the fabric used for jeans is originally white or tan. But since we always associate Jeans with Blue, clothing companies unnecessarily use blue dye to make us feel better.
So, why was a Dry Fly a good example of a Skeuomorph? (I don't know much about fly-fishing, but I do know this much.) The Fly does not have to have the colors it does. Many bass are not color-blind, per se, but they do have a terrible sense for color. They see more color than dogs, who only see in Black and White, but bass see in very muted shades of colors. So in this picture, there is no absolute need to have it all these colors. In this case, it's more of a selling strategy, the company knowing that fishermen will go for the more brightly-colored flies.
The word Skeuomorph comes from the roots skeu-, meaning vessel or implement, and -morph, meaning shape, form, or structure. The word was first used by Charles Sutton in his Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, in 1883. It was not defined in the book, so I don't know how it got the meaning it has today.
You encounter Skeuomorphs every day, without even realizing it. Think about it-- when you use your cell phone, what does the icon for the Phone/Dialer look like? It most likely looks like a retro, 90's telephone. And the Mail? It looks like an envelope, even with how hackneyed they are these days. App developers purposefully create their icons to look like representations of things, even though it's completely unnecessary.
So there you go. Skeuomorph. Use it whenever possible. It's a great word.
Dad: "A dry fly used for bass fishing"
Mom: "Something that twists itself inside out to change its shape."
Jessie: "A shape that is a series of lines that are arrayed."
Okay, so at least Jessie and Mom got the whole "shape" thing right. But oddly enough, Dad gave a really good example of a Skeuomorph.
See, a Skeuomorph is an unnecessary decoration on an object. For example, the blue dye in jeans. It doesn't need to be there, because the fabric used for jeans is originally white or tan. But since we always associate Jeans with Blue, clothing companies unnecessarily use blue dye to make us feel better.
So, why was a Dry Fly a good example of a Skeuomorph? (I don't know much about fly-fishing, but I do know this much.) The Fly does not have to have the colors it does. Many bass are not color-blind, per se, but they do have a terrible sense for color. They see more color than dogs, who only see in Black and White, but bass see in very muted shades of colors. So in this picture, there is no absolute need to have it all these colors. In this case, it's more of a selling strategy, the company knowing that fishermen will go for the more brightly-colored flies.The word Skeuomorph comes from the roots skeu-, meaning vessel or implement, and -morph, meaning shape, form, or structure. The word was first used by Charles Sutton in his Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, in 1883. It was not defined in the book, so I don't know how it got the meaning it has today.
You encounter Skeuomorphs every day, without even realizing it. Think about it-- when you use your cell phone, what does the icon for the Phone/Dialer look like? It most likely looks like a retro, 90's telephone. And the Mail? It looks like an envelope, even with how hackneyed they are these days. App developers purposefully create their icons to look like representations of things, even though it's completely unnecessary.
So there you go. Skeuomorph. Use it whenever possible. It's a great word.
Try recording yourself pronouncing the word and then putting that into the posts as a link.
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