this is what they took from us

i genuinely do believe flat design is somewhat evil. it started kicking into high gear around 2012-2014, w/ the introduction of Windows 8 and then OS X Yosemite. this is after the market crash, failure of Occupy Wall Street, and concurrent w/ Obama's reelection

computer interface design from the mid-'90s to the late 2000s was increasingly based around futurism and skeuomorphism. these two components equally meshed and contradicted, but they each had a promise embedded in them

the promise of skeuomorphism is "you already know how to use this. this is all based on principles that are already implemented irl." and the promise of futuristic design is "this opens up a new range of possibilities. your life can be bettered. new things are happening"

obviously there was exploitation, development of surveillance technologies, labour abuse, unfreedom of technology and information, etc. going on behind the scenes in the computer world, but these design choices reflected an inherent hope that computing can enrich human life

on the left is the taskbar on my Windows 7 computer. on the right is the taskbar on a Windows 10 computer. notice that the design is more simplified, and on a functional level this comes at the cost of obviousness: "i pop out of the screen" = "click on me"

on an aesthetic level though, the simplicity is extraordinarily cynical. the old promise of personal computing was a greater depth of life, new dimensions of thought and feeling. the whole world at your fingertips! instant global communication! PC is the new LSD! info vertigo!

flat design literally removes the visual depth from the interface. it's no mistake that in between 2012 and 2014, the years of the aforementioned design changes to Windows and OS X, revelations abt slavery in supply chains and NSA surveillance came to the forefront

effectively, the tech industry had broken its promise to the world. that sense of freedom and possibility it had attempted to create had been constantly undermined from within. technological innovation became used more to control and discipline labour forces than anything else

and the shift away from older design motifs, patterns that connote possibility and newness, seems to be a response to that. an admission of defeat, in a sense: materially winning in every sense of the term, but losing in terms of confidence

if you found an industry on a promise of greater opportunity and freedom, and then it becomes apparent that you've been focusing mainly on control, domination, and exploitation, isn't it easier to just pretend that promise was never made and tell ppl to accept their lot as it is?