The concept of Neumorphism, also known as Soft UI has become an incredibly trending topic for the designing community in recent times. Neumorphism is a design term which was coined by Jason Kelly on Michal Malewicz’s medium article “Whats the next design trend?”. However, it was also used by Steve Jobs as “Skeuomorphosm” in 1980 and became a part of the iOS during the early 2000s. We could say that Neumorphism is the successor of Skeuomorphosm.
Design trends have significant contribution in evolving and transforming digital experiences. Neumorphism is basically a way to make designs look softer and more life-like. It is a cleaner and more solid like look and feel, just like in the image below.
In this image you can see that nothing on the screen is flat, it is more like 3D. That is the beauty of Neumorphism.
With the shift from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 we can collectively say that the arena of designing is only going to get more and more creative and innovative with time. It didn’t take very long for Neumorphism to become the talk of town once people around the world actually started to experience it and see it themselves. The concept of Neumorphism is that instead of the traditional way of creating designs that is flat designs that float while casting their
shadow to give it a floating effect, in Neumorphism it is when UI elements are a part of the background itself and come directly out of it. It is as though its pressed out of a mould on to the screen. It is very inclined to a 3D effect. This effect impulsively gives the entire design depth and 3D space. This is also because of the gradients added to it.
It is extremely important for designers to understand that as compared to material or modern design which is created with elements and shapes floating above the page, Neumorphism contains much more depth because here elements and shapes directly extrude from the background itself.
A few good examples of Neumorphism designs are:
Hello Dribble
Spotify Redefined
First Short
Google Analytic
Tesla Smart App
They all have one thing in common – Their “triple layer” designing approach – Neumorphism.
The image below shows the clear difference between material design and Neumorphism design. It is clearly evident that once a user is exposed to a 3 layer design experience they will not wish to go back to the modern or material design experience.
Now let’s understand a few key points to keep in mind while adopting Neumorphism in designs.
First and foremost, the very essence of Neumorphism is the depth it adds to any design. While material or modern designs have 2 levels which are flat and raised Neumorphism designs have 3 levels – sunken, flat and raised. This allows designs to give the users de-emphasis and emphasis effect wherever and whenever necessary making it better for the user to focus their attention in an undivided manner.
In Neumorphism designs the use of pastel colours and light colors is encouraged. This helps balance out the background with the elements to further give it a real 3D effect. Darker shades of colours will not do justice to Neumorphism designs.
Another very intriguing point about Neumorphism is that the buttons have a bouncing off the edges effect to make them look and feel more real for users. To achieve this one must merge both light and shadow in the right manner with utmost consistency. Please refer the image below for a better understanding.
Another question that many around the world ponder over – Is Neumorphism here to stay?
The answer to this is yet to be witnessed, however, many experts in this field believe that Neumorphism will continue to be one of the most popular UI design trend. Specially with the Metaverse becoming reality and finally taking shape, Neumorphism seems to be a good fit for the decentralized digital space. With more and more users getting exposed to the 3 layer design experience Neumorphism sure seems to be around for longer than we think.
Neumorphism is not in anyway drastically changing the way we interact with digital interfaces, instead, it is the same interface in a new skin, in a new approach. As far as usability and accessibility is concerned, there are mixed responses from people in this arena- some say that it could be made more accessible by adding borders. Another concern is that if it will pass the WCAG guidelines. Because of its shadow and light effect it is still not very clear if Neumorphism designs will pass the WCAG guidelines and be accessible to all kinds of users.
The viability of Neumorphism designs is still to uncover and the ability to redefine UI experiences in a fresh new format is a part of evolution. With Neumorphism coming to light, the design world is exposed do an opportunity to re-examine re-think about more innovative ideas to better user interaction and engagement.
This article was shared with Prittle Prattle News as a Press Release.