Skeuomorphic is the technical term for incorporating old, familiar ideas into new technologies, even though they no longer play a functional role. Skeuomorphic designs are often comfortable for traditionalists, and indeed the history of technology shows that new technologies and materials often slavishly imitate the old for no apparent reason except that is what people know how to do. Early automobiles looked like horse-driven carriages without the horses {which is also why they were called horseless carriages}; early plastics were designed to look like wood; folders in computer file systems often look the same as paper folders, complete with tabs. One
( Donald A. Norman )
[ The Design of Everyday Things ]
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