You’ve probably already heard about flat design — a very popular, current trend in website and user interface design. But is flat design really all it’s cracked up to be? And is it here to stay? While it started a valuable conversation about simplification, it’s already on its way out. What is flat design and where did it come from? Flat design is a shift toward simple, minimal interfaces. It eliminates drop shadows, beveled edges, gradients, and other 3D elements. In a lot of ways, flat design is a revolt against skeuomorphism, which is the practice of creating familiarity by making digital elements look like things in the physical world. Flatvsrealism.com illustrates the clash of the 2 different approaches to design in a great way. Skeuomorphism is often associated with Apple products, which have been incorporating it since the early 1980s. The first Apple desktops introduced icons that looked like folders and pieces of paper — objects that were familiar to audiences that found