3D vs Flat UI

I understand that aesthetic is relative and purely subjective depending on who you talk to. Some people love the flat UI for different reasons, while others (like myself) want to use a fully 3D UI with impressive graphics and animations. However, it has been well studied and documented that users, on average, do suffer in productivity by about 22% with a flat UI! But, take this article with a grain of salt. I'm not necessarily saying that I dislike modern computing, just that I feel UI design could be a lot better.

Now, what I’m about to say may sound hyperbolic, but the “modern” flat UI that we experience with Windows 10, Mac OS, and mobile operating systems, doesn’t feel “modern” at all. In fact, the flat UI today almost feels like something out of the 90s before we had the ability to incorporate 3D elements and modern graphics into an operating system due to system hardware limitations and a lack of advanced 3D accelerated graphics cards/chipsets. Take Windows 10 as our first example, this edition of Windows out of the box looks like it might have fit as an upgrade from the Windows 9X era! It certainly doesn’t look like a successor to Windows 7! I suppose that’s why an estimated 100 million PCs still choose to run Windows 7 (including three of my own!) Windows 8 was the same deal as 10 with its metro look, so I won’t touch on 8 much in this article. I’m not saying that the UI isn’t usable, but seriously, everything has become flat, bland, and boring. Every version of Windows prior to 8 and 10 introduced a better UI design, better graphics, animations, and a more modern experience than its predecessors. As 3D accelerated graphics became commonplace, so did things like transparency/translucency and 3D animations. The hardware and software developed at the same time, making everything feel fresh every time you upgraded. Today, even the 3D icons are gone or going away and are getting replaced by uninspiring flat icons. I’ve even heard people refer to flat UI as being equivalent to a “flat tire”, it will still do the job, but it isn’t going to be as useful or quick as a properly inflated tire. There is no legitimate reason for Windows to lack features like Aero Glass or 3D Flip. I understand that they have a new “task view” with a workspace manager, but they easily could have integrated both functions into Windows 10 (Ubuntu Unity has a 2D window switcher, several configurable 3D Window switchers, and a 3D Cube/Sphere/Hexagon that functions as a graphical workspace manager for crying out loud!) There are third party applications to tweak Windows 10’s taskbar for transparency, even one for the window title bars (though that seems to be broken on newer builds), and to reintegrate 3D flip. But this stuff should be native to Windows, or at least optional for users that want it! The only options you have now to navigate windows graphically using the keyboard are to use Task View (Windows + Tab) and its flat (and sometimes laggy, depending on hardware) interface, or you can use a very basic flat 2D window switcher using Alt + Tab, similar to the one used in Windows 9X, but ever so slightly upgraded.

And when it comes to themes, even Windows 9X would let you install a wide array of really custom themes that would change the font, icons, title bars, wallpaper, mouse pointers, colours, screen saver, sound scheme, fonts, and font sizes. Windows XP-7 also shipped with several themes and you could always add more that changed similar functions. Furthermore, XP shipped with a classic Windows 9X default theme, while Vista and 7 shipped with optional themes for Aero, the modern Vista/7 theme without Aero (for less graphically capable computers to still have a modern UI), and again the classic Windows 9X default theme, if you wanted your fresh new computer to feel more like what you were used to on your old machine. Windows 8 and 10? Yeah, there’s “themes”, but those only change the color scheme, taskbar color, and desktop wallpaper, a far cry from how great themes used to be. Not to mention, they all almost look the same! The Aero glass and classic themes are completely gone and you’re left with what I could best describe as a watered-down modified Windows 7 Starter-like theme without Aero. Even Windows 9X had gradient title bars (a feature lacking in 8 and 10). I’m sure there’s workarounds to this, but now you’re talking about entering the realm of third-party software/freeware that may or may not work exactly the way you want it to and could be carrying security exploits, when Microsoft has the tools already available to implement this.

If anyone at Microsoft is reading this article, my suggestions to improve Windows going forward are: to include an optional 3D Aero Glass theme with the Vista era 3D icons and to reintegrate 3D Flip. My recommendation would be to reallocate your Task View and Workspace Manager to a Ctrl + Windows + Tab or even a more subtle Ctrl + Tab key combination. Then I would reassign Windows + Tab back to 3D Flip. You don’t even have to modify it, 3D Flip as we saw in Vista and 7 was already flawless! Also, the updates need to be fixed! Consumer users should have an option to refuse the latest major Windows 10 update (21H1 to 21H2 for example) and you need to support your older versions for longer and actually take more time between major updates to make sure your next version is going to work properly and include substantial updates (similar to back when you had a new Windows version every few years, like Windows 95 to 98, 98 to ME, ME to 2000, etc). Mac OS has figured out their updates and those are optional for Mac users. Similarly, most Debian based Linux distributions will allow you to keep the same LTS for up to 10 years with extended security updates without updating to the latest distro!

Moving on, though, Mac OS has done a better job implementing their flat UI than Windows in my opinion. However, the latest Mac OS Big Sur, while it does integrate translucent/transparent effects, lacks a lot of the animations and customizations you used to have with OS X. Off the top, the flat icons and flat dock look like a graphical downgrade from the Mac OS X Mountain Lion steel-like 3D dock and 3D icons seen back in 2012. Mac OS definitely felt more premium before its total shift to flat UI and I wish that was still at least an option. Further to this point, iOS, Apple’s mobile Operating System has received a lot of criticism after Apple fired their iOS software designer and put a hardware engineer in charge of software design. This is what really kick-started the whole flat UI movement and I feel that this was a catastrophic mistake to the industry as a whole. iOS went from a natural feeling 3D interface with applications that resembled real-life objects (a notepad that actually felt like a real notepad with a leather top and yellow lined paper, for example), to this boring flat UI design with icons that look like they’ve been run over by a semi and flattened; with apps that hardly resemble, well, anything.

Android similarly adopted the flat UI and I feel this was another critical mistake, for the same reasons as other operating systems. However, Android does allow users to customize their experience with custom launchers (like Nova Launcher) to set custom icons and customize the look and feel to be more 3D and graphically appealing.

So, with all of that being said, my favorite UI today is the modern, fresh, and highly customizable Unity interface, standard on Ubuntu Unity Remix, and free for anyone to download. This OS is completely open source and comes standard with all of the applications you need to fully customize your Operating System to suit your needs. With transparent/translucent effects right out of the box and customizable 3D application switchers, graphical workspace managers, integration of program toolbars and window control buttons in the translucent taskbar located at the top of the screen, just to name a few. This operating system is excellent for productivity, it is extremely satisfying to use, and above all else, Ubuntu Unity looks like the next logical step in modern User Interfaces! Did I mention that you can search context menus in an application just by tapping “Alt” and searching for whatever command you’re looking for? No more searching through menus or ribbons to find that one command you’re digging for; if you want a table for your LibreOffice Writer/Word document, just tap Alt and start typing “table” and hit enter! This alone can save a great deal of time and keep you more productive!

I really wish the 3D interface was still around, or at least optional, on more platforms and it’s sad to see the majority of computers and modern technology turning towards flat interfaces. The new Google Material Design for Android, for instance, takes its inspiration from pen and paper. Pen and paper? That sounds a lot like the early days of Windows 3.1 when most corporate environments still ran CP/M and had typewriters in regular use! Come on, Google, I know you can do better! While these “new” designs still work and I’m still inspired by what problems modern computing can solve, I really wish that modern computing would look more modern and less like a downgrade from the 2002-2012 era. However, because of this movement, I have even more appreciation for the open-source community and I really love a lot of the open-source operating systems and software that are available to suit just about anyone’s tastes! If you need further proof, just look at the screenshots below side by side and you can tell me which ones look best!

Anyway, thank you for once again tuning into The Nicholas Perspective. If you enjoyed this article, please feel free to catch up on some of my older ones and as always, keep an eye on my News Feed on the Home Page for my latest posts!