Skeuomorphism

Here’s something I came across through a Telegraph interview with Apple’s English design superstar, Jonathan Ive. The word is pronounced ‘skew-o-morf’, and in this context means;

a tendency for new designs to retain ornamental features of the old design.

It apparently makes take up of the new more likely.

As wikipedia states (!)

Skeuomorphs may be deliberately employed to make the new look comfortably old and familiar

And herein lies a cunning truth. Many salesforces I see given a new product launch, are often regaled solely in the newness of it. To the extent that it is heavily promoted as radically different from anything gone before.

In my experience, this makes take up by the salespeople tricky. They shy away from it. Bit too new, they think, best leave it for now. If it’s like that for them, imagine how prospects feel.

Whereas, if you build on what’s gone before, even if – and this is crucial I suspect in skeuo-terms – what’s gone before is but a mere ghost in the new ‘supersession’, take up is way more likely.

If it’s a good enough building block for the largest company on the planet – and the one possibly most lauded right now – then it’s good enough for your next launch too.