Comment by mrweasel

> I have to wonder if anyone likes flat user interfaces or just user studies are broken.

My impression was that it was an attempt to get engineers to be able to do the design, rather than involving graphic artists.

I also think that we often conflate pretty with usable. There's nothing more interesting than these user interfaces that has grown organically for 20+ years. They look "bad" or at least old, but that doesn't mean that they necessarily have poor ergonomics. Some people, myself included, have tried to force that old-school, hodgepodge look, but you can't really do that either, it doesn't work. You just end up with ugly and confusing. Those interfaces has to evolve organically.