> Anyway, if skeumorphism is bad, and the floppy icon is so unrecognisable as to be abstract (which appears to be the 'problem' these designers think needs solving), doesn't that mean the floppy icon is now good?
The short answer is "No."
The long answer is that the skeumorphism is bad argument is generally that trying to imitate some kind of physical analog of the computerized process you are doing isn't an effective way of presenting a UI, in part because it imposes additional constraints that aren't native to the medium you are using (limiting your ability to fully utilize the medium you are using) and that it relies on experience with the particular physical analog to provide user understanding of the UI.
An icon that is functionally abstract because it references something that is outside of most users experience would be an example of the problem, not something that somehow flips it on its head and so becomes good.
(OTOH, the use of the floppy-disk-image-as-save-icon is so ubiquitous in software that it is probably a useful image that is well recognized, but that's neither because it originates as a skeumorph or because it is abstract now, but because it is ubiquitous in the digital realm, independent of its origin or current relation to user's non-digital experience.)
The short answer is "No."
The long answer is that the skeumorphism is bad argument is generally that trying to imitate some kind of physical analog of the computerized process you are doing isn't an effective way of presenting a UI, in part because it imposes additional constraints that aren't native to the medium you are using (limiting your ability to fully utilize the medium you are using) and that it relies on experience with the particular physical analog to provide user understanding of the UI.
An icon that is functionally abstract because it references something that is outside of most users experience would be an example of the problem, not something that somehow flips it on its head and so becomes good.
(OTOH, the use of the floppy-disk-image-as-save-icon is so ubiquitous in software that it is probably a useful image that is well recognized, but that's neither because it originates as a skeumorph or because it is abstract now, but because it is ubiquitous in the digital realm, independent of its origin or current relation to user's non-digital experience.)