It seems to be already a strong trend in software the mimicking of real-world objects. The trend has been recently emphasized, specially, by Apple and it is creating a lot of controversy among usability experts and interaction designers.

At a first glance, it doesn’t seem to be a bad thing, specially on interfaces designed for tablets targeted to the mass market. But the following is what is ringing a bell:

It seems that the new Address Book for Mac OS X Lion will look like a real address book. This could bring several problems with it, but the most important one is the brake of the user interface standards put in practice by Apple itself. Aside from that, Address Book is a very important productivity tool and this design seems, with several distractions, to require a lot of attention from the user.

The last time I used a non-electronic address book was 11 years ago, then why would I like to go back to a paper-like interface? Even worse, this old style interface might not be understood by the younger generations, many have never seen a paper address book.

Kindle for iPhone and iBooks

Above, you can see the default home screen for the Kindle (left) and iBooks (right) apps. The later mimics the real world with an inefficient way to present titles in the library.

Stanza for iPhone and iBooks

Above, the Stanza (left) and iBooks (right) apps. Stanza focuses on the content and does not try to mimic the real world: flipping pages is really fast and no visual decorations are added.

So why?

It’s a fact that applications that look good are perceived by users as easier to use. From the marketing point of view, applications mimicking the real world might also get much more attention from the general public.

So what’s the problem?

In many cases these applications are not efficient and not follow the rules. It is hard for me, as an Apple fan, to accept the fact that the wind of change might be blowing through Apple: they are braking their own rules.

Although these cases might only be bad examples, the worrying part is that Apple is usually a trend setter and many developers and designers might be tempted to follow. All-right, if users don’t complain at the beginning; most user interface designers know that this path is a dangerous one.

This post is a recap of a vivid discussion I had with my friend and usability expert, Martin Schultz. The topic was also recently mentioned in the episode 17 of the Build and Analyze podcast.