- popped-out but greyed out - usable, but disabled in the current context
- popped-in - currently has the mouse button depressed on it, but will not fire until you let go. in case of the taskbar, the current selected application (radio button)
- flat/not 3D - not an interactive element, likely just a label
Far beyond being skeumorphic in appearance, they also had a unique visual language that communicated the state of a control. The modern flat UI interfaces entirely gave up on this, and created a simplified experience that also glosses over many UX affordances that people would subconsciously pick up on if present.
Yes! This is one of my biggest gripes with modern flat UI's. What's that thing? Is it a button? I'll just have to hover over it to see... and hope the developer didn't forget to implement a hover state to show me whether this element is interactive.
- popped-out button: available to press
- popped-out but greyed out - usable, but disabled in the current context
- popped-in - currently has the mouse button depressed on it, but will not fire until you let go. in case of the taskbar, the current selected application (radio button)
- flat/not 3D - not an interactive element, likely just a label
Far beyond being skeumorphic in appearance, they also had a unique visual language that communicated the state of a control. The modern flat UI interfaces entirely gave up on this, and created a simplified experience that also glosses over many UX affordances that people would subconsciously pick up on if present.