Skeuomorphism, for better or for worse

A word of the week: “Skeuomorphism.” We heard it this week while covering the ouster of Scott Forestall, a senior executive at Apple. It refers to a digital design approach in which things on the screen are made to look old-school, like the app for notes that resembles a yellow legal pad. Forestall was close to the late boss Steve Jobs who favored that look. Some designers think skeuomorphism is as tacky as naugahyde and could be on its way out at Apple.