And the funny thing is that the people that are now loudly proclaiming everything should be flat are likely the same that were calling all old 'flat' interfaces boring in the days that gradients and shadows became hip.

UI design seems more sensitive to fashion whims these days than woman's clothing.

> UI design seems more sensitive to fashion whims these days than woman's clothing.

I'd say that this is largely in part due to the fact that so many designers base their entire livelihoods on copying trends, instead of really understanding why they should or shouldn't. Bad photographers are everywhere with awkward poses and HDR, but bad designers can mask their lack of creativity by mimicking the 'next hot thing' and get tons of kudos for it.

UX hipsters I tell ya!

I like the flat style, but it's annoying having buttons and alerts/labels look exactly the same. You can't immediately tell what's clickable and what isn't.

In this situation, it's probably best to differentiate between the two with color—but you're right, it's silly to lose the already-established visual cues.

Colour is a terrible visual cue because colour perception is heavily relative to the viewer. Strong visual signposting is more apt (hence why playing with underlining should not be abused).

I like the flatness too, but still prefer roundrects. They'll never go out of style.

Exactly. Flat is the new thing, but people forget that depth and perspective are useful visual analogues. They help us realize what we can interact with versus what is just a flat piece of paper. YMMV.