Some people often wonder how many differences these two design styles have. But first, it’s important to mention that each of them is based on the skeuomorphism principle.
Skeuomorphism is a design principle that displays things we are familiar with on the screen the way they look in reality. This style was dominant in the interface design at one time. The design looked differently in the past, and the problem is that such an image of the elements is not very convenient, although it considered being great before.

It’s necessary to remove all the decorative elements in the modern design world and leave only available ones to interact with. It was also needed to reduce element’s volume for faster loading and to focus the user’s eye on the essential and necessary things. Thus, everything superfluous from skeuomorphism was removed, and a new style appeared in the design, which now is known as a flat design.
Flat is a minimalistic approach to the design of objects that emphasizes usability. It began to develop as opposed to the concept of skeuomorphism and opposed the methods of “real” visualization of objects in favor of more simplified and aesthetically simple solutions. Flat design became an absolute favorite after the presentation of Apple iOS. The bet is on user comfort in a minimalist approach to design. The choice fell on more simplified and, at the same time, simple solutions in aesthetics. Users, tired of realistic visualizations, switched to this flat format.
In many ways, flat design is more straightforward because it has no shadows, textures, and gradients. This technique allows you to focus on users’ eyes on icons, colors, and fonts. This is, first of all, the style for mobile devices. In essence, it is very convenient and ideally allows users to easily interact with your product since it doesn’t have unnecessary elements.
At first glance, it might seem that simplification of design elements can make your product dull, faded, and not enjoyable. That’s not true.
“Flat” design solutions attract with their cleanliness and sophistication. Products of a “flat” design seem to be an island of calm, stability, and comprehensibility in the period of an overabundance of information and advertising noise.
So let’s look at some flat distinguishing features in comparison with other designs.