Recently I saw a friend put stick-on sparkles onto her phone to make it look new. Although I think part of her reason of not replacing her phone with a newer, swankier model was financially driven, part of me also think that it’s because she likes her current phone. Her attachment to the functionality of the phone makes the tattered appearance tolerable and even worthy of fixing.
Can this be done for mature but out-of-maintenance software? Is it possible for designers to ‘dec’ software such that it’s a pleasure to use again? Softwares like Winamp already support this kind of idea through skinning. How can we push the envelope even further?