There's a big User Interface discussion swirling around in there. I assumed we had the interfaces we do because "trope makers" get influence and then that influence travels to the ecosystems. There's no reason we can't have more "fun" in the interfaces, unless someone thinks it will hurt sales by looking "not professional".
I took a small step towards this "Fun" theme in my NANY app from a couple of years ago. It dates from just before the time when I resigned myself to "all apps are boring" per this article. When I commissioned it, I did spend a few moments wanting to add a little zest, and so added in the UI skins. When I was just starting out working, I thought it would be fun if there were some interfaces that looked like some of the alien tech from Star Trek!
More recent forays into the learning curve thing are when I asked Vladimir to build in the modular "simple skin" for Real World Paint. It had only the ten-ish features I use, and all the other stuff became tucked behind a toggle in case I actually needed it.
