2 cents: This is kind of a classic example of a company with their branding in transition to the "what's next" phase of the company
When Apple first moved the design in iOS totally away from the skeuomorphic direction a lot of people complained. The change was jarring and very different from what customers were familiar with so it was expected that there would be a lot of push back.
My hunch: Dropbox is (obviously) taking their design/branding a totally different direction and rather then make it a slow transition (slowly iterating) they're "ripping the band-aid off". I would guess that the next few iterations they'll dial back some of the more extreme directions of this this shift in design to something more pragmatic.
Regardless, (even though I personally I don't like this new direction) I have to admire the bravado behind a company with such a large customer base to make such a drastic change in design.
2 cents: This is kind of a classic example of a company with their branding in transition to the "what's next" phase of the company
When Apple first moved the design in iOS totally away from the skeuomorphic direction a lot of people complained. The change was jarring and very different from what customers were familiar with so it was expected that there would be a lot of push back.
My hunch: Dropbox is (obviously) taking their design/branding a totally different direction and rather then make it a slow transition (slowly iterating) they're "ripping the band-aid off". I would guess that the next few iterations they'll dial back some of the more extreme directions of this this shift in design to something more pragmatic.
Regardless, (even though I personally I don't like this new direction) I have to admire the bravado behind a company with such a large customer base to make such a drastic change in design.