Live data from Hacker News

98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

jdan.github.io

111–120 of 216 posts

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be a few years older than you – I get far stronger nostalgic feelings from Windows 3.x UI than that of Windows 9x.

You're in luck: https://codepen.io/matthijss/pen/wzYjJQ

My god, it's glorious! Interesting how many memories can be connected to UIs...

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're in luck: https://codepen.io/matthijss/pen/wzYjJQ

Haha. I was just thinking of that. Been wondering if there's any operating system I can theme to look like Win3.1 any more - the aesthetic of Windows 95 is better but Windows 3.1 seems to fit our contemporary standards of flat and fewer colors better. I did like the more rounded buttons of Windows 3.1 better than the harsher edges of the Windows 95 buttons. The mistakes a driving me crazy. I assume the fonts are just…

Linux + XFCE has a Win 3.1 theme on b00merang's site. Borrow the icons from the Chicago95 theme and you are done.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

95 and XP both had good scroll bars. XP styling was pretty good for its era. Modern day scroll bars are atrocious on a lot of toolkits.

Now that we have touch gestures we don’t really need visible scroll bars anymore do we? Just the little position indicator that pops up while scrolling.

What if you want to know the relative length of a page without scrolling first?

What if it's one of those webpages with a full height hero as the first element and no indicator you can actually scroll?

What if I want to click and drag the scroll to a specific location but have to take wild flailing guesses at where the scrollbar actually is because it keeps going invisible?

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#114
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that we have touch gestures we don’t really need visible scroll bars anymore do we? Just the little position indicator that pops up while scrolling.

What if you want to know the relative length of a page without scrolling first? What if it's one of those webpages with a full height hero as the first element and no indicator you can actually scroll? What if I want to click and drag the scroll to a specific location but have to take wild flailing guesses at where the scrollbar actually is because it keeps going invisible?

There’s always obscure use cases like this. You could go on forever listing individual people’s wants and you’d end up with a Homer car.

We design interfaces for the many first, and keep them as simple as possible but not simpler.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#116
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you want to know the relative length of a page without scrolling first? What if it's one of those webpages with a full height hero as the first element and no indicator you can actually scroll? What if I want to click and drag the scroll to a specific location but have to take wild flailing guesses at where the scrollbar actually is because it keeps going invisible?

There’s always obscure use cases like this. You could go on forever listing individual people’s wants and you’d end up with a Homer car. We design interfaces for the many first, and keep them as simple as possible but not simpler.

An always visible scroll bar or indicator is conceptually simpler than one that disappears randomly.

Knowing that a view is scrollable and there's more content to see is absolutely not an obscure edge case but a basic accessibility feature.

Relevant past discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20951580

Also relevant, what happens when the user doesn't realize more content is available: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21353920

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#117
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fashion is cyclical. At one point people will get bored of these ambiguous modern UI with hidden fields and gestures, and made of 50 shades of light grey that only a calibrated display can render with any discernable contrast. And we will rediscover the merit of clear and explicit UIs, and Apple will claim it just invented it!

I wouldn’t be surprised :) The Windows 95 aesthetic is already back into fashion, I see it a lot on flyers, web art… just not yet in computer applications! I guess that’s a matter of time. Check out the flyer for this party: https://highclouds.org/highclouds-online-antivirus-party-mag... They used vectors, looks like the Windows 95 aesthetics that was so connected to pixel survives this transition quite well!

> already back into fashion

That seems more like retro/throwback fashion (which is always a thing, in every era) than the fundamental principles of that aesthetic being incorporated into modern design (which is what I would typically consider actually being "in fashion").

Still, nice to consider we're at the point where that's what we're framing as retro. No longer is it System 1 or CRT terminals.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#118
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you want to know the relative length of a page without scrolling first? What if it's one of those webpages with a full height hero as the first element and no indicator you can actually scroll? What if I want to click and drag the scroll to a specific location but have to take wild flailing guesses at where the scrollbar actually is because it keeps going invisible?

There’s always obscure use cases like this. You could go on forever listing individual people’s wants and you’d end up with a Homer car. We design interfaces for the many first, and keep them as simple as possible but not simpler.

Knowing how long a document is, and whereabouts your current view is, seems pretty fundamental.

You may as well argue against page numbers in books.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s always obscure use cases like this. You could go on forever listing individual people’s wants and you’d end up with a Homer car. We design interfaces for the many first, and keep them as simple as possible but not simpler.

An always visible scroll bar or indicator is conceptually simpler than one that disappears randomly. Knowing that a view is scrollable and there's more content to see is absolutely not an obscure edge case but a basic accessibility feature. Relevant past discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20951580 Also relevant, what happens when the user doesn't realize more content is available: https://news.ycombinat…

Well I just subjectively disagree - as apparently do the legions of professional experts at multiple distinct companies who research user interaction and design these interfaces.

Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s always obscure use cases like this. You could go on forever listing individual people’s wants and you’d end up with a Homer car. We design interfaces for the many first, and keep them as simple as possible but not simpler.

Knowing how long a document is, and whereabouts your current view is, seems pretty fundamental. You may as well argue against page numbers in books.

You just scroll a tiny bit and you can see. Doesn't need to on the screen all the time, taking up space, distracting from the content which is what I care about, rather than whizz-bang user-interface elements.
Post reply on HN