The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design • Hacker News Board

Re: The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design

#21

Post by compressedgas » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 1:54 PM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #12

mensetmanusman wrote: post #3

I wonder if Apple will ever let people install app icon libraries to change the appearance of default apps. That would be fun (at least I remember having fun as a kid doing that on Windows 95).

Remember that app in the 1990s that allowed heavy-duty customization of the OS? Was it called Kaleidoscope? Can't remember. I know that it could do things like apply a "steampunk" theme, where all the scrollbars turned into brass poles, with green leather handles for the thumb button. Some of the themes were vomit-inducing (most of them, actually), but it did have a couple of great ones.

Kaleidoscope https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/kaleidoscope

Re: The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design

#22

Post by kumarvvr » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 1:56 PM UTC

As with all visual systems, too much minimalism and too much noise spoil the experience.

Ultimately, the context matters a lot. Not to mention the app, target users, complexity of the app, and what not.

But I really hated those flat, borderless 'buttons' in earlier iOS versions.

That's just stupid design. It's minimal for sure, but functionally.

Re: The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design

#23

Post by IfOnlyYouKnew » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 1:56 PM UTC

nathanaldensr wrote: post #2

Of course this author's happy--they're a designer . Meanwhile, everyone else has to absorb the burden of the "pendulum" ceaselessly swinging, retraining their brains yet again to absorb new visual memories and habits. There seems to be no such concept as "good enough."

Programming is currently hating on OOP, in love with strong typing, and somewhere on the way from loving microservices to disowning ever to have spoken in their favor. Ten years ago, it was the opposite.

So this particular quirk of thinking in groups doesn't seem to be confined to the design domain. Nor do "swings of pendulum" preclude the pendulum also having some forward momentum in sum.

Think of it as a skier's waving, or a sailboat crossing against the wind, and the sideways motions is actually required for any forward motion to happen.

Re: The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design

#24

Post by weinzierl » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 1:56 PM UTC

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #14

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #13

Anyone remember Kai's Power Tools? Now that was an interesting UI. https://www.mprove.de/script/99/kai/2Software.html?utm_sourc...

Does anyone know what happened to Kai Krause? Last I heard he was working on Something Interesting, and then silence.

He lives in Germany in the 1000 year old castle he bought in 1999 from the money he made from his ownership in the companies HSC, MetaTools and MetaCreations. The castle was not in the best state back then and was restored by Kai. Here is an aerial photo of the castle from 2009[1]. I lies on the Middle Rhine, a very beautiful area.

[1] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Burg_Rhe...

Re: The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design

#25

Post by masklinn » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 1:57 PM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #13

Anyone remember Kai's Power Tools? Now that was an interesting UI. https://www.mprove.de/script/99/kai/2Software.html?utm_sourc...

Used to be all the rage in the late 90s / early aughts. I can remember many music players (or winamp skins) with that kind of UI texturing.

It was horrible.

Re: The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design

#26

Post by karaterobot » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 1:57 PM UTC

People sometimes forget that the move to flat design was not entirely arbitrary and driven by fashion, it was driven by shifting technology and usage.

Sure, fashion played a role, but in this case the main driver was the need to support devices of different resolutions. Scalability implies vectors, which implies shapes, fills, and strokes rather than bitmap assets.

As a designer who made "skeuomorphic" interfaces before the shift, supporting even a couple of different device sizes with hundreds of different PNG slices had already gotten unsustainable by 2010, and moving to a vector-based workflow was a breath of fresh air.

The pendulum did swing a little too far: some of the early human interface guidelines were wary of the concept of lighting (gradients and shadows). But, realistically, that was unworkable, and those guidelines changed because nobody followed them.

"Flat design" as a moment was actually pretty short. Later iterations on the concepts explored during that moment, such as Material, were actually thoughtful and workable, in my opinion.

Re: The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design

#27

Post by paulcole » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 1:57 PM UTC

vffhfhf wrote: post #6

What if we could give complete control of visuals to user? I use kde nowadays and the amount of customization is awesome. I am using chrome OS theme with tela icon pack and a cool ass animated mouse pack. And its frankly awesome. I feel like Apple is stagnating.

> What if we could give complete control of visuals to user?

This would be a terrible idea.

People complain (in the comments on this very page) that Apple’s professional designers do a terrible job. You think my uncle is going to do better?

Re: The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design

#28

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 1:57 PM UTC

compressedgas wrote: post #21

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remember that app in the 1990s that allowed heavy-duty customization of the OS? Was it called Kaleidoscope? Can't remember. I know that it could do things like apply a "steampunk" theme, where all the scrollbars turned into brass poles, with green leather handles for the thumb button. Some of the themes were vomit-inducing (most of them, actually), but it did have a couple of great ones.

Kaleidoscope https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/kaleidoscope

Yup. That's it.

Re: The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design

#29

Post by searchableguy » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 1:58 PM UTC

rvz wrote: post #16

Apple: We now have an all new redesign for macOS 11... Designers: Apple's done it again, Time to adopt neomorphism in our apps and the web, like we did with flat design and skeuomorphism. Me: About this battery...[0] [0] https://www.macrumors.com/2020/06/23/macos-big-sur-battery-h...

They went too far on that one.

Do designers consider how expensive the gpu rendering is for skeumomorphism or neuromorphism?

Re: The Comeback of Fun in Visual Design

#30

Post by jrockway » Sun, Jul 05, 2020, 1:58 PM UTC

caiobegotti wrote: post #7

In case HN is bringing it down (as it seems to be the case now): https://web.archive.org/web/20200705130437/https://applypixe...

What's weird is that it fails at SSL protocol negotiation; Chrome says it can't agree on a SSL version or cipher.

This is weird because the cert is issued by CloudFlare, who probably shouldn't fail TLS negotiation just because the backend is unresponsive. Very strange.