I actually love this, and I bookmarked it. Why? Not just because of nostalgia. Web 1.0 sites had a different set of UI idioms, which seem unintuitive to us, as we're too set in our new ways now. If you get past the fact they're ugly by modern standards, you'll see these sites accomplishing amazing results through startlingly simple means. It's an excellent source of inspiration, and if you combine those ideas with mo…
I still don't believe modern we design is actually preferred by the masses. Ofen times it isn't even a balance between aesthetics an clarity, because the modern pages are broken or otherwise unusable. It has gotten to the point where I wonder if maybe I'm not neurotypical. I'll take sites formatted like Craigslist 100% of the time. Now I'm just waiting for windows OS to fully replace file navigation text with iconogr…
I remember when that started taking off; it was honestly kind of a godsend because one of the laziest way of doing things suddenly became associated with professionalism. On the other hand, it's getting pretty bland as a consumer now that every site is doing it.
Compared to images as buttons of the 2000s, something adjacent to material design seriously cuts down on the number of graphical assets necessary for develop anything. Even games seem to follow that trend: compare Crusader Kings 2 vs Crusader Kings 3, with image buttons vs a general UI toolkit in the two games.