Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode? • Hacker News Board

Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?

#211

Post by beders » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

deltarholamda wrote: post #173

api wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not new. Gen-Xers got the same thing. Boomers got the same thing. Lazy stereotyping wasn't invented yesterday. I don't think this blog post means to stereotype all of gen-Z though. I think they're just using it as a foil to talk about the counter-trend to early-21st-century minimalism. That was in turn a counter-trend to late-1990s / early-2000s eclecticism like old Geocities.

>Gen-Xers got the same thing GenX got ignored. The baton was passed from Boomers to Millennials. I guess we were all taking a bathroom break or something. GenX UI, at least on the Web, was TABLE layouts with spacer GIFs dictated to us by Boomers who wanted brochures. Our crowning design achievement still lives on in WiFi router Web management tools and phpBB. Yo, anybody going to the Phish concert? I need a ride.

Tears for Fears is touring again and I'm planning to catch Steve Hackett as well.

Still being talked into seeing a-ha and Duran Duran. Go Gen-X!

Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?

#212

Post by dwmbt » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

whimsicalism wrote: post #100

user_7832 wrote: post #83

I am a little surprised to see no one question the author's description or assumption of "Gen Z". As someone presumably from Gen Z, I find both interfaces either bad or terrible. The partiful design is outright tacky and looks terrible (nothing homogeneous, questionable design choices etc) but Filteroff has so much whitespace it feels like it was designed by soulless corps at Uber or Facebook who just studied from Pi…

Eh. I agree with what you are saying, but also think the general trends they are pointing out do seem to sort of be preferred by Gen Z.. more "maximalist." Look at Depop, for example. --fellow gen Z-er

i agree with the rest of the comments in the thread. there are certainly generational stereotypes, i guess in the world of design ours are an overdose of gradients and rounded corners lol. personally, i'm a fan of a little bit of the maximalist vibe and some brutalist elements mixed in. everyone should try to cultivate their own "aura", that's why i make a shit ton of personal websites (at least one every year) and experiment with trends that i like.

i'll go ahead and also point out where i see these trends are popping up all the time: web3 and crypto. notably, zora and the rainbow wallet do them well, i feel. i think you'll find that the design teams for these companies are pretty young. i even know of some high-schoolers that are part time employees for web3 companies (as designers).

i guess it's a little tangential but it's something i rarely see talked about with web3 -> they will succeed not because of the legitimacy of the technology but largely because of their appeals to the young*. young people love anything with hints of counter-culture and feeling like we're a part of a revolution; it's a thing, i think. though, decentralized stuff isn't really all that punk anymore...

--(another) fellow gen Z-er

* s/o Kropotkin

Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?

#213

Post by cpcallen » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

asciimov wrote: post #137

Millennial here, I welcome anything to break up the current design aesthetics. I never liked material design and designs from Apple and Google both look tired. I did dark modes before it was cool, but now that I'm getting older, I want some kind of grey mode. Something that doesn't feel like I'm looking down the barrel of a flashlight nor something that's gonna cause eyestrain. As for all the flashy doodads and movem…

I was wondering how long it would take before I saw someone advocating for webpage backgrounds to be grey again. Mosaic (and later Netscape) had the right idea from the start. It's only too bad it's taken so long for us to get back to where we started.

Sincerely,

an old curmudgeon.

P.S.: Get off my lawn!

Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?

#214

Post by dtx1 » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

moltke wrote: post #69

chrisco255 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure the N64 and SNES Mario Karts weren't just less busy due to hardware constraints? N64 had limited polygon count compared with modern gaming systems. Also, the Wii came out in what, 2006? It's definitely a millennial gaming system.

>It's definitely a millennial gaming system. In fact I can't think of another product that's more quintessentially millennial than the Wii.

> In fact I can't think of another product that's more quintessentially millennial than the Wii.

Antidepressants come to mind

Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?

#215

Post by swiftcoder » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 4:56 PM UTC

You know, the internet I remember looked a lot more like that "fun" app, once upon a time... Bright colours, flashing marquees, comic sans everywhere.

I don't think GenZ is the problem here. The bland corporate aesthetic that has taken over tech spaces is... bland and corporate.

Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?

#216

Post by closetohome » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 4:56 PM UTC

neilpanchal wrote: post #175

yakubin wrote: post #128

Every single element of design featured on this page looks terrible: the apps and websites visible in screenshots, the blog itself. The excessively rounded ages make me feel as if I was in a children's house, where everything was rounded so that children don't hurt themselves hitting their heads on corners, or even on a children's carousel. The text on the website isn't evenly centred inside the boxes (top padding is…

We think alike. I am building a UI framework that goes against the grain of basically all contemporary design. It will echo the Berkeley Graphics philosophy: Emergent over prescribed aesthetics. Expose state and inner workings. Dense, not sparse. Explicit is better than implicit. Regiment functionalism. Performance is design. Verbosity over opaqueness. Ignore design trends. Timeless and unfashionable. Flat, not hiera…

I think those are all good ideas. Minimalist design trends have nothing to do with generational taste, and everything to do with practicality. As technology became more ubiquitous we had to design for less technically-literate people, period. Simplicity, if nothing else, generally makes it harder for people to get in trouble with the UI. It definitely went too far, but the inspiration was for the most part usability, not aesthetics.

Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?

#217

Post by deltarholamda » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 4:56 PM UTC

mostlysimilar wrote: post #203

deltarholamda wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Gen-Xers got the same thing GenX got ignored. The baton was passed from Boomers to Millennials. I guess we were all taking a bathroom break or something. GenX UI, at least on the Web, was TABLE layouts with spacer GIFs dictated to us by Boomers who wanted brochures. Our crowning design achievement still lives on in WiFi router Web management tools and phpBB. Yo, anybody going to the Phish concert? I need a ride.

In my opinion phpBB remains a more usable interface than many modern software applications, especially the web. Dense with information, tools that empower the user to sort, search, and filter. Ability to express yourself via avatars and signatures, multiple color schemes and interface options.

You're wrong because Twapper has a market cap of 65 billion dollars. People love reading things by scrolling down, and then up. And then scrolling down again, pawing at their pocket-sized supercomputers like monkeys before the Monolith.

Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?

#218

Post by gunfighthacksaw » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 4:56 PM UTC

jamil7 wrote: post #60

dugmartin wrote: post #31

At age 50 now, I'd prefer a Gen X mode where the font size is 125% and the text is high contrast.

Boomer mode is when there's 13 advertising popups all over your screen and autoplaying videos on full volume.

Hear that honey? Free cruise! God I hate my wife.

That Joe Brandon has bio labs in the Ukraine too! Election stealing sonuva…

Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?

#219

Post by v-yadli » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 4:57 PM UTC

Looking at that partyful website vs. the author's app, an immediate analogy struck me as Discord vs. Microsoft Teams. (doge

So what is it? Colors? Animations? Gamification? Memes? "Crossing the line"?

Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?

#220

Post by dleslie » Tue, Mar 15, 2022, 4:57 PM UTC

_lqaf wrote: post #176

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Welcome to what millennials have experienced for a couple decades: Older generations who think they know exactly what the younger generations want based on little more than a stereotype or maybe the feedback from one young person they spoke to once.

Millennials are spoiled by the attention. The Committee for Generational Distinctions is still trying to erase the existence of GenXers. But it all gets better in your 40s. That's when you and your peers start to have enough power and money to be catered to. And when the 20-somethings start bitching about you. > Older generations who think they know exactly what the younger generations This is frequently called 'soci…

We millennials are turning forty, for the first time, this year!

I'm waiting with eager anticipation to hear what wrongs our whole generation is uniquely responsible for.