At age 50 now, I'd prefer a Gen X mode where the font size is 125% and the text is high contrast.
Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?
31–40 of 350 posts
Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?
#32Design trends come and go. Minimalism is has probably already peaked, and typically when a trend peaks the next trend intentionally runs against it. The "gen-z" look reminds me of the early web when people thought that and were really exciting html elements. Those were noisy pages, but they had the feeling of an enthusiastic hobbyist scrapbook, and that was part of the appeal. "I could make something cool like that."…
My first thought when I saw the example designs was Geocities; my second was Myspace.
Beyond design trends and generational preferences, the purpose of the app in question matters. A video speed dating app should probably have a more fun atmosphere than Hacker News, Wikipedia, or the Wifi settings panel.
Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?
#33Design trends come and go. Minimalism is has probably already peaked, and typically when a trend peaks the next trend intentionally runs against it. The "gen-z" look reminds me of the early web when people thought that and were really exciting html elements. Those were noisy pages, but they had the feeling of an enthusiastic hobbyist scrapbook, and that was part of the appeal. "I could make something cool like that."…
You’re talking about “weirdcore”: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XpgddVUidq0
Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?
#34At one point the entire web was fun and quirky, then myspace came along and everyone stopped making their own webpages opting instead to customize their profile in crazy ways, then facebook came along and only allowed rigid government like structure. Tumblr was a beacon of hope for a time, but then wild creativity moved to sanctioned playgrounds like minecraft, or to the personal web pages of highly skilled artists.
> At one point the entire web was fun and quirky I'm guessing this time was when you were ages 15-25 or thereabouts? I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary.
I'm guessing this time was when you were ages 15-25 or thereabouts?
I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary.
Dammit, you got me. I was thinking of that age range exactly, and I'm always a sucker for a simpsons quote.
Though it is undeniable that "web masters" in the mid to late 90s were more willing to try wacky things, even on corporate or political types of sites. There weren't frameworks to keep things reigned in, and it was rarely a full time job, so the fact that it worked at all was enough for most people.
Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?
#35Design trends come and go. Minimalism is has probably already peaked, and typically when a trend peaks the next trend intentionally runs against it. The "gen-z" look reminds me of the early web when people thought that and were really exciting html elements. Those were noisy pages, but they had the feeling of an enthusiastic hobbyist scrapbook, and that was part of the appeal. "I could make something cool like that."…
My first thought when I saw the example designs was Geocities; my second was Myspace. Beyond design trends and generational preferences, the purpose of the app in question matters. A video speed dating app should probably have a more fun atmosphere than Hacker News, Wikipedia, or the Wifi settings panel.
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Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?
#36The author is close to an epiphany, but I feel doesn't quite reach it.
Yes, the last few years has seen iOS design trends to learn towards sterile apps where there is little uniqueness across apps.
This is good for novice users, the consistency makes it easier to onboard into a new app. The downside however is that many apps feel the same and have little differentiation.
The solution is to invest in UX and design to find ways to give your app a personality while keeping with the visual affordances users have learned. The solution is most certainly not to add sparkles and off angle text boxes.
Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?
#37I first noticed this "Gen-Z" mode trend when I played Mario Kart on Wii. Compared to N64 or SNES, the screen was so busy. I honestly had a hard time keeping track of where my player was and where the "track" was compared to all the colorful fast-moving background cruft. I'm not a gamer so maybe I'm just not used to it. Fortnite seems like another example of how "Gen-Z" and headachy a digital environment can be. For s…
Mario Kart on Wii was released in 2008, when the oldest of Gen-Z would have been 11 years old. I'm pretty sure that's too young to be setting design trends.
Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?
#38The "Gen-Z" look feels wrong. But if you step back a little bit, all the "flat design" trends of 2011 also felt wrong in the exact same way. "You mean that after all the advances in computer graphics we're going to just go back to text on top of a rectangle like Windows 3.1?" A lot of people forget this since flat design is just how everything is done nowadays.
Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agree. I feel like I've heard so many comments recently that the web looks so boring, and people miss the old fun of the early web. And people who miss the web of the 90s and early Oughts are by definition not Gen Z... I'm excited for a bit of bang and pop and messiness and individuality to come back. With it, I hope for return of websites. You can't display individuality on an endless scrolling feed of social media.
I started out a little curmudgeonly about the style, but was won over by Persona 5: https://www.atlus.com/persona5/home.html It's messy, chaotic, and feels like something from the late 90's/early 00's, where you'd often see custom web pages using formatted images as elements of the page. But I love it. I can't quite make sense of it, as I adhere pretty strongly to brutalism/minimalism when designing my own content.
Persona 5 did really well with balancing their line work and colors. The colors are very bold and in your face, but so is some of the strategically placed line work, so you can still visually differentiate everything.
Re: Light mode, Dark mode, and Gen-Z mode?
#40Design trends come and go. Minimalism is has probably already peaked, and typically when a trend peaks the next trend intentionally runs against it. The "gen-z" look reminds me of the early web when people thought that and were really exciting html elements. Those were noisy pages, but they had the feeling of an enthusiastic hobbyist scrapbook, and that was part of the appeal. "I could make something cool like that."…
Spot on. This is just the anti-trend to minimalism, which again was the anti-trend to what I grew up with:
https://www.cameronsworld.net/
(which was the anti-trend to the original, booooooring beginnings of hypertext)
'All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.' — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry