tell me what your favorite computing aesthetic was or is.

[aerynv2@tenforward.social]

@cwebber I unironically liked Windows 8: this is a computer, it displays in text and solid-colour rectangles, unlike most of the other "flat" designs there's a thick-stroke border around the buttons that you're supposed to be able to click. I'm sure an actual UX designer could point out the failures in concept or execution, but it felt to me like Windows 3.1 but less beveled because we're all used to computer abstractions by now.

[stellarskylark@solarpunk.moe]

@cwebber I have a permanently burned-in memory of the smart watches the kids get in Spy Kids 2, with their holographic displays and inelegant bulk. Also famously had the ability to do "anything you could ever want...except tell time" because they packed it so full of features there was no room left for the clock. It's something I'd like to at least partially replicate with modern wearables someday.

[brooke@bikeshed.vibber.net]

@aerynv2 @cwebber bold support for the old windows 'metro' look

(i honestly loved that design language on windows phone 7/8, and it had some compelling things to say on tablet, but for me it didn't connect right on desktop. I think a more thoughtful thorough integration could've been possible though! Ah, another universe who knows. <3)

[grace@social.lol]

@brooke @aerynv2 @cwebber Same!! I still miss my Nokia Lumia. It was the easiest to use, had the best information density for me, and I found I used my phone way less because I got all the necessary and pertinent info at a glance due to live tiles.

I know some people have tried to replicate it on Android to mixed success.

[antifuchs@weirder.earth]

@cwebber the lil bounding box selection markers in CLIM/symbolics presentation types.

[brooke@bikeshed.vibber.net]

@cwebber Windows for Workgroups 3.11 was peak Windows UX for me

The operating system itself wasn't _super_ huge but it still offered a lot of the modern conveniences like networking and video playback (well for the time)

You could customize it thoroughly and it didn't force you to run services you didn't feel the need to use

Yes, 16-bit protected mode still sucked to program for but there was the win32s extension to run a clean subset of 32-bit executables, as well as all the DOS games you could eat

And that aesthetic? That clean, flat, borders & bevels look that distinguished between buttons and labels?

Seared into my brain

[brooke@bikeshed.vibber.net]

@pwloftus @cwebber the XL series was absolutely peak Atari design language

[adr@mastodon.social]

@brooke @cwebber Oddly, WfW 3.11 was the last version of Windows I've ever used for, say, more than a 30 minute period. I do remember it somewhat fondly.

[theesm@social.tchncs.de]

@cwebber hardware design wise I love the early 2000s (GameCube, GBA, iBook G3).

On the interface side I am drawn towards neocities/tumblr style lo-fi/pastel/pixel art aesthetics.

[brennen@federation.p1k3.com]

@cwebber early 1990s hypercard, with all the crisp little b&w pixel art icons and careful dithering and tiny sound clips. resedit. using NCSA telnet to log in to an AT&T unix box from an aging mac in the library and read mail in pine.

mIRC running on windows 95. i have a million of those MDI windows-in-windows open. the font is fixedsys. a custom wav file plays when a message comes in on ICQ. in the background, i'm browsing the web with lynx in one of those terrible quasi-terminal windows.

[jfriedensreich@mastodon.social]

@cwebber web os on the last pre

[betarays@p.changeme.fr.eu.org]

@cwebber I’m always fascinated by what people managed to make with vacuum tubes, like cathode ray tube memory. Is there a thermionicpunk?

[jfred@jawns.club]

@cwebber There's a particular retrofuturistic vibe I really like. The sort of things you see in Serial Experiments Lain, Digimon Tamers, Ghost in the Shell, Tron Legacy...

aurahack and Lena Raine made a Cocoon theme I've been using along the same lines, great vibe: https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/track/phantomaos-advanced-computer-system

[dvshkn@social.treehouse.systems]

@brennen @cwebber Yeah, if I had to pick one I'd probably go with b&w classic mac os. It's inspiring how much they did with 1-bit graphics.

[jmopp@masto.ai]

@cwebber UDE should have become a thing. Fond 2004 memories https://udeproject.sourceforge.net/

[brennen@federation.p1k3.com]

@dvshkn @cwebber it was a really delightful aesthetic. it was less delightful how it crashed if you breathed funny or made direct eye contact, but i guess that was basically all computers then.

[dumont@corteximplant.com]

@cwebber in the early 90s I made a shoulder strap for one of my C64s and ran a fake video cable from it to some tricked out ski goggles for a costume cyberdeck. I still think about it often.

[j12i@weirder.earth]

@cwebber honestly what I'm using now. Plasma, serif fonts everywhere, one fhd screen, computing lying down, the relative malleability of the web platform through user styles/scripts, mouse gestures, impending doom, my PC looks like a small console and is plenty powerful… even the mastodon web ui

[myrialux@chaosfem.tw]

@cwebber Clicky keyboards with high-gloss color-coded keycaps! Others have already mentioned the Alien movies, which (along with the game Isolation) have some of that. Something about the tactile nature of it and definitely the fact it can be operated without looking - even though my current keyboard is a very quiet mechanical one.

Related - I liked the era when UI buttons looked like buttons, had some bas relief to them, and depressed with clicked. Aqua on OS X. Windows prior to XP. NeXTstep and Irix. I don't need a full skeuomorphic setup, but today's flat design is boring.

But I also really dig the idea of complex multitouch interfaces. Drilling down into data via zoom, rearranging things with a swipe, and more. I feel like we haven't done much in this area - but maybe that's because it's been tried in-house at Apple, Microsoft, etc. and found to have serious downsides. And I'll admit a lot of my love is nostalgia from all the sci-fi I watched growing up in the 80s and 90s.

[dvshkn@social.treehouse.systems]

@brennen @cwebber I had actually forgotten about the death chimes. Even the crashes had such personality!