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98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

(jdan.github.io)
838 points bennettfeely | 2 comments | 21 Apr 20 23:51 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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atum47 ◴[22 Apr 20 04:30 UTC] No.22942201[source]▶
that's really gorgeous. I find windows 95 aesthetics a master piece. I'm not gonna lie, I thought about windows 95 when I was creating FOS, my Fake Operational System "framework".

I'm thinking about refactoring it and I'll may incorporate windows color scheme to it. Here's the link if you wanna see what I am talking about.

https://github.com/victorqribeiro/fos

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Scapeghost ◴[22 Apr 20 09:31 UTC] No.22943744[source]▶
I don't know, Windows 95 looked crude even during its day. Functional, but not pleasant. I guess Brutalist would be the term? As soon as there was the ability to skin it, people tried to veer away the default look, with Mac-like styles being a common alternative.

People probably have rose-tinted nostalgia for the 95 era because of the nightmare that followed: Windows XP :)

replies(2): >>22943937 #>>22944687 #
djsumdog ◴[22 Apr 20 09:58 UTC] No.22943937[source]▶
95 and XP both had good scroll bars. XP styling was pretty good for its era. Modern day scroll bars are atrocious on a lot of toolkits.
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chrisseaton ◴[22 Apr 20 10:44 UTC] No.22944173[source]▶
Now that we have touch gestures we don’t really need visible scroll bars anymore do we? Just the little position indicator that pops up while scrolling.
replies(2): >>22944257 #>>22944686 #
worble ◴[22 Apr 20 10:58 UTC] No.22944257[source]▶
What if you want to know the relative length of a page without scrolling first?

What if it's one of those webpages with a full height hero as the first element and no indicator you can actually scroll?

What if I want to click and drag the scroll to a specific location but have to take wild flailing guesses at where the scrollbar actually is because it keeps going invisible?

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chrisseaton ◴[22 Apr 20 11:06 UTC] No.22944293[source]▶
There’s always obscure use cases like this. You could go on forever listing individual people’s wants and you’d end up with a Homer car.

We design interfaces for the many first, and keep them as simple as possible but not simpler.

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noisem4ker ◴[22 Apr 20 11:19 UTC] No.22944371{6}[source]▶
An always visible scroll bar or indicator is conceptually simpler than one that disappears randomly.

Knowing that a view is scrollable and there's more content to see is absolutely not an obscure edge case but a basic accessibility feature.

Relevant past discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20951580

Also relevant, what happens when the user doesn't realize more content is available: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21353920

replies(2): >>22944430 #>>22944434 #
chrisseaton ◴[22 Apr 20 11:29 UTC] No.22944430{7}[source]▶
Well I just subjectively disagree - as apparently do the legions of professional experts at multiple distinct companies who research user interaction and design these interfaces.
replies(2): >>22944597 #>>22944808 #
1. noisem4ker ◴[22 Apr 20 11:57 UTC] No.22944597{8}[source]▶
I'm convinced designers have since long overthrown human-machine interaction experts, and usability consistently went down in the search for what's visually appealing and cleaner. I particularly blame Apple as a trend-setter in this, along with everyone that dumbly followed the fashion. No appeal to authority will ever convince me that disappearing scroll indicators are good for me, as I've been burned by them and I see less able people around me having ever increasing difficulty navigating modern interfaces thanks to similar innovations.
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2. ◴[22 Apr 20 12:06 UTC] No.22944648[source]▶