The Winamp skinning era represented something fundamentally different from today's design philosophy. It was about personal expression, creativity, and making your tools reflect your personality rather than conforming to a universal aesthetic. When users could fundamentally alter their software's appearance, they became co-creators rather than passive consumers. That's a very different relationship with technology than what we have now, and I hate it.
Some of those OS X/XP/7 themes were gorgeous but also very practically usable. Many still hold up well today, and I’d use them over the majority of themes available for Linux desktops if given the option.
http://old.reddit.com/r/90sdesign/comments/1bzb2yp/the_gizmo...
I actually wish we emphasized these values more. The psychology of human computer interaction is still ripe for improvement, but instead we are turning figma art into code.
I also remember trying to make my own after seeing good ones and bad ones. It was tedious and it's shocking that there were actually any good ones ever with how awful it was to create a skin. It was all flat and even more difficult to discern that a The Sims skin.
Material design has setup people so well that you are bored with how good we have it. I would not mind some more creativity in the space, but be aware of how far we have come.
Google itself has shipped various iterations of Material components (first Polymer, then MDC Web, and finally the Material Web Components from the original Polymer team), but has since given up on supporting Material for third party web authors.
However, given Material's popularity, I think it's inevitable that poorly designed/unergonomic apps will cheapen M3 a lot in the coming years. Same as it happened with Material 2. It used to be associated with clean, professionally developed apps; then it became associated with the worst of the worst and a lot of mediocre stuff, too. Sturgeon's Law is not kind to these things.
Material 2 may have felt corporate and boring, but I disagree with this accusation.
Before Material, indie apps on Android were big grey buttons and unpadded text on a black background. Not everything that tries to use Material does a good job, but the starting point is better now than it used to be.
For example:
> Notifications should: Be about the user, not the product [..] Give users easy controls to opt out, Not be used to send unsolicited ads
... is really good advice lots of tech companies should use.
Such as... ?
The love, the fear, the despair in our hearts. Our disgust for ourselves, our pride in what we make.
The admiration you have for your child. The worst you’ve ever been hurt in your life. Feeding the birds out of your hand. Near death experiences. The best mistake in your relationship.
It’s a crowning achievement, being able to fit all this into a button; into the rounded corners; into the reloading animation.
What are stories for anyway?
Also, this talk of emotion combined with your user name reminded me of this brilliant poem by Billy Collins, "The Lanyard".
I will continue to think mobile UI peaked around Android 4.0.
chrismorgan•6mo ago