6 ms·

It makes me sad that the web design museum is mostly made up of corporate sites. Companies didn't take the web too seriously in the 90s and early 2000s...at lea

by madrox 8y ago

It makes me sad that the web design museum is mostly made up of corporate sites. Companies didn't take the web too seriously in the 90s and early 2000s...at least as it pertains to design. If you wanted to look at good design back then, you went to fray.com, glassdog.com, 0sil8.com, zeldman.com, and others I don't remember. Oh boy those were the days...

brandonmenc 8y ago
Fortunately Fray has all the old site up as an archive[0]. Also can't forget k10k.com and everything they linked to. [0] http://fray.com/index-old.shtml http://fray.com/index-old.shtml
- madrox 8y ago
  Thanks for linking this! It's great that, for how avant garde this stuff was, it still works great in modern browsers.
- themodelplumber 8y ago
  Man, people still aren't as creative with their headings (see the simple icon overlap in the iTunes heading) as they were in the days when when you had to use images as headings to even use a unique font. Even though such capability can be abused, it's kind of depressing to still miss this option in most projects due to time, etc. from a graphic design standpoint.
- chrisco255 8y ago
  K10K is on the museum's page: https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/kaliber10000-2003 https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/kaliber10000-2003
- fireattack 8y ago
  Is this supposed to be "better" than company ones? I don't see much improvement to be honest.
bennyp101 8y ago
Oh wow, glassdog.com that brings back some memories!
radley 8y ago
... or 2advanced.com, gmunk.com, tokyoplastic.com and other Flash wizards.
ObsoleteNerd 8y ago
Thanks for the nostalgia trip. That's a very special era to me personally, and shaped my entire life and career since then. I'm a very nostalgic person in general (due to health issues now making me face mortality etc) and I think the late 90s online scene was the most incredible "scenes" I've ever experienced. Everyone was a hacker, and everything was customised and modified and tweaked to within an inch of its life. These days it's a mission to even theme your OS to how you want it, but in those days running anything "stock" was almost a crime. It's a real shame to look at where our interfaces with technology went. From the modern web to modern OS design to modern app design, it's all just so illogical and... shallow? Like a celebrity's fake face and smile. I'm not sure what the word is. Linux seems to be one of the last places where you can find efficient and intelligent design (most of the time :P), and an encouragement to customise and modify to your liking.
- IAmGraydon 8y ago
  I could not disagree more with your third paragraph. Many of these old UIs were esoteric to the point of being nearly unusable. The art and science of UI design has rapidly evolved since those days. The purpose of the UI layer is not to serve as a medium for self expression of its creator. It’s purpose is to create an intuitive link between the user and the data or system beneath it. Modern UI design has done a much better job of making this link more intuitive and transparent.
  - ObsoleteNerd 8y ago
    Yeh I was kind of broad with that statement due to tiredness. I was specifically thinking of Windows 10 vs Windows 98, examples like that. It's not just Windows either, but so many websites go for this "huge whitespace, zero content" style too. Just trying to find the address or contact details for a restaurant can be a frustrating experience these days. But yes, that era did have a lot of over-design as well, and we've studied and progressed UI/UX in a lot of truly awesome ways in recent times. I just wish we'd get past this "minimal" crap.
- neuralRiot 8y ago
  In the 80s with the "democratization" of technology we all dreamed of a future where all the population would become tech-savvy, instead we dumbed down devices and their interfaces and now everything looks like is made by hasbro and automated to the point that users don't even need to know what they really want to do.
dplgk 8y ago
For over the top, awesome design, a lot Flash guys looked at 2advanced.com... Also egomedia.com https://www.malandarras.com/2advanced https://www.malandarras.com/2advanced
contingencies 8y ago
Fravia
icc97 8y ago
They had k10k on the first page which I remember well. powazek.com was also great. It's a surprise that zeldman isn't on there, his site is still going strong. What was interesting to see was kottke.org that's been showing up on HN for a long time [0] [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31413 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31413
- kaycebasques 8y ago
  Zeldman: https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/jeffrey-zeldman-1999 https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/jeffrey-zeldman-1999

by madrox 8y ago

brandonmenc 8y ago

Fortunately Fray has all the old site up as an archive[0]. Also can't forget k10k.com and everything they linked to. [0] http://fray.com/index-old.shtml http://fray.com/index-old.shtml

madrox 8y ago
Thanks for linking this! It's great that, for how avant garde this stuff was, it still works great in modern browsers.
themodelplumber 8y ago
Man, people still aren't as creative with their headings (see the simple icon overlap in the iTunes heading) as they were in the days when when you had to use images as headings to even use a unique font. Even though such capability can be abused, it's kind of depressing to still miss this option in most projects due to time, etc. from a graphic design standpoint.
chrisco255 8y ago
K10K is on the museum's page: https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/kaliber10000-2003 https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/kaliber10000-2003
fireattack 8y ago
Is this supposed to be "better" than company ones? I don't see much improvement to be honest.

bennyp101 8y ago

Oh wow, glassdog.com that brings back some memories!

radley 8y ago

... or 2advanced.com, gmunk.com, tokyoplastic.com and other Flash wizards.

ObsoleteNerd 8y ago

Thanks for the nostalgia trip. That's a very special era to me personally, and shaped my entire life and career since then. I'm a very nostalgic person in general (due to health issues now making me face mortality etc) and I think the late 90s online scene was the most incredible "scenes" I've ever experienced. Everyone was a hacker, and everything was customised and modified and tweaked to within an inch of its life. These days it's a mission to even theme your OS to how you want it, but in those days running anything "stock" was almost a crime. It's a real shame to look at where our interfaces with technology went. From the modern web to modern OS design to modern app design, it's all just so illogical and... shallow? Like a celebrity's fake face and smile. I'm not sure what the word is. Linux seems to be one of the last places where you can find efficient and intelligent design (most of the time :P), and an encouragement to customise and modify to your liking.

IAmGraydon 8y ago
I could not disagree more with your third paragraph. Many of these old UIs were esoteric to the point of being nearly unusable. The art and science of UI design has rapidly evolved since those days. The purpose of the UI layer is not to serve as a medium for self expression of its creator. It’s purpose is to create an intuitive link between the user and the data or system beneath it. Modern UI design has done a much better job of making this link more intuitive and transparent.
- ObsoleteNerd 8y ago
  Yeh I was kind of broad with that statement due to tiredness. I was specifically thinking of Windows 10 vs Windows 98, examples like that. It's not just Windows either, but so many websites go for this "huge whitespace, zero content" style too. Just trying to find the address or contact details for a restaurant can be a frustrating experience these days. But yes, that era did have a lot of over-design as well, and we've studied and progressed UI/UX in a lot of truly awesome ways in recent times. I just wish we'd get past this "minimal" crap.
neuralRiot 8y ago
In the 80s with the "democratization" of technology we all dreamed of a future where all the population would become tech-savvy, instead we dumbed down devices and their interfaces and now everything looks like is made by hasbro and automated to the point that users don't even need to know what they really want to do.

dplgk 8y ago

For over the top, awesome design, a lot Flash guys looked at 2advanced.com... Also egomedia.com https://www.malandarras.com/2advanced https://www.malandarras.com/2advanced

contingencies 8y ago

Fravia

icc97 8y ago

They had k10k on the first page which I remember well. powazek.com was also great. It's a surprise that zeldman isn't on there, his site is still going strong. What was interesting to see was kottke.org that's been showing up on HN for a long time [0] [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31413 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31413

kaycebasques 8y ago
Zeldman: https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/jeffrey-zeldman-1999 https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/jeffrey-zeldman-1999