5 ms·

The Windows 95 user interface was really something special.

pazimzadeh 3y ago
Yeah, it is special how almost every element is somehow looks slightly off-center. It's also pretty much ripped off of NEXTSTEP.
- sho_hn 3y ago
  Isn't a much bigger influence on Windows in general the IBM Common User Access material, which NeXTSTEP decidedly was not like? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access The app UI / interaction model patterns go deeper than "they both have greyscale 3D bevels".
  - pazimzadeh 3y ago
    I don't think if you instructed someone to make a UI with greyscale 3D bevels it would look as close to NEXTSTEP as Windows 95 was. There's specific things like the source of light being on the top left, etc, which make them nearly identical.
    - pmontra 3y ago
      There is a good reason to have a light source on the top: it's the natural position of the sun and of most artificial light sources. Then it could be straight from the top, but you only get one side lit and furthermore it's not very natural as it happens rarely. Then it's only two choices, from the left or from the right. A coin flip? Actually no. Top left lightning has a long history for some good reasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-left_lighting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-left_lighting so we could say it's the only professional and safe choice
      - pazimzadeh 3y ago
        > it could be straight from the top, but you only get one side lit No, you could have the top highlight be 2 pts deep and the sides be 1 pt and one shade darker, or something like that. There are many other ways to do it. > and furthermore it's not very natural as it happens rarely Every day from 10 am to noon (1/3rd of the day), and any time you have your back to the sun? > we could say it's the only professional and safe choice Mac OS X has top down lighting and it looks great. I think what you are trying to say is that you can't think of any other ways to design the buttons. Anyway, top left lighting is not the only detail they copied. BeOS had top-left lighting and still managed not to look like an exact clone of NEXTSTEP.
    - acqq 3y ago
      For the reference: NextStep 3.3 screenshot http://toastytech.com/guis/ns33nfsmanager.png http://toastytech.com/guis/ns33nfsmanager.png (3.0 released Sept 1992, 3.3 Feb 1995) Windows 95 released Aug 1995.
  - steve1977 3y ago
    I mean the window close and maximize widgets are pretty much identical to NeXTSTEP... except they had slightly different semantics IIRC
- postmodest 3y ago
  It had Big Motif Energy, IMHO.

Yeah, it is special how almost every element is somehow looks slightly off-center. It's also pretty much ripped off of NEXTSTEP.

sho_hn 3y ago
Isn't a much bigger influence on Windows in general the IBM Common User Access material, which NeXTSTEP decidedly was not like? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Common_User_Access The app UI / interaction model patterns go deeper than "they both have greyscale 3D bevels".
- pazimzadeh 3y ago
  I don't think if you instructed someone to make a UI with greyscale 3D bevels it would look as close to NEXTSTEP as Windows 95 was. There's specific things like the source of light being on the top left, etc, which make them nearly identical.
  - pmontra 3y ago
    There is a good reason to have a light source on the top: it's the natural position of the sun and of most artificial light sources. Then it could be straight from the top, but you only get one side lit and furthermore it's not very natural as it happens rarely. Then it's only two choices, from the left or from the right. A coin flip? Actually no. Top left lightning has a long history for some good reasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-left_lighting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-left_lighting so we could say it's the only professional and safe choice
    - pazimzadeh 3y ago
      > it could be straight from the top, but you only get one side lit No, you could have the top highlight be 2 pts deep and the sides be 1 pt and one shade darker, or something like that. There are many other ways to do it. > and furthermore it's not very natural as it happens rarely Every day from 10 am to noon (1/3rd of the day), and any time you have your back to the sun? > we could say it's the only professional and safe choice Mac OS X has top down lighting and it looks great. I think what you are trying to say is that you can't think of any other ways to design the buttons. Anyway, top left lighting is not the only detail they copied. BeOS had top-left lighting and still managed not to look like an exact clone of NEXTSTEP.
  - acqq 3y ago
    For the reference: NextStep 3.3 screenshot http://toastytech.com/guis/ns33nfsmanager.png http://toastytech.com/guis/ns33nfsmanager.png (3.0 released Sept 1992, 3.3 Feb 1995) Windows 95 released Aug 1995.
- steve1977 3y ago
  I mean the window close and maximize widgets are pretty much identical to NeXTSTEP... except they had slightly different semantics IIRC
postmodest 3y ago
It had Big Motif Energy, IMHO.