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What's old is now new again. The fashion industry has known this for decades, and the tech industry is catching up to that. You know what comes after "dimensio

What's old is now new again. The fashion industry has known this for decades, and the tech industry is catching up to that. You know what comes after "dimensional" design? Radicial minimalism. "Once you strip away everything extra, everything ornamental, what remains is the truth, and nothing more" There, I wrote a tagline for design trend of 2030.

Avicebron 1y ago
"What was once considered truth in the design sense has been replaced with complacency and a stifling regression towards the mean. What we offer is an alternative; boldly intricate designs, showcasing skill, attention to detail, and a human-first detail orientation unmatched by the AI systems flooding our daily lives" There's 2035's
- GenshoTikamura 1y ago
  A future like this would definitely be worth living through the current bullshit
1shooner 1y ago
But my calendar app would be so much easier to use if only the UI included stitched leather.
aleksiy123 1y ago
What else is there?
BobbyTables2 1y ago
Fluxbox will make a comeback?
- dkdbejwi383 1y ago
  It never left my heart
terribleperson 1y ago
Hasn't minimalism been the dominant trend for well over a decade now? Surely it'll need more than five years to cool off before it makes a return, assuming it even leaves.
hliyan 1y ago
Just a minute ago, I clicked a "Transfer" button on my online banking UI. It's a beautiful button with an appealing font and a subtle, pleasing background gradient. But when clicked, it shows no indication that it was depressed, and I have to rely on the appearance of a modal spinner to know that I have actually pressed it. For me, peak UI was Windows 89/2000 -- largely uniform and monochrome, but just enough detail in the third dimension to know where to click, and what to expect when clicked. Also: keyboard shortcuts.
- Kwpolska 1y ago
  In a desktop application, if a button stays in the pressed state when you let go of the mouse button, it means that the developer was lazy and is doing work on the UI thread. In a classic Windows UI, the transfer dialog would be closed, or it would disable all controls until the operation completes and then show a confirmation message.
  - thyristan 1y ago
    Well, kind of. Actually, the developer should really do some work in the UI thread beyond just sending out a "button pressed" message: When I press the button, I need immediate feedback that it was pressed and that pressing it had an effect, that things are now happening. Too many UIs, especially in the web where round-trip-times can be long, rely on just firing of a message or a network request. The response to the user, by displaying a spinner, progress bar, modal or new page only happens asynchronously and after a comparatively long delay. This means that users will sometimes repeatedly click because "nothing happens", leading to multiple messages, leading to multiple actions, leading to a big mess. So the UI thread should synchronously trigger user feedback, take a lock or other measures to prevent unintended repeated actions and start a timeout callback in case the triggered action doesn't happen in a sensible timeframe.
- dkdbejwi383 1y ago
  This is what actual UI design is supposed to encompass. Making sure the software behaves in the way the user expects, effectively communicates state, etc. Not just fussing over icons and colours.
SebastianKra 1y ago
It’s not a loop, it’s a spiral. Each idea brings a (partial over-)reaction to the last one. For example, flat monochrome icons emerged, because previously the UI was massively overshadowing the main content [^1]. So we traded the recognizability of icons for a better overall hierarchy in the UI. Now that this problem is solved, designers are looking to reintroduce recognizable icons without sacrificing the previous goals. In the AirBnB app, you’ll find that the busy icons are only used when they’re the main focus. Auxiliary icons remain flat. [^1]: https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/facebook-3-5-iphone.jpg https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/fac...
- layer8 1y ago
  Flat, monochrome icons emerged due to the hardware requirements of mobile devices with wildly differing DPI.
  - SebastianKra 1y ago
    There can be multiple reasons. But iOS went 6 years with skeumorphic icons (post-iPad, post-Retina) so mixed-dpi screens probably weren’t the only factor.
    - layer8 1y ago
      At that time iOS had the luxury that its higher-DPI variant was exactly twice the original resolution, so up- or downscaling of non-vector graphics worked well. (Similar for macOS.) Moreover, the original iPhone resolution was already relatively hi-DPI, meaning that accuracy on the individual pixel level wasn’t as important as on the typical 96-DPI desktop screen.
agumonkey 1y ago
It's so weird to realize that the 2000s that I considered advanced were in fact just another segment in the timeless cycles of fads

Avicebron 1y ago

"What was once considered truth in the design sense has been replaced with complacency and a stifling regression towards the mean. What we offer is an alternative; boldly intricate designs, showcasing skill, attention to detail, and a human-first detail orientation unmatched by the AI systems flooding our daily lives" There's 2035's

GenshoTikamura 1y ago
A future like this would definitely be worth living through the current bullshit

1shooner 1y ago

But my calendar app would be so much easier to use if only the UI included stitched leather.

aleksiy123 1y ago

What else is there?

BobbyTables2 1y ago

Fluxbox will make a comeback?

dkdbejwi383 1y ago
It never left my heart

terribleperson 1y ago

Hasn't minimalism been the dominant trend for well over a decade now? Surely it'll need more than five years to cool off before it makes a return, assuming it even leaves.

hliyan 1y ago

Just a minute ago, I clicked a "Transfer" button on my online banking UI. It's a beautiful button with an appealing font and a subtle, pleasing background gradient. But when clicked, it shows no indication that it was depressed, and I have to rely on the appearance of a modal spinner to know that I have actually pressed it. For me, peak UI was Windows 89/2000 -- largely uniform and monochrome, but just enough detail in the third dimension to know where to click, and what to expect when clicked. Also: keyboard shortcuts.

Kwpolska 1y ago
In a desktop application, if a button stays in the pressed state when you let go of the mouse button, it means that the developer was lazy and is doing work on the UI thread. In a classic Windows UI, the transfer dialog would be closed, or it would disable all controls until the operation completes and then show a confirmation message.
- thyristan 1y ago
  Well, kind of. Actually, the developer should really do some work in the UI thread beyond just sending out a "button pressed" message: When I press the button, I need immediate feedback that it was pressed and that pressing it had an effect, that things are now happening. Too many UIs, especially in the web where round-trip-times can be long, rely on just firing of a message or a network request. The response to the user, by displaying a spinner, progress bar, modal or new page only happens asynchronously and after a comparatively long delay. This means that users will sometimes repeatedly click because "nothing happens", leading to multiple messages, leading to multiple actions, leading to a big mess. So the UI thread should synchronously trigger user feedback, take a lock or other measures to prevent unintended repeated actions and start a timeout callback in case the triggered action doesn't happen in a sensible timeframe.
dkdbejwi383 1y ago
This is what actual UI design is supposed to encompass. Making sure the software behaves in the way the user expects, effectively communicates state, etc. Not just fussing over icons and colours.

SebastianKra 1y ago

It’s not a loop, it’s a spiral. Each idea brings a (partial over-)reaction to the last one. For example, flat monochrome icons emerged, because previously the UI was massively overshadowing the main content [^1]. So we traded the recognizability of icons for a better overall hierarchy in the UI. Now that this problem is solved, designers are looking to reintroduce recognizable icons without sacrificing the previous goals. In the AirBnB app, you’ll find that the busy icons are only used when they’re the main focus. Auxiliary icons remain flat. [^1]: https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/facebook-3-5-iphone.jpg https://www.geeky-gadgets.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/fac...

layer8 1y ago
Flat, monochrome icons emerged due to the hardware requirements of mobile devices with wildly differing DPI.
- SebastianKra 1y ago
  There can be multiple reasons. But iOS went 6 years with skeumorphic icons (post-iPad, post-Retina) so mixed-dpi screens probably weren’t the only factor.
  - layer8 1y ago
    At that time iOS had the luxury that its higher-DPI variant was exactly twice the original resolution, so up- or downscaling of non-vector graphics worked well. (Similar for macOS.) Moreover, the original iPhone resolution was already relatively hi-DPI, meaning that accuracy on the individual pixel level wasn’t as important as on the typical 96-DPI desktop screen.

agumonkey 1y ago

It's so weird to realize that the 2000s that I considered advanced were in fact just another segment in the timeless cycles of fads