What Era was the best and why was it the 90s?

Far and away the 90s and it's not even close. We had the internet but it wasn't stalking us. We had cell phones but your parents couldn't drop a tracker app on it to see if you were actually at Doug's house. Gas was cheap. Airports were better, flying was better, fewer people, god I miss the 90s.

2030s design:

Memphis design for the colors and patterns, Y2K for the colorful translucent electronics, and Frutiger Aero for the GUIs.

I'm biased towards Y2K from the nostalgia, since those were the prime years of my childhood right before my teenage years kicked in.

But, I love the design of that time because of how obsessed with futurism everything was. It took the future chic look of the mid-late '60s and revamped it, taking that hype for the future- with the Space Race- bringing it back, and updating it for the Information Age.

It felt like we, as a society, had so much optimism for the world that was to come. So, if anything, I think that's what I'm mostly nostalgic for. I was so excited to grow up in that world. Damn.

Flat design is clinical depression in graphical form, a reflection of the contemporary existential/mental health crisis. It's a societal cry for help, basically.

Honestly? Any of them except the last one. My preference would be 2005-2015, but any of them is better than what came after. Late 2010s was alright, but around 2020 you can really tell UI designers got their marching orders.

It's all so damn boring and lifeless. Rounded corners on literally everything for no reason other than trend chasing, wasted space and needless gaps between elements, white OR black - rarely anything else, lest it interfere with whatever systemwide adaptive coloring thing is running (even if there isn't one), boring and lifeless icons/logos, an obsession with "clean" and "streamlined" that effectively equates to the removal of usability for aesthetics, etc. All of it copy and pasted to every single piece of software or app or site.

Its ironic you put Corporate Memphis images next to it in the 2015-2024 section, because that is effectively what this trend in design aesthetic will be remembered as.

Bland, lifeless, safe, focus-grouped garbage, implemented by companies that have reached a point where the innovation is dead, corporate consolidation has effectively destroyed any room for something new and original to enter the space, and the only thing they do anymore is trend chase. Even the slightest bit of originality or doing something different from the market leader may risk the potential loss of a sliver of shareholder profit, and that simply must never be done.

And I swear to God, if I hear one more focus group generated argument about how rounded corners are more inviting or human, I am going to break into your home, and personally change every last single doorway into a hobbit hole, and every window into a port hole.

Judging by the comments I think I must be alone in loathing the Frutiger Aero style of design, both now and at the time. So self-conscious, so fake-looking, so plasticky.

Much prefer the clean lines and flat colours of nowadays (although that's not to say there aren't issues - eg Google's stupid icon design policies in the last few years)

You know the worst part about flat design? Fucking "hamburger menu". Fuck that shit.

The second worst part? "Text? Lol get real, old man!" Menus that don't have text so I have to guess what the fucking icons mean on every different app/site.

I was born and raised throughout the whole Memphis Design era, reluctantly tolerated the Y2K era, gained a little hope for humanity during the Frutiger Aero era, then subsequently lost all hope once the Flat Design era hit.

Every era is defined by the tools we had at hand during that process. While Memphis is basically pixel art, Y2K was defined by the gradient and mask tools on Photoshop, and Aero was a victim of skewmorphic design trends pushed by the commodity of 3D tooling. Flat design took prevalence because raster-based products felt weird when seen on retina displays.

I wonder how design will be affected when AI tools become the norm.

I don't share the hate for flat design.
It's cleaner than the others, simpler and less distracting. Easier on the eyes, too. It takes itself seriously and does so successfully imo (nice try, aero). It feels professional in a way all the previous eras don't - they seem almost child-like by comparison.

Modern design cultivates recognizable interactions by following conventions and common design language instead of goofy icons and high contrast colors. To me, modern software interfaces look like tools; the further you go back in time, the more they look like toys.

Old designs can be charming if executed well and in the right context. But I'm glad most things don't look like they did 30 years ago.

I'm guessing many people associate older designs with the era they belonged to and the internet culture at the time. Perhaps rosy memories of younger days. Contrasting that with the overbearing corporate atmosphere of today and a general sense of a lack of authenticity in digital spaces everywhere, it's not unreasonable to see flat design as sterile and soulless. But to me it just looks sleek and efficient.
I used to spend hours trying to customize UIs to my liking, nowadays pretty much everything just looks good out of the box.

The one major gripe I have is with the tendency of modern designs to hide interactions behind deeply nested menu hopping. That one feels like an over-correction from the excessively cluttered menus of the past.
That and the fact that there's way too many "settings" sections and you can never figure out which one has the thing you're looking for.

P S. The picture did flat design dirty by putting it on white background - we're living in the era of dark mode!

Needs a few earlier movements, including Art Deco/jazz moderne, Bauhaus and midcentury modern/googie

y2k the transparent plastics were when electronic manufacturing took pride in its products. (though I much prefer modern user interfaces)

Aero: I liked the 2010-ish design best even though I was at least 20 at the time. I just found Memphis and y2k a little goofy. Win XP or this fish glass Mac are the worst for me.

Maybe someone who is too young to have lived in the 90s finds this novel, I don't know.

Someone has written it here. There was at least some techno optimism left in 2012 or so and maybe that's the time I am nostalgic for.

Not so much the 90s "because we had no phones" - then turn your phone off.

Frutiger Aero was when design peaked

Flat design is just soulless crap

Frutiger Aero was best. Not only for beautiful design, but also there were standards people followed on making UI's. Now everything goes. Last time I wanted to register on some shitty website it didn't provide me any feedback that I wrote "weak" password (I copied it from KeePass), except literally green button that you could click like a madman and it didn't do anything but went gray when password was "strong enough".

Memphis design will always win my vote. The weird ass electronics, the ground breaking UI components, just absolutely nutty decisions and insane product concepts built on everyone’s wild dreams of the future. I even think the same forward looking design concepts carried into the Y2K designs— particularly with personal electronics like phones.

I gravitate towards the ones I came up in, and that's probably not a coincidence. I will say that flat design becomes self-defeating sometimes. Every damn Google icon looks the same.

Memphis design. 30-od years later those cup designs are still lit

not sure, but I do know that "flat design" is absolutely the fucking worst.

Deleted my previous comment, felt like I should give this a bit more attention.

To be honest I feel like all designs are good in their own way. I like the general vibe of Memphis, but being that I was born in the mid 90s, it's probably just that general energy you get from things that happened before you did, where they are "cool" due to how just-old-enough-to-be-old-but-not-old-enough-to-be-an-antique they are, yanno?

Y2K design -- Well. I like the transluscent plastic on Gameboys and Macs. Really underrated aesthetic, wouldn't mind having it back. The DreamCast had some very sleek angles too.

Frutiger Aero will never not "look like the future" to me. It was the age of computer interfaces having all sorts of fun colours and transparencies and animations, and it just LOOKED futuristic and neat. Don't care for the product designs of the era though. That shiny finish would draw in filth and fingerprints from accross the room and after a very short time it'd lose its prettiness.

Flat design I have issues with, like the hamburger menus and the abandonment of descriptive text in favour of abstract icons -- It is also a bit too serious, but I understand and accept that, even if I miss the playfulness of Frutiger. -- But it DID finally bring us dark mode. And my eyes are forever grateful.

... Just wish solarized themes were the norm instead, no idea why they must have such high contrast. I'd even give light mode its time of day if it was a solarized light instead.

This might as well ask, "When were you young and broke and wanted everything you saw in a commercial and then started collecting ridiculous amounts of nostalgia product as soon as you had even a crumb of disposable income."

Thankfully I didn't fall for that nonsense.

: reclines on throne made entirely of first gen Zunes and Sidekick phones:

Aero looks futuristic and sleek.

Best era was actually the 1920s(art nouveau)

I like flat design.

I feel like everyone here just prefers the design they grew up with.

The next generation of design is already taking shape. It's a simplistic skewmorphic design, where it looks like the logo has been made out of clay. Look at the new Reddit and Android logo.

I don't think the underlying reason is what year I turned fifteen, but Flat can go fuck itself. Just awful usability all around. Even Windows 95 managed relief shading, and it could do that shit in sixteen colors. White on white with white dividers is the nonsense you put in movies.

90s because they used logic in designing things. Now they change for the sake of change.

augh jazz cup my beloved. I wish we had loud baggy pants like that again.

Y2k and frutiger aero and transition between the two was the blast

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Hey that's a nice ilustration!

All eras have some grace? But the best was art deco.

I grew up in the 90s but I actually quite prefer aero design, idk, everything just felt so new and modern

Frutiger and Y2K for sure

Y2k was a really exiting phase, but my nostalgia lives for the late 80s and early 90s. But who is the asshole who did neither include a C64, not an Amiga in this?

agreed

Y2K is my number one. Memphis on the second place, frutiger aero on third. Flat design is on the last place because it sucks.

90s, BeOS

Frutiger Aero is my favourite.

Tbh I kinda like flat design if done tastefully and within a confined scope, but that Alegria/Globo Homo bullshit from evil corporations and the weird full plastic boxes of nothing can rightly go to the dump.

I will hate the decade though for its prevalence of the bland beige and off-white interior design.

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The Nintendo Switch theme is the most boring shit I have ever seen in a recent handheld... At least it can be improved if you have it hacked... But 3DS were much better, anytime I open it up and the Phoenix Wright or Hotel Dusk BGM start to hit is the real deal!

I like the 2015-2024 design

Best aesthetic is Cassette Futurism

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Aero is my favorite. I think it looks nice

I loved XP. Hope to see more linux layouts like that.

No love for paleolithic design?

I'd say that it was the 80s, because most types of art peaked in 1984 (in terms of cultural significance).

Frutiger with the first 3Ds wins everything for me

I'd say PS2 belongs in flat design, even if it falls outside the dates they think: its design language was ahead of its time

Translucent electronics FTW

Peak design was late 90s and 2000s, where you got to see the new crazy designs of a new era while 80s design still existed all around you prevalently. That fusion is peak nostalgia for me.

I'm between frutiger aero and Y2K

Not a fan of the early windows style, but otherwise "Memphis" looks coolest to me. Reminds me of early nickelodeon. The crowd in the background of What Would You Do was 100% this style.

Oh definitley frutiger aero.

Was the 3DS (main menu) really frutiger? Feels like a far cry compared to Win7 and the xbox 360

The music. The early 90s saw the rise of independent record labels which then gave rise to bands who wouldn't have stood a chance otherwise, aka Indie Music. After the 60s, the 90s is by far the best era for modern music ever.

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Y2K. Let me just run this chromium look filter on my pillow embossing.

Then what's Win11, Arc, that style?

memphis & flat

I love the excess of the Y2K Era. Everything was so much more beautiful, unique, and strange. Everything after seemed like an attempt to "dial it back."

Late 90s decided that everyone had to dress up in silver

I like flat hardware (the ps5 shouldnt be there tho). You can stack stuff over flat hardware, they're not akward to place, can be easily stored, easier to design, easier to machine, etc...

Now flat software is fucking mediocre and should be abolished,

"Don't go chasing waterfalls."

Strange, just for the last few days, I've been thinking just what a big cultural turning point 2005 seemed to be. From then on, everything started to circle the drain, and I put the blame on globalization and the advent of large-scale social media. Which might have left an imprint on product design and fashion.
And, as I wrote earlier in a different thread, the shift from 1994 to 1995 was the biggest one I've witnessed, and it was very visible in public spaces. Audible as well: It went from Metallica and ZZ Top as supermarket background music (imagine this!) to "Easy Listening" or whatever.

Frutiger Aero >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Gaming hasn't really bloomed as much as it had in the 2000s

Flat design definitely looks the cleanest, most simple and pleasing to the eye.