Current Events > Windows Longhorn is an excellent example of Microsoft dropping the ball

(+) Yeah! (+)

They were working on a successor to Windows XP with a UI that was so ahead of its time it actually surpassed W7's own design language as far as just looking aesthetically impressive, and they ended up shelving the entire thing because they were in over their heads, and ended up working on Vista.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjExyeyLBG0

Nah

I had the beta back then, really liked it. Didnt think Vista was that bad though and 7 was still nice as well. After that the Frutiger era ended and we got this boring nonsense flat era that I cant wait for to end.

Zwijn posted...

I had the beta back then, really liked it. Didnt think Vista was that bad though and 7 was still nice as well. After that the Frutiger era ended and we got this boring nonsense flat era that I cant wait for to end.

99% of Frutiger Aero design looked/looks like shit and there's a lot of revisionist history going on from zoomers/children who have only known flat design and think older UI motifs look amazing by comparison.

Aero was shit design. I don't care if it "looks ugly" I prefer flat corner solid color windows because they're superior for actually using the computer.

CRON posted...

99% of Frutiger Aero design looked/looks like shit and there's a lot of revisionist history going on from zoomers/children who have only known flat design and think older UI motifs look amazing by comparison.

I was in art school from 2011-2015 and saw first hand how flat got the upper hand. A lot of frutiger was ugly and kitsch but it had a great idea behind it. Frutiger metro was still somewhat okay but what we have now is pretty soulless to me.

Zwijn posted...

I was in art school from 2011-2015 and saw first hand how flat got the upper hand. A lot of frutiger was ugly and kitsch but it had a great idea behind it. Frutiger metro was still somewhat okay but what we have now is pretty soulless to me.

Mac OS X Mavericks was peak OS design. The only reason flat design has been around for so long (and so stagnant) is because of how fast most devices' display resolutions changed throughout the 2010s. It's a lot easier and quicker to just make a simple-looking element that can be scaled with no problems.