Except that I kinda prefer a simpler website than the multicolour messes that I see from those times.
I am guessing it would have started with people using it normally in a few areas, for emphasis and then ballooned up to the kind of mess similar to the kind of syntax highlighting this article was talking about.
There are ways to use subtle and subdued color palettes that are more interesting visually than typical modern style guides, don’t break built in hyperlink color defaults, while also not being as… high contrast, high intensity, as many 90s sites.
We have just had stylistic stagnation for a good deal of time now.
I feel like a designer needs to first articulate the intent of the colour usage, before deciding on it.
Because in some places, you want a higher contrast, while in others, you just want a separate colour, without stuff popping out too much.
Then there is also the case of less contrasting colours popping out more, because they were used in a larger area than they were chosen for and same the other way round, when you choose a lower contrasting colour combination due to the both colour areas being large enough, like window background vs document background, but then if you end up using the combination for something like text, it becomes hard to read.
So for instance, using the “Tower of Glass” example, one can use the last 2 colour for things like:
window background vs button/field background
button normal vs button hover
background vs alt background (though in this case, I would be looking for even lower contrasting colours
… but not for cases like:
background vs text
background vs border
While you could still also use it for text vs alt-text.
… I completely agree, it seems you understand UI/UX design principles very well!
So… yeah, its entirely possible to have a more varied and more artful internet, that is also not garrish, and broadly functional, if one takes care to account for details as you’ve outlined.
That just… isn’t the path we largely went down.
But uh, neocities is a thing, they’re trying to bring back the old spirit of much more lightweight, much more personal and customized websites that the old net had.
I see a red page and I want it painted black…
No details anymore: I want them to turn black…
I see the girls go by, dressed in their summer clothes.
I have to █████ my █████, untill my ██████████ █████!
You turned it white, though.
Not black:P
Ah. I defaulted to ascii blocks, which usually are black… well, at least they were, before the internet discovered the concept of dark mode.
Kids these days and their newfangled emojis…
Here, uh…
I 👀 a 🟥 📄 and I want it [🪣-🖌️] ⬛.
The fun part is that ⬛ is still lighter than the background (which is
#000) for me.“usually”, because they would also be green, red, orange, purple, pink and a whole lot of other colours, before the web became all classy.
You have a weird way of saying ‘boring, sterile, and corporate.’
=P
Except that I kinda prefer a simpler website than the multicolour messes that I see from those times.
I am guessing it would have started with people using it normally in a few areas, for emphasis and then ballooned up to the kind of mess similar to the kind of syntax highlighting this article was talking about.
There are ways to use subtle and subdued color palettes that are more interesting visually than typical modern style guides, don’t break built in hyperlink color defaults, while also not being as… high contrast, high intensity, as many 90s sites.
We have just had stylistic stagnation for a good deal of time now.
EDIT: Some examples:
That looks nice.
I feel like a designer needs to first articulate the intent of the colour usage, before deciding on it.
Because in some places, you want a higher contrast, while in others, you just want a separate colour, without stuff popping out too much. Then there is also the case of less contrasting colours popping out more, because they were used in a larger area than they were chosen for and same the other way round, when you choose a lower contrasting colour combination due to the both colour areas being large enough, like window background vs document background, but then if you end up using the combination for something like text, it becomes hard to read.
So for instance, using the “Tower of Glass” example, one can use the last 2 colour for things like:
… but not for cases like:
While you could still also use it for text vs alt-text.
… I completely agree, it seems you understand UI/UX design principles very well!
So… yeah, its entirely possible to have a more varied and more artful internet, that is also not garrish, and broadly functional, if one takes care to account for details as you’ve outlined.
That just… isn’t the path we largely went down.
But uh, neocities is a thing, they’re trying to bring back the old spirit of much more lightweight, much more personal and customized websites that the old net had.
https://neocities.org/
Look at their example showcases!
The sites themselves are art.
EDIT:
Though it might be a good idea if they attempted to also offer a basic formatting standard for mobile sites.