I like simple no-frills function-first websites, but I don't consider it a good thing when an old-style website has text running across the entire width of my 1440p monitor. It's just not pleasant to read, and given that the fix is often just two CSS rules (max-width:800px;margin:auto), I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for. You can still design your website like we're in the era of 800x600 displays, but please, take the tiny step to make it play nice with larger screens too.
I think one should use ex/em units when setting a maximum width for readability. People with poorer vision will tend to prefer a physically larger font size. Pixels can also vary in size for different displays. (I am not a web developer but I do have poor eyesight and delay getting new glasses.)
Having had access to the web from the mid '90s I find it weird to talk about "old" as if it were a unifying style. The accessibility for making a webpage meant that there was a cambrian explosion of different styles.
If by "old" you mean "minimally styled" then there are plenty of sites from that era that were really extravagantly styled, since it was a new medium that many people were exploring. There were also plenty of sites with Java or Flash that were considerably more intrusive than sites today (not to mention the period of time between when someone realized you open as many popups as you wanted and when popup-blocker plugins appeared).
I would be careful with calling that kind of design function over style. Modern UI design has its merits.
But yes, good designs are not flashy, e.g. I love the design of Astro Starlight ( https://starlight.astro.build/), a starter kit for documentation pages.
So I also took inspiration from "simple designs" for my personal site: https://bryanhogan.com/
I don't usually see this because it seems to require intentional design to work on mobile. The original post has an example that doesn't lay out well on mobile, or just a very tall and thin desktop window.
Talking about the url provided in the OP, one click on Firefox for mobile and it should be obvious. Text wider than then the screen, yellow text on white background. line spacing that's too tight, a background image that obscures text...
I, for one, found reading the text under the News section quite difficult to read. The combination of the font color and the spacing/kerning made it all appear like a character soup to me. It's possible this is something that has variable impact across populations though.
Generally speaking though, I do think trying to paint 90s websites as some sort of utopian ideal of function and design is purely an exercise in nostalgia and nothing else. It is entirely possible to make fast, responsive, accessible, well-designed rich websites today, all without writing a word of JavaScript (not that including JS by itself is bad or anything). Do not mistake anti-user functions like heavy weight analytics and user tracking libraries, or poorly optimized and ill-architected code bundles as the current "state of the art".
Hacker News itself is a good example — no JavaScript bloat, loads instantly, works on anything. I also appreciate sites where you can actually find what you came for without dismissing three popups and a newsletter signup first. As someone who came late to the internet and learned a lot from straightforward, no-frills documentation sites, I have a soft spot for anything that just gets out of the way. With that being said, It ISN"T the most eye candy friendly site. But I guess that's exactly the attraction.
The site loads in less than a second, you can do anything intuitively with a single click, all pages have a lot of useful information with zero fluff or clickbait.
Smithereen, my fediverse server software, replicates the old VKontakte desktop layout as faithfully as possible. Most functionality works without JS. Almost everything is rendered server-side. It does require a somewhat modern browser though. https://friends.grishka.me/grishka
The Cloudflare gate and large cookie warning with a multi-step opt-out kind of killed it for me before I could even give it a chance. It’s just an off putting welcome for a new user.
I eventually added proper css, bolted on https, and updated the html to something a little more modern and standards-compliant, but the site is still hand-coded, and looks pretty much the same as it has for a quarter-century.
I still use Craigslist when I need to sell something. It’s not often, but I can’t bring myself to use FB marketplace. I don’t sell stuff often, but did sell a set of tires on CL a couple years ago.
Although I see someone has put a 1.5MB image at the top, whose intrinsic size is 2000 × 2588 px, but which was downsized to 320 × 400 px. That's not prioritizing function.
It's fast to navigate and order parts from, works on every browser I've ever tried it in, and loads very fast because there's minimal unnecessary components to the entire site. I hope they never change it :)
I like simple no-frills function-first websites, but I don't consider it a good thing when an old-style website has text running across the entire width of my 1440p monitor. It's just not pleasant to read, and given that the fix is often just two CSS rules (max-width:800px;margin:auto), I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for. You can still design your website like we're in the era of 800x600 displays, but please, take the tiny step to make it play nice with larger screens too.
I think one should use ex/em units when setting a maximum width for readability. People with poorer vision will tend to prefer a physically larger font size. Pixels can also vary in size for different displays. (I am not a web developer but I do have poor eyesight and delay getting new glasses.)
Having had access to the web from the mid '90s I find it weird to talk about "old" as if it were a unifying style. The accessibility for making a webpage meant that there was a cambrian explosion of different styles.
If by "old" you mean "minimally styled" then there are plenty of sites from that era that were really extravagantly styled, since it was a new medium that many people were exploring. There were also plenty of sites with Java or Flash that were considerably more intrusive than sites today (not to mention the period of time between when someone realized you open as many popups as you wanted and when popup-blocker plugins appeared).
Also, this is probably me getting old, but https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/ looks quite modern to me.
I would be careful with calling that kind of design function over style. Modern UI design has its merits.
But yes, good designs are not flashy, e.g. I love the design of Astro Starlight ( https://starlight.astro.build/), a starter kit for documentation pages.
So I also took inspiration from "simple designs" for my personal site: https://bryanhogan.com/
> I would be careful with calling that kind of design function over style.
Why?
For one, it is awful on mobile.
We can have bare, simple sites while still making them accessible.
Why is it awful? Most barebones websites are naturally responsive..
I don't usually see this because it seems to require intentional design to work on mobile. The original post has an example that doesn't lay out well on mobile, or just a very tall and thin desktop window.
Talking about the url provided in the OP, one click on Firefox for mobile and it should be obvious. Text wider than then the screen, yellow text on white background. line spacing that's too tight, a background image that obscures text...
I, for one, found reading the text under the News section quite difficult to read. The combination of the font color and the spacing/kerning made it all appear like a character soup to me. It's possible this is something that has variable impact across populations though.
Generally speaking though, I do think trying to paint 90s websites as some sort of utopian ideal of function and design is purely an exercise in nostalgia and nothing else. It is entirely possible to make fast, responsive, accessible, well-designed rich websites today, all without writing a word of JavaScript (not that including JS by itself is bad or anything). Do not mistake anti-user functions like heavy weight analytics and user tracking libraries, or poorly optimized and ill-architected code bundles as the current "state of the art".
Hacker News itself is a good example — no JavaScript bloat, loads instantly, works on anything. I also appreciate sites where you can actually find what you came for without dismissing three popups and a newsletter signup first. As someone who came late to the internet and learned a lot from straightforward, no-frills documentation sites, I have a soft spot for anything that just gets out of the way. With that being said, It ISN"T the most eye candy friendly site. But I guess that's exactly the attraction.
Ever since my phone's wifi broke and I'm on 1 bar LTE at home, I've been using HN more. The site even looks good and modern imo.
The Cambridge list of talks at https://talks.cam.ac.uk is unbeaten.
The site loads in less than a second, you can do anything intuitively with a single click, all pages have a lot of useful information with zero fluff or clickbait.
Smithereen, my fediverse server software, replicates the old VKontakte desktop layout as faithfully as possible. Most functionality works without JS. Almost everything is rendered server-side. It does require a somewhat modern browser though. https://friends.grishka.me/grishka
This one has a special place in my heart https://www.tibia.com/news/
The Cloudflare gate and large cookie warning with a multi-step opt-out kind of killed it for me before I could even give it a chance. It’s just an off putting welcome for a new user.
yeah it's sad here's a webarchive version https://web.archive.org/web/20040701163325/http://www.tibia....
https://www.cstrike.co.nz
I rescued the domain after it was left to expire and did my best to honour the original design from 2000.
I keep my animation portfolio pretty minimal, albeit with some fun: https://joelcares.net/
the Japanese language school I went to which is indeed still updated: https://sokogakuen.org/
check out their directions page: https://sokogakuen.org/info.html
https://isp.netscape.com
https://www.compuserve.com
http://www.catcam.com (not even https)
Your first link...I miss portals so much. Rip ig.
I still maintain the Chronicles of George, which went live in Feb 2001 and whose design has more or less stayed exactly the same ever since:
https://chroniclesofgeorge.com
I eventually added proper css, bolted on https, and updated the html to something a little more modern and standards-compliant, but the site is still hand-coded, and looks pretty much the same as it has for a quarter-century.
At least in 2014-2016, every important website you'd use as a student at Berkeley was old style. Starting with Telebears.
Where's that solar-powered website where the images are dithered
I guess it's this one https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/
Also like the style of Japanese websites where they seem broken/don't expand to fit available screen but cool aesthetic still
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/
My last use case for it was selling a car and giving away some free stuff. Sadly, those have been replaced by fb marketplace.
I still use Craigslist when I need to sell something. It’s not often, but I can’t bring myself to use FB marketplace. I don’t sell stuff often, but did sell a set of tires on CL a couple years ago.
Richard Stallman's site? Very OG.
https://stallman.org/
Although I see someone has put a 1.5MB image at the top, whose intrinsic size is 2000 × 2588 px, but which was downsized to 320 × 400 px. That's not prioritizing function.
I run a personal blog at https://chadneu.com that has a pretty unique look and feel. It's a wordpress blog with a terminal style theme.
The most OG style website I actively use on a regular basis is https://www.rockauto.com
It's fast to navigate and order parts from, works on every browser I've ever tried it in, and loads very fast because there's minimal unnecessary components to the entire site. I hope they never change it :)
Love rockauto, in the same vein, but not used daily is https://www.mcmaster.com/
Here are a couple others I know about:
https://www.showcaves.com/english/index.html
https://www.hmdb.org/
cybernetic culture research unit
http://www.ccru.net
I doubt it's currently maintained, but these esoteric sites are fun
mine https://omarish.com
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/
https://www.vannattabros.com/dozer.html -- A detail page from the site, not well organized but so much great info about heavy equipment and logging.
http://pouet.net
https://www.unknowncheats.me/
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