One small but extremely annoying effect of Tech Modernization or w/e is how UI contrast is garbage anymore, especially just, like, application windows in general.
"Ooh our scrollbar expands when you mouse over it! Or does it? Only you can know by sitting there like an idiot for 3 seconds waiting for it to expand, only to move your cursor away just as it does so!" or Discord's even more excellent "scrollbar is 2 shades off of the background color and is one (1) pixel wide" fuck OFF
I tried to move a system window around yesterday and had to click 3 times before I got the half of the upper bar that let me drag it. Why are there two separate bars with absolutely nothing to visually differentiate them on that.
"Well if you look closely-" I should not!! have to squint!!! at the screen for a minute straight to detect basic UI elements!! Not mention how ableist this shit is, and for what? ~✨Aesthetic✨~?
and then every website and app imitates this but in different ways so everything is consistently dogshit to try to use but not always in ways you can immediately grok it's!!!! terrible!!!! just put lines on things again I'm begging you!!!!
I know I sound like a broken record when I praise Windows 95 UI, but holy fuck Microsoft figured this shit out already about 30 years ago. It's all there, black and white, clear as christmas:
So much of modern UX woes stem from not knowing, or intentionally ignoring the genuine design study put forth into GUIs in the 90s.
3D elements are 3D in a specific way with lighting from a specific side to make it obvious where a window element begins and ends.
The gradient always should from from one side, and keep it consistent.
Make your color shading and shape of scroll bars consistently side and easy to press. I have a 4K display, don't make me hunt for the magic activation pixel that makes your 3-pixel wide scroll bar appear.
It's a desktop application, I've got the screen real estate to spare to have the actual GUI elements present on screen at all times (I know, heresy).
The moment aesthetic takes precedence over form and function, you've failed as a UI designer.
And any argument about "we don't have the resolution" can go right out the window, we were having nice, clear and legible interface widgets on nine inch screens in 1984. We continued to have nice, clear and legible interfaces on machines vastly less powerful than today's and on screens vastly less pixel-dense than today's. We used to know what the hell we were doing. At least one of these examples even has on-screen instructions in case the widgets functionality isn't immediately apparent.
(images sourced from The GUI Gallery)
since this has come back to my dashboard again i want to call attention to one more thing that these GUIs have that modern ones don't even try to do.
RESIZE WIDGETS.
Do you tire of trying to grab and resize a window whose border is literally only 1 pixel wide?

Do you see how large the corner widgets are in those clips above? Those are at least 16x16 pixels. They're almost as large as the Close buttons on a modern GUI. If you can see the bottom right corner of your window, resizing it is a snap. You can aim much more easily at a 16x16 widget than you can at a one-pixel-wide vertical line.
OK, maybe technically Windows' borders are wider than 1 pixel. They're technically 3 pixels. That is still just really goddamn tiny compared to 16 of them.
We used to be a society. Look at this. Look at this.

WINDOWS FUGGIN' 95 HAD THE CORNER WIDGET. Why the hell can't Windows 11?
‼️⚠️It's time to help🚨
cease-fire🍉
Vetted by gaza-evacuation-fund click here
Hello friends, it's the real and important time to help. The war has ended, but the suffering has not ended. The suffering has actually begun now 💔😭 Everything has become difficult and extremely difficult, but we will not lose hope. I am now in dire need of your help. Now there is hope to leave the sector and start a happy life again, but my transfers on gofundme have stopped for a long time and I have only received about 10 thousand of the total amount 😭💔
So now I am in dire need of your donations and your help again on my new campaign chuffed. Please, I am in dire need of you 🙏❤️
Ao3 campaign filling up in a blink of an eye is a joke
At this point making fun of it feels bad. Idk who are donating. But you people have money for your fic website but have no money for human lives.
Could cry you know. I could cry and I do feel like crying but uh. What's the point? I am just speechless that people can donate and reach $75000 in a day on a scam but when requested to donate to a fundraiser, a huge portion of fandom bloggers will accuse the families of being scammers and bots.
Requesting people that if you are reblogging the post, consider sharing my friend's fundraiser. It has been five days since he has been able to buy food for his family of 24.
RTVS PALESTINE FUNDRAISER 2, April 11th - 13th
Beginning Friday the 11th, RTVS will be holding another 3-day weekend fundraising event for the people of Palestine.
It is a tragedy that Palestine is still enduring the same nightmarish conditions that they were this time last year. There has been little to no improvement in things as Israel continues to break ceasefires and block incoming aid as they try and continue their genocide. We would like to once again rally our community and as many others as we can reach to give what support we are able to to Palestine's people.
Like last year, the event will not be a traditional stream fundraiser, rather than pointing people at one donation point, we will be suggesting a number of different recipients for support. However, this year may be organized slightly differently than the way we did it last time; more information regarding that will be shared in the next few days once we confirm our plan. Overall, it's the same idea: all donations to Palestinians and aid groups will be tallied into our grand total for the event.
The all-day, all-weekend streaming event will once again feature a rotation of hosts from Radio TV Solutions putting on all kinds of events. Themed segments, classic segments, crazy gameshow-type beats, chill segments, gaming w/ Da Whole Crew and MORE await you. The event will be hosted at http://stream.rtvsfundraiser.live/. Mark your calendars, tell your friends, and GET READY!