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Comment by yoz-y | Hacker News Reader

Thing is that back then text did not really look that good on screens. The screen resolution was terrible, advanced hinting and anti aliasing techniques were cpu expensive and so on. Textures helped to hide that a bit.

Also, flat design works better when people already know that stuff can be clicked, or dragged and such. We can afford to lose some affordance now.

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> Also, flat design works better when people already know that stuff can be clicked, or dragged and such. We can afford to lose some affordance now.

That's an excellent observation. IIRC, back in 1996 there were still radio ads along the lines of "And available online at w-w-w-dot-c-n-n-dot-com or AOL keyword CNN" (or, worse yet, some that added h-t-t-p-colon-slash-slash-w-w-w-dot...).

I'll try to avoid stewing on the fact the CEO where I work is very hands-on with our website, despite never using the web. It's 2017 and he has every button replaced with beveled images of buttons...

EDIT: to reconcile "very hands-on with our website" and "never uses the web", I should specify that he orders changes to the website via the following process: 1) has someone print out the website 2) that gets faxed to him 3) he writes on it with a sharpie 4) that gets faxed back 5) that fax gets scanned 6) resulting scan gets emailed to the web design guy.

Also nice: Websites tended to keep evolving with the browsing skills of the client/sponsor. Say, a site started out complying to the usual rules regarding opening external links in external windows. Everything is fine. A few months later, the client is on the phone, "Where is my back button?" – After a few enquiries you find out it's about the external links and that the client had finally learned about the back-button. You try to explain, but to no avail. All external links in the site are to be edited so they will open in the frameset to the comfort of the client, who may now click each of the external links and go back by a single click on the back-button while proudly inspecting her website. A few months later, the client learns about the usual use of external links and possible legal implications. The links are reedited again...

> slash-slash

"forward slash-forward slash"

Haha, yeah, I remember hearing ads with and without 'forward'. What's really funny, I think, is how the people who needed that 'forward' clarification were exactly the people who'd have no idea which slash was the forward slash.

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