@cwebber The Cray 2. It was physically striking, especially with the original Flurinert towers, and it was peak computer architecture design.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-2

@cwebber all the computer hardware setups in Serial Experiments: Lain.

For example...

'90s japanese mobile phone culture. Computing never looked that cute since.

https://www.yokogaomag.com/editorial/texting-in-the-90s-japans-retro-futuristic-phone-culture

@cwebber

@cwebber pixel graphics and square boxen.

@cwebber Clicky keyboards with high-gloss color-coded keycaps! Others have already mentioned the Alien movies, which (along with the game Isolation) have some of that. Something about the tactile nature of it and definitely the fact it can be operated without looking - even though my current keyboard is a very quiet mechanical one.

Related - I liked the era when UI buttons looked like buttons, had some bas relief to them, and depressed with clicked. Aqua on OS X. Windows prior to XP. NeXTstep and Irix. I don't need a full skeuomorphic setup, but today's flat design is boring.

But I also really dig the idea of complex multitouch interfaces. Drilling down into data via zoom, rearranging things with a swipe, and more. I feel like we haven't done much in this area - but maybe that's because it's been tried in-house at Apple, Microsoft, etc. and found to have serious downsides. And I'll admit a lot of my love is nostalgia from all the sci-fi I watched growing up in the 80s and 90s.

@cwebber in the early 90s I made a shoulder strap for one of my C64s and ran a fake video cable from it to some tricked out ski goggles for a costume cyberdeck. I still think about it often.

@cwebber UDE should have become a thing. Fond 2004 memories https://udeproject.sourceforge.net/

@cwebber There's a particular retrofuturistic vibe I really like. The sort of things you see in Serial Experiments Lain, Digimon Tamers, Ghost in the Shell, Tron Legacy...

aurahack and Lena Raine made a Cocoon theme I've been using along the same lines, great vibe: https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/track/phantomaos-advanced-computer-system

@cwebber early 1990s hypercard, with all the crisp little b&w pixel art icons and careful dithering and tiny sound clips. resedit. using NCSA telnet to log in to an AT&T unix box from an aging mac in the library and read mail in pine.

mIRC running on windows 95. i have a million of those MDI windows-in-windows open. the font is fixedsys. a custom wav file plays when a message comes in on ICQ. in the background, i'm browsing the web with lynx in one of those terrible quasi-terminal windows.

@cwebber hardware design wise I love the early 2000s (GameCube, GBA, iBook G3).

On the interface side I am drawn towards neocities/tumblr style lo-fi/pastel/pixel art aesthetics.

@cwebber VT220 - obsolicious 😋️

@cwebber I loved amiga workbench 3.1 for UI and for case design I think the SGI octane is pretty

@cwebber

I don't know that I can pick just one, but . . .

WordPerfect 3.2 with the little plastic multicolor guide that slotted over the left-side function keypad.

X11 with Motif widgets running on a GIGANTIC 19 inch Sun workstation monitor

The amber monochrome screens on an old VT420 terminal.

My old giant trackball from like 2004 that was about the size of a pool cue and a really comfortable hand rest.

The white 11 inch MacBook from like 2003.

The 2013 series of MacBook Pros. Flawless.

The golden age of Lenovo ThinkPads, including the little X1s that were such great little low power workhorses.

Flip phones. Seriously. My old ultraruggedized Casio flip was such a great device.

LaTeX's default typesetting output. I love that I can get it with Markdown and pandoc now.

ANSI animations and Operation Overkill II on BBS doors over a 2400 baud modem.

EDIT: OH. And workstations from like 1996-2004 that were super well designed for field service. Easy to open and service. LOVE.

@cwebber I really liked earlier MacOS X when everything was skeuomorphic and looked like you’d be able to feel the textures if you touched the screen