[HN Gopher] Arwes: Futuristic Sci-Fi UI Web Framework
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Arwes: Futuristic Sci-Fi UI Web Framework
Author : klaussilveira
Score : 251 points
Date : 2023-06-23 13:34 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| asynchronous wrote:
| Been following arwes since before the rewrite, it doesn't appear
| to be out of alpha yet but it is still being actively developed.
|
| Hope it gets published soon, would love to use it.
| regularfry wrote:
| Reminds me a lot of the UIs in Uplink and Defcon.
| lusus_naturae wrote:
| This is what early internet thought "the future" looks like for
| the web. I am wondering why there isn't design diversity (not
| using the sociological meaning of the word here) for forward-
| looking web technologies? Somehow the conversation typically
| centers around AR/VR or inserting crypto into everything.
| VisionOS is stereotypically "clean and modern". Web design in
| general seems so derivative and uninspired, which is strange
| given that a web page is the main point of interaction for most
| people.
| waboremo wrote:
| There is design diversity, but you're just not going to find it
| on mainstream sites or apps because they're catering to the
| everyman. When that occurs, you're tossing away novelty for a
| sense of expectation.
|
| Much in the same way you can find a variety of art but the
| majority that gets attention are hyper-realistic works. It's
| just easier to understand for the everyman.
| ativzzz wrote:
| > I am wondering why there isn't design diversity
|
| Because it doesn't serve much practical purpose. Uniquely
| designed websites take much more effort (and cash for
| companies) to create, and they look cool, but they are much
| harder to use for the average user
|
| It's fine for things like advertisements - I've never gone the
| website for a movie but I imagine this is what those websites
| should try to be. Is it worth the effort?
|
| If you're trying to make a website people use it's not worth it
| hbn wrote:
| If we were speculating what UIs will look like in the future
| and came up with something good, why wouldn't we just do them
| right now? As soon as you do it's inherently no longer "the
| future."
| aikinai wrote:
| UI isn't just a theme. I can imagine a lot of different UI
| paradigms that either aren't possible today or just aren't
| practically feasible given development constraints.
| aquajet wrote:
| examples?
| mike_hearn wrote:
| Flash died and there wasn't much of a replacement tool.
| Timeline oriented vector graphics are great for designers but
| hard to do well with raw HTML.
| pndy wrote:
| > This is what early internet thought "the future" looks like
| for the web
|
| And years later we got mobile-style interfaces and designs that
| are present on almost every device we interact with. Big
| elements where sometimes it's impossible to tell the state or
| even distinguish link from informative text - things which are
| often utilized in dark patterns tactics
|
| Arwes feels pretty well done but rather from a period somewhere
| between 2005 and 2012, rather than "the future" but it is ofc
| done in a futuristic style
| Animats wrote:
| In the future, everything will be cyan.
|
| This seems to be a thing in anime and movies. It dates from the
| early 1980s, when displays were mostly green. Fiction needed
| something different. It also works well for see-through displays
| which allow the audience to see the actor's face.
|
| On stuff you actually have to interact with, it's more of a
| cliche now.
| RobotToaster wrote:
| Looks more usable than most of the minimalist corporate memphis
| websites you see today.
| javier_e06 wrote:
| The future looks there comes in dark aqua tones and chirping
| noises when information scrolls up and down. The effort reminds
| me of Star Treks LCARS https://www.thelcars.com where orange blue
| and purple are prominent and is all touch screen. The future can
| be very distracting.
| dylan604 wrote:
| But it looks so pretty on camera
| lurknot wrote:
| I am making a UI framework written completely in the webgpu api
| rendered purely with particles. DM me if you are interested.
| maxwindiff wrote:
| Not OP but I'm interested. How should I DM you? (couldn't find
| one on your HN profile)
| axismundi wrote:
| 2advanced Studios was always my favorite, especially
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWkNkQoQY_8
|
| I remember Eric Jordan, the man behind it all, mentioned in an
| interview that the key was to make the animations flow with a
| rhythm.
| charcoalhobo wrote:
| Thank you for this walk down memory lane--2advanced was a huge
| inspiration for me when I started web design and learning
| flash, but I couldn't remember the name of the site until now.
| Their 2003 design is burned into my memory.
| radicaldreamer wrote:
| Thank you! This brought back memories, I never thought I'd come
| across that UI again
| vas1 wrote:
| Yes! 2advanced served as an inspiration. I remember surfing it
| in awe of what was possible to do.
|
| The quirkiness of the web has been somewhat lost. However, I do
| wonder whether that is just a factor of its expansion and
| whether somewhere in the depths it still lurks, waiting to be
| uncovered.
| benatkin wrote:
| Missing cybernetic capabilities.
| darklycan51 wrote:
| Reminds me of the starcraft 1 main menu mixed with sc2 a bit for
| the background, cool
| JusticeJuice wrote:
| https://www.hudsandguis.com/ - more FUI work, one of my favourite
| sites.
| potatoman2 wrote:
| I used this at work for an internal tool and the team went wild
| over it. "It feels like we're working in the future!"
| itsuka wrote:
| (deleted)
| germinalphrase wrote:
| I'm not a figma user. Are you able to point at a representative
| image?
| itsuka wrote:
| You can see the glass material I was referring to in this
| video (timestamped): https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/
| wwdc2023/10076/?time...
| pawelduda wrote:
| This would be quite cool with my homeassistant dashboard :D
| Run_DOS_Run wrote:
| Oh, this is pretty awesome. It looks like these old scifi browser
| games.
|
| I often use exotic frameworks like TuiCss (DOS-like) and 98.css
| (Windows 98-like) for private projects and this framework looks
| perfect for it-security projects with cliched 80s flair.. or a
| low-quality sci-fi mobile game.
| Pulcinella wrote:
| I'm glad that they include pictures of apps that have been made
| with it. I would appreciate it if there were more sample
| pictures, but at least there is something included.
|
| Too many GUI and other graphical projects fail to include any
| images or screenshots, which is poor marketing.
| revskill wrote:
| Reason: They don't want to be usable by users (yet).
| joshmarlow wrote:
| They actually have a site with a playground (linked from the
| Github page) - https://playground.arwes.dev/
| x7ci wrote:
| I'm building my personal website[1] also inspired by FUI design
| systems. I don't think usability is an issue at all, at least
| with the design approach I've taken. They're just React
| components which you could easily feed real data. The
| visualizations and animations are more difficult to replicate.
|
| [1] https://x7ci.engineer/
| muhammadusman wrote:
| wow, that is really cool! are you using a UI library or are
| these custom built?
| x7ci wrote:
| They're all custom built (except for the ECharts component).
| Thanks!
| drBonkers wrote:
| This is so sick. Blows Arwes out of the water.
| airstrike wrote:
| this is beautiful, congrats and thank you for sharing
| synthsec wrote:
| I really like this, thanks for sharing.
| ssgodderidge wrote:
| Love the fade-in animations. Really awesome.
|
| The only problem I have (on laptop) is the font combined with
| the text size (10pt) on the blog is a bit on the smaller side.
| I recommend bumping up the font of the body to at least 14pt to
| increase readability for most screens.
| x7ci wrote:
| Appreciate the feedback. I'll try to improve readability.
| zilti wrote:
| Building a normal website with React is laughable, ridiculous
| overkill, or rather using the completely wrong tool for the
| job.
| eyelidlessness wrote:
| Why? React's component model can be an excellent abstraction
| for building a "normal website"--or rather, its component
| parts--for developers who prefer it. React can compile to
| static HTML, without running any JS client side, and/or can
| be used to mount or hydrate arbitrary subtrees however one
| sees fit. (I'd probably favor Preact or Solid for the latter,
| but React is a perfectly cromulent choice)
| ry4nolson wrote:
| did you even look at their site? the last thing i would call
| it is a "normal website"
| llanowarelves wrote:
| What would be the right tool for an entertaining highly
| interactive and animated (game-like, but still mostly text
| based) thing then? Used to be Java applets and Flash. Now is
| "webapps" and WebGL.
|
| Or is that it should have been handrolled using CSS
| animations and framework-less JS?
|
| Or is it more that we're acting like it's 1995 and the web is
| for reading text documents only, and anything other than that
| is nerd blasphemy? (Not saying you're saying this, but it is
| something some still press; they hate the web stack being
| used in other ways).
| unintendedcons wrote:
| Very cool, but distracting that the very first top left
| attention grabbing glyph is an unrelated company's logo
| https://polygon.technology/
| krychu wrote:
| Very impressive, and works well on mobile (iOS). Congrats and
| thanks for sharing.
| apetresc wrote:
| This style would be perfect for visionOS.
| nottorp wrote:
| Hmm a good few of their examples look like they have much better
| contrast than modern grey on grey stuff.
|
| Didn't click on them to be horrified by beeps and animations if
| there are any, but some are pretty readable.
| DarthNebo wrote:
| I yearn for a frosted UI which has chilly condensation which
| shifts around the edges. Something from TRON but mixed with John
| Carpenter's 'Thing' vibe which white, blue & other nordic colors.
| jasfi wrote:
| That sounds amazing. I wonder what the closest thing to that
| available today is.
| anotherhue wrote:
| 60's themed UI:
| https://neilyoungarchives.com/timeline?day=1&month=1&year=20...
| tedunangst wrote:
| 404
| anotherhue wrote:
| Seems to be desktop only :(
|
| The app has the same feel though https://play.google.com/stor
| e/apps/details?id=com.shakey.nya...
| alex_lav wrote:
| This is sick. I wish I had a usecase for using it.
| all2 wrote:
| Build a front end for your local weather?
|
| [0] https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api
| joehogans wrote:
| Love it and great work. Looks cool to me
| prolapso wrote:
| Futuristic UIs peaked decades ago:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xfTryfN050
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exz1KzuthrQ
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC3k0d4u5BQ
|
| I really wish we had more interesting and functional examples
| nowadays - the web is bloated anyway, why not make more elaborate
| use of that bloat? Here's another example, albeit just a singular
| art project:
|
| https://virtualself.co/
|
| Still, it requires taste and an eye for design, and balancing all
| the maximalist elements makes it especially hard to nail.
| JodieBenitez wrote:
| Unusability peak IMO.
| smallnix wrote:
| His website is also very interesting:
| https://porterrobinson.com/
| DoneWithAllThat wrote:
| On all of those but especially the second two you can really
| see the influence The Designers Republic had on pop culture and
| graphic design in the late 90s and early 00's.
| orls wrote:
| Yup -- as someone who grew up with Wipeout and lots of
| d&b/electronica album art, these are giving me strong
| nostalgia pangs.
| 101008 wrote:
| A bit unfair to compare a new framework with websites made in
| Flash decades ago... nothing can compete against Flash
| websites.
| bamfly wrote:
| There's still no replacement for the specific thing Flash
| did. I get that Flash itself sucked (the power use...) but
| it's really damn sad we simply lost what it could do. I'd
| have thought we'd have a replacement by now, but no.
|
| Incidentally, last I checked, no replacement for the marquee
| tag, either. That tag had a _lot_ of features, in fact, and
| when I looked a couple years back there seemed to be zero
| projects that could actually replace it completely. A bunch
| of things that used to be very easy to accomplish, using that
| tag, now aren 't. (now, maybe none of those things should
| _ever_ be done, I suppose, so perhaps it doesn 't matter)
| jasfi wrote:
| They're a bit short on components. I see there's an open issue to
| add a Select component: https://github.com/arwes/arwes/issues/137
|
| I'd need this at minimum before I'd considered using this in a
| real project.
| rmuratov wrote:
| Related: https://augmented-ui.com/
| Chris2048 wrote:
| It's funny how this still feels "futuristic". I'd argue sci-fi,
| or retro-punk (retro-sci-fi?). The elements of design are those
| from the past about the future, like 80s sci-fi movie
| design/tropes that became stuck with the genre, along with beige
| CRT monitors and large floppy disks.
| AceJohnny2 wrote:
| Yeah, the funniest thing is that this _adds latency_ to
| elements appearing as a stylistic choice.
|
| This is a stylistic callback to slower systems, like BBS on a
| slow connection, or UIs on a slow computer.
| sgt wrote:
| Perfect for building my next homepage! I'll start off with
| something simple, maybe add an under construction gif or two to
| ensure people know content is coming soon.
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