[HN Gopher] The true story of the Windows 3.1 'Hot Dog Stand' co...
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The true story of the Windows 3.1 'Hot Dog Stand' color scheme
Author : naves
Score : 96 points
Date : 2025-12-12 19:13 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.pcgamer.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.pcgamer.com)
| emperorcezar wrote:
| This brings up so many memories
| blibble wrote:
| I'd rather use 3.1 with the hot dog scheme vs. windows 11...
|
| as long as it has trumpet winsock
| fsiefken wrote:
| I agree, and Calmira LFN 3.3 and Microsoft Office 4.3 Would
| Notepad++ work? What would you use as a graphical www browser?
| I mean even with win32s and modern ssl support somehow built-in
| it'd be challenge.
| UncleSlacky wrote:
| Opera 3.62 seems to be the latest browser available for Win
| 3.x, though I think Dillo might also be a possibility:
|
| https://computernewb.com/wiki/How_to_browse_the_web_on_very_.
| ..
| xnx wrote:
| Back when users picked the UI colors for the apps instead of the
| apps picking for the users.
| charcircuit wrote:
| People can self sabotage by choosing a bad theme, and then they
| engage with the app less or even churn. Designers need to be
| careful to not give people rope for them to hang themselves
| with.
| hulitu wrote:
| > Designers need to be careful to not give people rope for
| them to hang themselves with.
|
| See Win 95 resolution change workflow.
|
| This was 20 years ago. A lot of knowledge was lost since
| then.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _and then they engage with the app less or even churn._
|
| If your content is so poor that a change of colors can make
| people leave, then perhaps your content is not worth having.
| charcircuit wrote:
| The colors is part of the content of the product. And it's
| not that it is 100% more likely for someone to leave
| sooner, but that it increases the probability that people
| leave sooner.
| toast0 wrote:
| Certainly that's a good reason to force a legible version of
| settings, and the path to settings...
|
| But if the user sets the system to hot dog stand, the apps
| should be hot dog stand. If the user wants the system text
| font to be wingdings, they're in for a nasty time, but that
| doesn't mean an app should force a different font
| charcircuit wrote:
| The issue with this thinking is that it's easier for people
| to quit using the product than to figure out how to fix the
| font. You can't beat the simplicity of doing nothing, so
| you need to avoid getting into this state in the first
| place.
| estimator7292 wrote:
| Gotta keep users engaged in your app, right? Keep them
| onboard even if that means removing all their choices. I
| mean, should we even allow users to uninstall apps?
|
| After all, the developer always knows best and all users
| are helpless children who need to be forced to conform
| and comply. Who cares what the user thinks or wants so
| long as we keep that sweet, sweet engagement.
| charcircuit wrote:
| If your users are not engaging with your app, you can't
| deliver user value to them. If you are unable to provide
| value to their lives because they happened to accidently
| changed a font that is an unfortunate circumstance where
| the user is losing out on value they could have had.
|
| It's not that users are helpless, but that they just
| don't want to spend their time dealing with stuff they
| don't want to. Users like it when things "just work."
| xg15 wrote:
| > _and then they engage with the app less or even churn_
|
| I wasn't aware engagement maximisation is the reason we don't
| get customization options anymore, but it makes perfect
| sense.
|
| No one used to care about this because it was at the
| discretion of the user whether they want to keep using the
| app or not. Whereas today, it's the company objective to keep
| the user in the app as much as possible.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| > Designers need to be careful to not give people rope for
| them to hang themselves with.
|
| No, they don't. It's _my system_ , and the look should be
| what _I want it to be_ , period. What designers actually need
| to do is learn to respect their users, even when they
| disagree with the user's choices.
| QuercusMax wrote:
| My teenager has their cell phone keyboard configured so all
| the symbols are replaced with cartoon cats. They can't type
| properly on it at all - I get text messages that are
| completely garbled - but they love that they can do this
| even though it actively impairs their functionality.
| bji9jhff wrote:
| In practice lot of applications hard-coded some elements' color
| while following the theme for other elements, making dark theme
| unusable because you end up with black text imposed by the
| developers over the black background you choose for your theme,
| and other similar issues.
| quotemstr wrote:
| As much as we love to hate on Apple's more user-hostile
| policies, it's only due to Apple's fiat that we've been able to
| claw back the smallest bit of user theme control --- light and
| dark mode --- from the "don't theme my app" people.
| wesfenlon wrote:
| Thanks for sharing! I was pleased I was able to track down
| Virginia and she had a clear memory of how Hot Dog Stand came to
| be.
| jmkni wrote:
| It was a fun read, cheers
| caminanteblanco wrote:
| Thanks for an awesome writeup! I've been reading your articles
| on PCGamer since highschool, and they've always been my
| favorite of the bunch!
| wesfenlon wrote:
| Aw shucks that's nice to hear. Do not tell me how old you are
| because I'm not prepared for that sort of mortality
| introspection this afternoon.
| noveltyaccount wrote:
| I'm so glad that there's room for this kind of investigative
| journalism in this day and age. Kudos!
| cadr wrote:
| I'm amused she said they included it "in case somebody out there
| liked ugly bright red and yellow" and that "the 'Fluorescent'
| theme was also pretty ugly, but it didn't have a catchy name, so
| I've never heard anything about it."
|
| Because I loved the Fluorescent theme.
| stuaxo wrote:
| Flourescent looks so of it's time, it fits right into an age of
| acid house, where you could go hang out in the hologram shop
| [1].
|
| [1] - E Is for Ecstacy - BBC Everyman Documentary
| https://youtu.be/jyrhcjRc3TU?si=Qn9qG2z8wQzD-llJ&t=812
| bombcar wrote:
| I remember playing with these or similar back then, and if you
| used it for awhile to just became normal.
| MontyCarloHall wrote:
| Unlike the Hot Dog Stand theme, the "Plasma Power Saver" theme
| also featured in the article actually was function over form, not
| just an aesthetic choice (or lack thereof). It was to reduce
| burn-in on the plasma displays of old portable computers, e.g.
| here [0].
|
| [0] https://retro.swarm.cz/20170331/windows-31-running-on-ibm-
| ps...
| breppp wrote:
| This made me search and find this, screenshots of every win 3.11
| theme:
|
| https://imgur.com/gallery/every-windows-3-1-theme-SsVYqM1
|
| at least half were painfully ugly
| skydhash wrote:
| Still more readable than what Apple has released lately.
| pmdr wrote:
| We've now seemed to have invented glass, but in some kind of a
| parodic form.
| Duanemclemore wrote:
| Legend.
|
| My sway setup is everything as all black as I can get but with
| any accents as small and bright - neon green and eye bleeding
| magenta - as possible. So Fluorescent speaks to me.
|
| I remember as a kid using 3.11 and win 95 and cycling through the
| themes, trying them all out for a day or two to decide which I
| wanted to use. You know, important decisions. Anyway, in an
| eternal black mark on my character I didn't even consider Hot Dog
| Stand.
| 0cf8612b2e1e wrote:
| Do you have a screenshot? That sounds unusably terrible to me,
| but whatever floats your boat.
| grandchild wrote:
| As a kid I actually used the theme on my first hand-me-down. As
| the regular theme. And I remember chosing it because it was fun!
| It made my computer more fun.
|
| At the end of the day, usability shouldn't trump fun. If I find
| it's less usable, I can switch back.
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(page generated 2025-12-12 23:00 UTC)