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Spotify and Slack weren't even a thing 22 years ago, but driven by curiosity and an interest in the evolution of user interfaces, graphic designer Michael Feeney has painstakingly reimagined them and other macOS 12 applications to see what they would have looked like in the Mac OS 9 era.

mac-os-9-spotify.jpg

In order to realize "(mac)OStalgia," Feeney first went back and analyzed the Mac OS 9 environment using the SheepShaver emulator, and then created a library of UI components that he could reuse throughout the project.

He then took a number of apps crucial to his daily workflow, including Spotify, Slack, Zoom, Figma, TextEdit, and Google Chrome, and gave their UIs the Mac OS 9 treatment. The results of Feeney's project are impressive, as you can see in the embedded video below.


As for what stood out the most in terms of the differences between the user interface and user experience, Feeney says:
Even though Design and UI trends definitely changed a lot in the past 20 years, applications still behave and look (somehow, aesthetic aside) very similar. After all, it is indeed difficult to replace well installed behaviour such as visual feedback on hover, scroll for more content, double click to launch application, etc. Basically, because our Operating Systems still behave in a similar way, so did the UI and the UX of many of our apps.

One area where both UI and UX improved dramatically as part of the operating systems is on the accessibility front. The apparition (and improvement) of a full-fledged Voice Control, integrated screen readers, dark mode, etc. is definitely what stood out the most looking back at Mac OS 9.
Mac OS 9 was introduced on October 23, 1999, and featured internet support out of the box with Internet Explorer, an email client, text-to-speech, and Sherlock 2.0 – the built-in tool that let users search their computer and the internet, and the direct ancestor of Spotlight in macOS. Apple discontinued development of Mac OS 9 in 2001 and it was succeeded by Mac OS X.

Feeney's Mac OS 9: UI Kit is available to download for free, for use by the Figma community and in personal projects as well.

Article Link: Here's What Your Favorite Mac Apps Would Have Looked Like in 1999
 
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Kissmo1980

macrumors 6502
Feb 16, 2021
439
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Notice how the interface is not rainbow vomit and how it focuses on content.
It’s something that died with the introduction of flat over the top saturated UI elements.

I wish Mac OS would allow users to theme or at least to provide the Aqua interface alternative.
 

jwolf6589

macrumors 601
Dec 15, 2010
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Oh I remember those days. But as i recall most were using dialup modems in those days so video conferencing was only available in schools and corporations.
 

e1me5

macrumors 6502
Jun 11, 2013
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Cyprus
I wonder if SheepShaver is still compatible with the latest MacOs releases. I used to experiment with it years ago when 32bit apps were still supported as I wanted to play Nanosaur again (although I couldn't make it work).
 

sw1tcher

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2004
5,286
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Oh I remember those days. But as i recall most were using dialup modems in those days so video conferencing was only available in schools and corporations.
1000 free hours on AOL FTW!

And when you tried to cancel, they'd give you another free 1000 hours. ?

It was nice getting free internet back then. Just rinse and repeat with AOL, MSN, CompuServe, Prodigy, Juno, MindSpring, Earthlink, NetZero
 

jwolf6589

macrumors 601
Dec 15, 2010
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I wonder if SheepShaver is still compatible with the latest MacOs releases. I used to experiment with it years ago when 32bit apps were still supported as I wanted to play Nanosaur again (although I couldn't make it work).
No its not that I recall. I had it a while back but it stopped working once I Upgraded.
 

JosephAW

macrumors 603
May 14, 2012
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There used to be a mod in os9 that made sounds for every window click and action, I had the r2d2 sound set and I enjoyed all the sounds it made.

Still using quark xpress and photoshop 20 years later.

I’ll give Spotify this, they supported the power PC long after it was discontinued and I could stream using my old iMac G3.
 

Apple Knowledge Navigator

macrumors 68040
Mar 28, 2010
3,525
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Mac OS 9 and all the ones before it crashed way too often. Daily crashes was the norm in my experience. Also OS 8 was the real star. OS 9 was just a slight (and bloated) refinement of OS 8.
You’re right about the crashing. Younger people today will never understand this concept, particularly on Windows when it was even more common. You could purchase a card or piece of software and literally have no idea if it would be fully compatible, or if you’d suffer multiple BSOD.

I’m surprised you label OS9 as bloated though. It always felt like a major service pack for 8, which is to say it brought many needed features/improvements.
 

MacsRgr8

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Sep 8, 2002
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ZMacintosh

macrumors 65816
Nov 13, 2008
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UI's now are overly cluttered or simplified and loose the intent of the application and the purpose. these familiar applications and interfaces made it apparent what it was and did not try to be anything else...I think we need to revisit these types of UI designs in macOS, iOS, etc...its completely cluttered and unimaginative.
 

opeter

macrumors 68030
Aug 5, 2007
2,677
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Slovenia
1000 free hours on AOL FTW!

And when you tried to cancel, they'd give you another free 1000 hours. ?

It was nice getting free internet back then. Just rinse and repeat with AOL, MSN, CompuServe, Prodigy, Juno, MindSpring, Earthlink, NetZero
Yes, and loading some images tooks all these free hours on an 56K or slower modem (if you were lucky to have a stable connection).
 
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