Retrominder is a hyper-stylized web game that engages both user’s nostalgia and speculation. The game essentially has users frantically type the name of a cultural icon as they appear on the scream. If they can get it in time, they get another round, otherwise they lose. This marriage of high end UI technology with a UX of nostalgia and remembrance entirely informs the design of the home page. The text is essentially old school futurism, with its glowing neon and steely block lettering. This duality puts users in the right mood, magnified only by the static overlay that continually warps the medium into the past.
Users understand the high level of technology and programming it took to create an interactive game like this, but the content of the quiz is focused on icons of the past. Thus, by creating a design that marries past and present, this designer has synergized the entire aesthetic to properly accommodate the apparent brand paradox of the game.
This next page is a menu that explains the function, navigation, and rules of the game. The visual style of this page of vocs in old arcade, but the graphic floor of the page seems to call to mind yet another note of futurism and Technology. Once again we find this designer constructing a duality of past and present. This immerses the user even more by providing both aesthetic Unity irrelevant interface to an already hyper engaging piece of web content. This is an example of how designers can create entirely new aesthetics to immerse users in a stylized reality that wouldn't be able to exist otherwise. The game and now the user occupy the same, incredibly unique, stylized space.
This last page depicts the actual in game interface and experience. The user’s screen continues to as to amd fuzz as old school shows, characters, and celebrities dance across its outdated screen. This continues, and actually elevates, the site’s sense of nostalgia and technology. The screen continually simulates a momentary loss of signal, implying the type of disconnect you might see in technology that is outdated or obsolete. This fact informs the aesthetic to include a value of sentimentality and holding onto things you care about. This synergizes well with the impetus of the experience which is one of homage and loving appropriation. This designer created an aesthetic that will endear users to the brand and image of the experience in a way no one would be able to anticipate. Between this and the interactivity, this site provides a compelling and complete UX.
Retrominder is an awesome website design in the Arts & Recreation and Entertainment industries.
