@variablepulserate My (completely unproven) idea is that we had louder interfaces back then because the boundary between "online" and "offline" was clear; there was a "real world" and an "online world". So we could have UIs that were more fun, but also more fatiguing (in terms of colour for example) because we weren't immersed in them all day. In an always-online world, the UI needs to be in the background and that either means flat/bland design or getting used to living in a bubblegum themed world.