Marcin Wichary
@aresluna.org
Writing about software craft and quality: unsung.aresluna.org · Wrote a book about the history of keyboards: shifthappens.site · Design @figma · Typographer · Occasional speaker · Chicagoan in training
Pinned
Marcin Wichary
@aresluna.org
· Aug 14
Aresluna
Marcin Wichary’s site
aresluna.org
I finally updated my homepage! It’s not really flashy in any way, but it has a lot of links to what I’ve done over the last years.
If you like my work, chances are you will find here something you enjoy.
aresluna.org
If you like my work, chances are you will find here something you enjoy.
aresluna.org
Unless I’m thinking of another similar book…
February 3, 2026 at 3:36 AM
Unless I’m thinking of another similar book…
Oh yes! I do have that somewhere. I think it even has a shiny-ish paper, right?
February 3, 2026 at 3:36 AM
Oh yes! I do have that somewhere. I think it even has a shiny-ish paper, right?
Of course also stuff like Delicious Library, Winamp… I think the suspiciously short-lived iTunes 5 was also beautiful.
February 3, 2026 at 3:22 AM
Of course also stuff like Delicious Library, Winamp… I think the suspiciously short-lived iTunes 5 was also beautiful.
I definitely feel like some realism would be great! Seeing device frames, scanlines, imperfections. It adds to it. Tried to simulate that in my emulation piece.
February 3, 2026 at 1:50 AM
I definitely feel like some realism would be great! Seeing device frames, scanlines, imperfections. It adds to it. Tried to simulate that in my emulation piece.
I was so frustrated when someone just vandalized a perfectly fine iMac G4 photo by blurring the innocuous screen contents. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G4
iMac G4 - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
February 3, 2026 at 1:44 AM
I was so frustrated when someone just vandalized a perfectly fine iMac G4 photo by blurring the innocuous screen contents. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac_G4
Yeah, I always wondered about that. Is that a copyright kinda fear?
February 3, 2026 at 1:42 AM
Yeah, I always wondered about that. Is that a copyright kinda fear?
It’s so ugly!!! But maybe that’s ok
February 3, 2026 at 1:37 AM
It’s so ugly!!! But maybe that’s ok
Nina Kalinina has been doing some great stuff with VisiOn over on Masto! But VisiOn was… interesting more than “beautiful.” Although who knows what a software coffee table book *really* needs!
February 3, 2026 at 1:34 AM
Nina Kalinina has been doing some great stuff with VisiOn over on Masto! But VisiOn was… interesting more than “beautiful.” Although who knows what a software coffee table book *really* needs!
Early NeXT, obviously (a bit Unixy, but has some elegance)! Magic Cap?
There are probably some more strange and beautiful text-only DOS apps. Some particularly memorable semigraphics.
There are probably some more strange and beautiful text-only DOS apps. Some particularly memorable semigraphics.
February 3, 2026 at 1:24 AM
Early NeXT, obviously (a bit Unixy, but has some elegance)! Magic Cap?
There are probably some more strange and beautiful text-only DOS apps. Some particularly memorable semigraphics.
There are probably some more strange and beautiful text-only DOS apps. Some particularly memorable semigraphics.
The closest I can think of is the recent beautiful macOS/iOS app icon books by Michael Flarup, but those are specific to icons.
February 3, 2026 at 1:17 AM
The closest I can think of is the recent beautiful macOS/iOS app icon books by Michael Flarup, but those are specific to icons.
Early skeuomorphic iOS, early webOS, various Mac things of course, BeOS, the later Norton Utilities aesthetic, XCopy on the Amiga! TOS was always so elegant. And some lesser-known things. Newton?
February 3, 2026 at 1:16 AM
Early skeuomorphic iOS, early webOS, various Mac things of course, BeOS, the later Norton Utilities aesthetic, XCopy on the Amiga! TOS was always so elegant. And some lesser-known things. Newton?
In my head, I can see a beautiful 17"x11" spread with a hypothetical Windows 3.11 CRT that’s 3000x2000 and it has a lot of windows, icons, Minesweeper, the goods. Especially the later “platinum” Windows 3.11 appearance.
You know? Stuff like that.
You know? Stuff like that.
February 3, 2026 at 1:16 AM
In my head, I can see a beautiful 17"x11" spread with a hypothetical Windows 3.11 CRT that’s 3000x2000 and it has a lot of windows, icons, Minesweeper, the goods. Especially the later “platinum” Windows 3.11 appearance.
You know? Stuff like that.
You know? Stuff like that.
Yeah, in my head the book is more of a celebration of utilitarian rather than art/media!
February 3, 2026 at 12:49 AM
Yeah, in my head the book is more of a celebration of utilitarian rather than art/media!
I was just looking at Scala on Amiga and look how beautiful!
(Source + kudos to Stone Tools: stonetools.ghost.io/scala-amiga)
(Source + kudos to Stone Tools: stonetools.ghost.io/scala-amiga)
February 3, 2026 at 12:45 AM
I was just looking at Scala on Amiga and look how beautiful!
(Source + kudos to Stone Tools: stonetools.ghost.io/scala-amiga)
(Source + kudos to Stone Tools: stonetools.ghost.io/scala-amiga)
Thete are coffee table books with photos of Braun equipment, Apple computers, collections of corporate brand standards, typeface specimens etc.
But outside of some nostalgic video game coffee table books, have their ever been books showing primarily software? Graphical user interfaces or apps?
But outside of some nostalgic video game coffee table books, have their ever been books showing primarily software? Graphical user interfaces or apps?
February 3, 2026 at 12:31 AM
Thete are coffee table books with photos of Braun equipment, Apple computers, collections of corporate brand standards, typeface specimens etc.
But outside of some nostalgic video game coffee table books, have their ever been books showing primarily software? Graphical user interfaces or apps?
But outside of some nostalgic video game coffee table books, have their ever been books showing primarily software? Graphical user interfaces or apps?
A post about the pretty inspiring and strange software that is Strudel, sort of a command line/text editor for music. I want my CSS authoring to feel this way.
unsung.aresluna.org/we-can-go-de...
unsung.aresluna.org/we-can-go-de...
“We can go deeper by patterning inside of our pattern” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
unsung.aresluna.org
February 2, 2026 at 9:28 PM
A post about the pretty inspiring and strange software that is Strudel, sort of a command line/text editor for music. I want my CSS authoring to feel this way.
unsung.aresluna.org/we-can-go-de...
unsung.aresluna.org/we-can-go-de...
Are there any other good or bad examples that come to your mind?
February 2, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Are there any other good or bad examples that come to your mind?
Thank you everyone for suggested books! With help from @jenson.org, I turned it into a page on my website, hoping that maybe it will help someone in the future:
aresluna.org/ux-books-not...
aresluna.org/ux-books-not...
UX books not written by white men
The details of table of contents UI on my site
aresluna.org
February 1, 2026 at 9:52 PM
Thank you everyone for suggested books! With help from @jenson.org, I turned it into a page on my website, hoping that maybe it will help someone in the future:
aresluna.org/ux-books-not...
aresluna.org/ux-books-not...
Oh damn! That’s a great one.
February 1, 2026 at 6:10 AM
Oh damn! That’s a great one.
Yes! A few places do that, but I always feel weird about the affordances (often it feels like you have to paste something huge into a small field first). I’ll check Transmit and Fetch, thanks!
February 1, 2026 at 5:40 AM
Yes! A few places do that, but I always feel weird about the affordances (often it feels like you have to paste something huge into a small field first). I’ll check Transmit and Fetch, thanks!
I hate it sometimes, but I understand the value!
January 31, 2026 at 9:01 PM
I hate it sometimes, but I understand the value!
(There’s the thing that alerts you of Caps Lock when typing passwords, but not sure that’s nearly as common.)
January 31, 2026 at 5:10 PM
(There’s the thing that alerts you of Caps Lock when typing passwords, but not sure that’s nearly as common.)
It’s wild that some places don’t do that.
January 31, 2026 at 5:05 PM
It’s wild that some places don’t do that.
Oh, that’s a good one!!! Although I always find it a bit finicky in use.
January 31, 2026 at 5:02 PM
Oh, that’s a good one!!! Although I always find it a bit finicky in use.