NeXTSTEP Interface
ネクストステップ・インターフェース / 1988–1997 / Style / Platform Screen Languages
The screen language NeXT laid down in its 1993 interface guidelines. The document states the goal outright: a color scheme based on black, white, and gray, and a simple appearance that uses shading for a three dimensional effect. The main menu stands as a vertical column at the upper left, and docked application icons run down the right edge.
At a glance
Visual cues
- A menu standing as a vertical column at the upper left, submenus attaching to its right
- Square application icons docked in a vertical strip along the right edge of the screen
- Thick bevels carved entirely from gray values, with no hue anywhere in them
- A black title bar on the window taking keystrokes, dark gray on a window that is merely frontmost
Best used for
- Building a developer tool whose entire hierarchy is carried by gray values and shading, with no accent hue
- Showing where the visual language of today's Apple desktop came from, in a talk or an exhibit
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Dictionary entry
- Type
- Run one Helvetica style face throughout and build hierarchy from weight and size alone. Leave unavailable commands in place in dark gray instead of removing them.
- Composition
- Fix a vertical menu column at the upper left and a vertical icon strip at the right edge, and give the space between them to the work. Windows are meant to overlap, so a black title bar is the only marker of the one in hand.
- Material
- Work in four steps from white to black and admit no hue. Assume one light source above, and keep every bevel consistent with it.
- Caution
- Reproduce the grays and then add one saturated accent, and the premise that value carries hierarchy fails, taking the reading order of the whole screen with it.
- Further study
- the plates and glossary of the NeXTSTEP User Interface Guidelines Release 3 / the meaning of the three dots marked at the lower left of an icon for an application that is not running / how the same system of parts carried over into later Apple screens
Related entries
- Aqua (アクア)Editorially linked for a useful contrast.Compare NeXTSTEP Interface and Aqua
- Swiss (スイス・スタイル)Shared effects: Calm.Compare NeXTSTEP Interface and Swiss
More from Platform Screen Languages
Continue through styles in the same Platform Screen Languages family, prioritised by shared effects.
- XrossMediaBar (XMB) (クロスメディアバー)Shared effects: Technique / Calm / Luxury.
- Adwaita (アドワイタ)Shared effects: Technique / Calm.
- GOV.UK Design System (GOV.UK デザインシステム)Shared effects: Calm / Technique.
Browse all Platform Screen Languages entries
Cite this entry
The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.
- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/nextstep-ui
- Markdown
- [NeXTSTEP Interface — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/nextstep-ui)
- HTML
- <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/nextstep-ui">NeXTSTEP Interface — IndexStyle</a>