Since my app is going to be based on learning about the 90s hip-hop genre, I decided a good way to get inspired would be to look at how this information was presented at the time. I started by looking at magazines, and later progressed into looking at more general 90s music websites.
My main app featre will be breaking down the era into digestable chunks of information. this website was astoundingly useful for getting timeline information.
Rap Hip-Hop Timeline 1990-1999
Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine
I was pretty deep into Reddit pages when I discovered the Internet archive website, which is truly incredible. It has a ‘Way Back Machine’ feature, where you can enter keywords and revisit websites from basically any point in time since the creation of the internet. Its an incredible archive and very useful for my app design, as i want it the design to make you feel like you’ve been transported back into the era. I
t wouldn’t make sense to make the design feel modern and sleek when the concept is about revisiting a cultural moment. I’m aiming to use the archive/any resource i can to research real 90s hip-hop websites, magazine layouts, typography, and early internet structures. I want the user to feel like they’ve stepped back into that era.
At the same time i dont want my app to feel too messy or chaotic. I want it to still be intuitive and structured. This is where im hoping to bring in Swiss Style, i plan on using grids, a strong hierarchy, white space etc to keep the interface very usable.
This is definitely going to be a bit of a challenge as the 90s design style, in terms of hip hop is very bold, loud and unapologetic. I think itll be an interesting creative constraint, trying to find the perfect harmony between Swiss style and cultural expression.