Hey ! 👋 I'm thrilled to share RetroToNeo with you today. An interactive museum and design-evolution engine that explores three decades of web aesthetics and UI patterns! we often read about web history or look at static screenshots of old sites. I wanted to build something experiential: a platform where switching eras in the navbar re-skins the entire application in real-time. When you change an era, RetroToNeo doesn't just swap colors. It dynamically transforms: Layouts & Surfaces: Bevels, gloss gels, glassmorphism, neumorphic extrusions, and bento grids. Typography: Era-native font stacks loaded for each historical period. Interaction Language: Per-era hover and press physics. GeoCities operates near-instantaneously, Neumorphism presses into its surface, and Frutiger Aero illuminates with a soft bloom. What you can explore inside: 21 Themes & Eras: Covering 16 historical eras (1995 GeoCities, Skeuomorphism, Web 2.0, Frutiger Aero, Bento UI, Adaptive AI) and 5 visual subculture modes (Cyberpunk, Y2K, Vaporwave, Acid Graphics, Brutalism). Design Museum & Encyclopedia: Deep-dive galleries, exhibit lightboxes, historical facts, and bespoke interactive widgets. Full-Screen Desktop Experience: A functional Windows 7 / Frutiger Aero desktop recreation at /experience/frutiger. Multilingual UI: Built with a custom i18n architecture supporting 43 languages. The entire project was built using Next.js 15 (App Router), React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and Framer Motion. I’d love for you to take a trip through web history, try out the different eras, and let me know what you think! Which web design era brings back the most nostalgia for you? Looking forward to your feedback and thoughts!

RetroToNeo

Interactive museum of web design history (1990s–2026+)

Interactive museum of web design history (1990s–2026+)