Sep 22 2008
Button Butb.gif
A few days ago somebody asked me if I could give an estimate of how many women I had slept with throughout my life. Instead of answering that it all happened a long, long time ago, my mind drifted off for no apparent reason to a question that seemed to be of more relevance to me — how many website buttons did I create in my life?
As a web designer I have some idea of how many sites I created since 1995. I could even give you an exact number by going through my backup disks, but the buttons… A single site can contain over two hundred buttons. A trivial thought, I know, but that question suddenly became of overwhelming importance to me. When I managed to concentrate on my guest again, I noticed that my partner had already answered for me. For a moment there I wanted to bring up the subject of creating website buttons but I managed to keep silent.
It all started with butb.gif, a nice flat back button, made in 1995. I still use it. In fact I am going to use it today for a website that already has 3D buttons out of the box and I do sincerely hate buttons that try to visually pop out of a flat screen. Call me old-fashioned.
After my death I will be remembered by a few as a pornographer, a dirty old man, an ever recovering alcoholic maybe and nobody will see the dedication with which I have flattened out 3D buttons all over the web. For some reason that brought on a very gloomy mood today.
Here it is:
Of course the functionality can be easily adjusted by just rotating it:
I know it is not a Rembrandt and it should have been square and not one pixel off, but it has been clicked on billions of times in almost 14 years and while typing this I also realize why that question of my guest triggered my thoughts on the subject of buttons.