MadeirOS

Design & Development

MadeirOS is the best—and goofiest—version of my website that lived throughout 2016-17. I cycle through new designs on an annual basis, but this one lingered for one reason: it was a ton of fun to build.

My first computer was a creaky Windows 95 machine, and I wanted to try and sample the nostalgia of a crude retro operating system.

  1. The main pages of the site were split into pseudo-apps that could be dragged and stacked like windows on the screen. Some, like the Guest Book, allowed guest input, which turned tragic and comedic at breathtaking speed. Others, like the Terminal, remain a mystery to everyone but me, which is anti-user to the extreme but also kind of interesting in its own right.

    In creating MadeirOS, I emphasized site performance and responsiveness. The site should load well under a second in most connections, and it also scales across mobile phones and larger desktop monitors alike.