On this project, I wanted to emulate the Windows 95 operating system look as closely as possible for a retro-style background with a separate chat "window" asset and modularity for adding additional "windows" to display different things on my Twitch channel when chatting with viewers.

I used screenshots from virtual machines and the Internet to get accurate colors and the right scale for the visuals in a modern resolution, decided on a "pixel" size, and then built everything around that, from the taskbar, to the windows, to the icons.

Most icons are taken from official sources, and the font used is W95FA.

I created the "chat program" windows using Windows 95 window design as inspiration, then dug up some very old Windows and MSN Messenger screenshots from the earliest versions to use as a base (they're a little anachronistic as they were released post-Windows 98, but adapted well enough) for a fictional "Twitch Messenger" program where I could have chat displayed on screen, as well as promote top donators and chatters. I added custom made Twitch branding to them, replacing the original MSN silhouettes with Twitch icons I adapted into pixel art from the full-size logo.

The main goal for the project was modularity, and the video above demonstrates how it all looks in action. I wanted to be able to add and remove windows and taskbar items and emulate maximizing/minimizing them, as well as be able to move them around the screen - basically to emulate the desktop experience as well as I could using OBS to layer and edit my overlay on the fly.

I also recorded a virtual machine boot sequence as a video, and topped it off with the iconic start-up jingle to enhance the feeling of actually booting up a Windows 95 machine. It's not perfectly authentic, but it gives the proper feeling and allows me to prepare off-camera as "Windows" "loads" before going fully live.

I learned a lot about Windows 95's design throughout the project (for instance, there was no "bold" Windows 95 font, the operating system just spoofed it by rendering two instances of the same text and offsetting one to the right by one pixel!) and came away with a better understanding of UX design. I'm incredibly proud of the result and pleased with the outcome.