Marty Beckerman’s 90s Island is an off-kilter novella, but the sales page linked above was a damn near perfect slice of design. I came across it when the book was first released back in 2013, and immediately bought a copy after sharing the link with everyone I knew.
Ten years later, and the joke feels a bit dated. The sensory assault of early nineties web design is a bit too much, and if you don’t know it’s a joke *before* you get there, it’s unlikely to have the go-buy-this-book impact that you’d hope for.
What seemed horribly right ten years ago seems horribly wrong-footed now, not least because the ongoing assault of social media has reshaped what we share and how viral things can get.
Design is not static. It should evolve and respond to the era. Were I recommending the book to someone today, my first port of call would likely be the amazon page, because there’s more chance they’d actually buy it.