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MSN Messenger (2001)

ProMax

MSN Messenger (2001) is the friendly blue-and-green face of the dial-up internet: a chat window with a glassy Luna-blue title bar, a green-to-cyan butterfly in the corner, and a little colored dot telling the world whether you are Online, Away, or Busy. Crisp UI sans, beveled group boxes, and rounded 3-pixel buttons frame a pure-white message pane.

It is the aesthetic of the after-school internet — optimistic, a bit toylike, and built on the status-dot color language of green, amber, red, and gray. Everything wears that specific glossy vertical gradient, every dialog floats on a soft blue drop shadow, and the whole thing feels like a buzzing conversation window that just went *nudge*.

Learn more about the MSN Messenger (2001) style

  • OriginRedmond, Washington (Microsoft MSN division)
  • Period1999-2005 (MSN Messenger 4.x/5.0/6.0; the 2001 v4 window is the icon of the era)
  • DesignerBill Flora · Microsoft MSN team · Microsoft UX group
  • MovementsY2K skeuomorphic UI · Windows Luna aqua-gel dialog design · Frutiger Aero precursor · instant-messenger culture

Web examples

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Slide examples

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