[_8j50]

Great reply, sorry my response is late but 1998-2003 era desktop icons are a good example. Of course it would be an explicit retro look today but short of a mockup what I can say us that those classic icons felt tangible. They were not afraid to raise a bevel or do 3d. What I expect today us the cool graphics we saw in futuristic ui's in movies but even better. These modern icons feel like a fancy artsy scribble.

I am glad for you that your product is popular and I wouldn't suggest not chasing that. But your customers don't have many good style options these days. If you forgot everything about ui trends and consider something like the button or scrollbar and how real users prefer windows 98's version over win11 or macos and consider why that is, maybe you can set the trend.

Why squares and scribbles when you can do cool animated 3d that is bold and beautiful?