Sébastien Matos has built a fantastic interactive trip through the history of one of the most important UI elements we encounter every day: the scroll bar. He’s recreated, as faithfully as possible, 30 years of scroll bars from some of the top desktop platforms of their day, from Xerox Star to Windows 10.

Take a minute out of your busy day to enjoy the zen of playing with old UI design. Then come back here and read The Verge’s very serious review of scroll bars through history.

Xerox Star: 2/10

Unclear design. Arrows counterintuitively move the scroll bar’s position in the opposite direction.

Lisa OS: 6/10

Clear design, but a bit wide. When dragging, the ghost of the scroll position gives you great interactive feedback.

System 1: 7/10

Iterative improvement, a much nicer width ratio.

Windows 1.01: 5/10

Adding a pop of red color is fun, but draws unnecessary attention.

NeXTSTEP: 6/10

Disappointing placement of arrows, but live feedback of the scroll bar’s position is a great addition.

Windows 3.0: 7/10

Design is very easy to read. Important features draw your eye.

System 7: 6/10

Very similar to Windows 3.0, but lacks high contrast so I’m docking a point.

Windows 95: 7.5/10

Great iterative update to 3.0’s design. Addition of live feedback, finally.

Mac OS 8: 5.5/10

Slightly better contrast, but a big step back with the arrow placements at the bottom.

Mac OS X 10.0: 7/10

High contrast and clear, but questionable design.

Windows XP: 7.5/10

This has everything, clean, clear, and not in your face.

Windows Vista: 8/10

Nice update here. Keeps all the improvements of the past 20 years, but learns to step back and disappear until you need it.

Mac OS X Lion: 5/10

Wait, too much! TOO MUCH!

Windows 10: 8.5/10

The new gold standard.