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Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?

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Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?

#11
Dyson vacuum cleaners.

I have never once wondered "how do I do this?" when using my Dyson. From cleaning, to extensions, switching modes, and just plain using the thing, every inch of these vacuums is designed to the utmost degree to make them not only super powerful suction machines but also trivially easy to use.

Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?

#14

Dyson vacuum cleaners. I have never once wondered "how do I do this?" when using my Dyson. From cleaning, to extensions, switching modes, and just plain using the thing, every inch of these vacuums is designed to the utmost degree to make them not only super powerful suction machines but also trivially easy to use.

Are you kidding me? These plastic toys break like 4 months in. Would never buy another one. Luckily I bought it at Costco so I could return it.

Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?

#16
post #8

Aesthetically pleasing: - The Palm Pre (1st edition). It is an absolutely amazing, brilliant piece of hardware (especially back in 2009) that fits just right in my hand like a pebble. The curved screen is brilliant to the eyes and to the touch. It also has an interface that is not cluttered and busy like shit in other mainstream OSes then, and now. But I mainly like things that are designed for ease of maintenance: -…

The modern ThinkPads are a lot harder to take apart, even though they superficially look very similar.

The T42/43 was a tank. I saw one take such a hard fall that the frame bent and it still booted up.

Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?

#17

Dyson vacuum cleaners. I have never once wondered "how do I do this?" when using my Dyson. From cleaning, to extensions, switching modes, and just plain using the thing, every inch of these vacuums is designed to the utmost degree to make them not only super powerful suction machines but also trivially easy to use.

Are you kidding me? These plastic toys break like 4 months in. Would never buy another one. Luckily I bought it at Costco so I could return it.

Don't know. I've had mine for > 6 years now, not a single problem with it. Newer ones aren't as good?

Re: Ask HN: What're the best-designed things you've ever used?

#18
The Reddit app on IOS. Something has always bothered me about most of the apps on IOS but I couldn't put my finger on it until I started using the reddit app. The UX is so good that it makes everything else feel awkward. I think that everything else was actually awkward and that's what I didn't like.

Cutco knives. All my life I've known what makes a good knife and that you should pay a lot. I think this is fine in the rare case that you have some someone to sharpen and hone them for you every day. Since getting Cutco knives I've come to realize that no other knives are for regular home use where you never have the time or skill to properly care for "other" knives.

Fixed gear bikes. I ride bikes a lot and when I finally got a fixie it was like that was finally the bike that felt like an extension of myself. I watched some videos about how cassettes work and understand the effect of being directly connected is what I'm feeling.

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