HN was designed by one person (pg) who is an inveterate minimalist, has good taste, and likes text. He wanted to make a site that seemed bookish (his word) so it would attract people who wanted to read and discourage people who didn't (but in the gentlest way, by seeming boring). He also wanted to make a news site that looked like top, the terminal app. One thing that I don't think is widely appreciated about HN's de…
"Bookish" is an excellent word, the experience here is very similar to reading a good book, but an interactive one. I fell in love with this design from the 1st glance actually. Interestingly, I experience it be very different from Reddit.