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

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

#161

Post by fredleblanc »

Havoc wrote: post #59

Zojirushi rice cookers. Even though the shell is plastic it has a durable feel to it like you don't find it kitchen appliances anymore. It'll still work in 20+ years type feel

I’ll second this. Got one for Christmas last year and have used it twice a week all year. It makes the process feel foolproof, and is the easiest appliance to clean in my kitchen.

Never made a bad batch of rice, and have accidentally left rice on keep warm for hours and hours and everything was perfectly fine.

And, yeah, it’s solid. I highly recommend.

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

#162

Post by grech »

raz32dust wrote: post #130

Google flights is fantastic. Don't know if it is "the best-designed thing I've ever used", but it is on top of my mind as I just used it yesterday. Google doesn't get enough credit for the things that they did do well - including Search and Maps. Another is Macbooks - the pre-2015 ones at least. I haven't used the latest M1 ones, which I hear great things about. The Aluminum body, the flawless screen, magsafe, great…

I just got an M1 Macbook Air this week to replace my 2014 Macbook Pro. Performance is cool (lots has already been documented about that), but the battery life is on another level. Charged it on 4 days ago and after about 7 hours of use, it's still at 48% at the time of writing this post. Ditto to what you said about "a beautiful marriage of form and function".

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

#163

Post by FunnyLookinHat »

japhyr wrote: post #134

If you split your own firewood by hand, a Fiskars splitting axe is insanely better than any standard splitting maul you'd find in a typical hardware store: https://www.fiskars.com/en-us/gardening-and-yard-care/produc... For mechanical pencils, the Rotring 600 is the best thing I've ever written with: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AZWYUA4/

I'm in the market for a new splitting axe - thanks for the recommendation!

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

#164

Post by yobbo »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #145

Arcteryx Bora 95 backpack. Big, heavy, but super-durable and what you need if you're doing long backpacking trips and are not of the contemporary super-lightweight inclination. Mine is 25 years old and everything is still perfect. Out of production, their current backpacks are no substitute (and they know it). Dewalt power tools. Not absolutely perfect, but normally everything about them just seems right, and the dur…

> Sandisk Clip+

Agreed. As they age and the screen goes out, they can still be used thanks to voice ui in rockbox.

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

#165

Post by contingencies »

WorldPeas wrote: post #125
contingencies wrote: post #34

Bicycles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycles Chinese knives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitchen_knife#Chinese_chef.27s... Chopsticks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopsticks CPUs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_processing_unit Fiber lasers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_laser IP https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol Mail https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail Trimarans https://en.wikipedia.org/w…

Ip?! Perhaps v6 but not v4 by a longshot.

Those who do not understand IP are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.

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

#166

Post by stillblue »

The Apple Ecosystem.

I've invested a lot of hard earned money into it. I have an ipad, iphone, a macbook air, an apple watch, airpods pro and a mac mini. Bought these over the years.

Just the way these things work so cohesively to me is pure magic. The attention to detail on extremely minor things is pretty impressive. I haven't had to think about "doing" anything with tech ever since I bought apple products. You just remember to charge them and everything just works. I come from a pure windows / android background and I was mindblown by how convenient things were.

I'd highly recommend Apple devices to friends and family.

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

#167

Post by djmips »

Misdicorl wrote: post #158
raz32dust wrote: post #130

Google flights is fantastic. Don't know if it is "the best-designed thing I've ever used", but it is on top of my mind as I just used it yesterday. Google doesn't get enough credit for the things that they did do well - including Search and Maps. Another is Macbooks - the pre-2015 ones at least. I haven't used the latest M1 ones, which I hear great things about. The Aluminum body, the flawless screen, magsafe, great…

I must disagree with you on maps. Google maps is a fantastic geographic aware search. It is a horrific map. On any given screen there is an 80% chance that the major road I'm interested in is not labeled. Finding the name of a relevant cross street is a nightmare. I feel like it used to be better. Way better. I think the map aspect has been dropped entirely as a real feature now that they supply directions (search) p…

I agree with this 100%. And there needs to be something in the design to allow you to zoom the text size. It's comical to witness myself trying to read too small text and reflexively zooming only to have the same sized font.

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

#168

Post by mberning »

invalidator wrote: post #149

GearWrench ratcheting wrenches. They're compact and fit in places that sockets never will. The ratcheting mechanism is very fine, with low backlash, which matters a lot in those tight places. They feel great, and they're a delight to use. Wirewrap tools. They're mechanically simple, easy to learn, and let you create neat, dense hobby prototypes faster and easier than soldering. Wago Lever Nuts. These let you join a w…

Great list. Having specialized hand tools and using them to great effect is an intoxicating experience.

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

#169

Post by donatj »

infocollector wrote: post #113
reggieband wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have one of these and I use it about once or twice a week. I have one major design gripe with mine: the Keep Warm functionality is enabled by default. It does at least remember if you turn it off but for some reason it resets to default if my power cuts out. I happen to live in a slightly rural location where a 1-2 minute power cut happens now and again. If I use the kettle after the power outage it keeps reboiling…

Isn't it true that in design the hot water touches non-metallic parts, which is not good for you?

There is a removable filter on the spout which is just a wire mesh attached to a plastic frame, and a little bit of plastic that attaches that to the metal. Cuisinart states it to be BPA free.

I don't find any of it reason for concern though. It's not submerged during boiling when at the max fill line, and even then I'm sure it's a heat safe plastic. The filter itself is easily removable, the mount is probably removable with a little effort. I'd much rather have the filter, given my hard water and the little chunks of limestone the filter likes to catch.

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