Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 994 posts

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

#361

Post by cibyr »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #305
wh313 wrote: post #61

My Aeropress coffee maker. It feels more convenient than a french press, and much cheaper than an espresso machine. https://aeropress.com/ Also a bidet. Americans really need to start using it more.

As an espresso snob, I'm going to go with a Breville Double Boiler machine. Many espresso machine snobs used to crap on Breville as being "consumer grade", but they really succeeded with their Double Boiler machines, especially their more recent models that make it easy to descale the boiler at home. The BDB includes features that can cost literally 5X as much on Italian machines (stainless steel boilers, a preheatin…

I owned a Breville Dual Boiler for a few years, was always happy with the coffee it produced, and I thought it was very good value for the price... until it failed in a manner that caused it to constantly trip a GFCI. I brought it back to the shop where I bought it (who service all varieties of espresso machines), and they told me that Breville won't sell them parts for repair. I then contacted Breville, and they wanted me to ship it back to them for maintenance, at a cost of several hundred dollars. So I wound up with one of those much-more-expensive Italian machines, which has now seen daily use for a few years and not needed anything more than a replacement group head gasket (which cost $10 and any idiot can replace one at home).

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

#362

Post by palijer »

https://www.mcmaster.com/

Fast, snappy, responsive. No banners or cookie prompts, doesn't ask my to sign up for a newsletter or an account to continue and see more selection, it doesn't load in megabytes of JavaScript to show me products.

Plus, responsive as all heck, and there isn't any bullshit prompts like "click here to see our selected offerings" or "check out our value products here" Like, from. The short url, I'm already looking at the products.

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

#363

Post by loceng »

toomanyrichies wrote: post #155

One example of quality design which I gleaned from reading Don Norman's "The Design Of Everyday Things" is the metal plate I've frequently seen on doors which are meant to be pushed. The only affordance of such a plate is its push-ability, and the fact that someone actively installed a metal plate (instead of just relying on the door's natural flatness), as well as its location at the point of maximum leverage (all t…

The natural wear or polishing that occurs further acts as a signal to draw one's attention to it as wwll

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

#364

Post by loceng »

toomanyrichies wrote: post #155

One example of quality design which I gleaned from reading Don Norman's "The Design Of Everyday Things" is the metal plate I've frequently seen on doors which are meant to be pushed. The only affordance of such a plate is its push-ability, and the fact that someone actively installed a metal plate (instead of just relying on the door's natural flatness), as well as its location at the point of maximum leverage (all t…

The natural wear or polishing that occurs further acts as a signal to draw one's attention to it as well.

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

#367

Post by walterbell »

colechristensen wrote: post #303
walterbell wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there an option for leather or metal watchband, either from Citizen or aftermarket?

Almost every watch has a standard replaceable wristband.

Looks like this one is a non-standard 23mm instead of 22mm width.

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

#368

Post by sien »

wh313 wrote: post #61

My Aeropress coffee maker. It feels more convenient than a french press, and much cheaper than an espresso machine. https://aeropress.com/ Also a bidet. Americans really need to start using it more.

The Nanopresso is also excellent.

I used an Aeropress for years and then switched to the Nanopresso.

https://alternativebrewing.com.au/products/wacaco-nanopresso...

The Nanopresso gets a crema which is remarkable for a fairly cheap, portable device. I have one at home and one at work. They are good enough that they keep me away from cafes.

Both the Aeropress and the Nanopresso are so well designed.

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

#370

Post by mattzito »

eropple wrote: post #251
toomanyrichies wrote: post #155

One example of quality design which I gleaned from reading Don Norman's "The Design Of Everyday Things" is the metal plate I've frequently seen on doors which are meant to be pushed. The only affordance of such a plate is its push-ability, and the fact that someone actively installed a metal plate (instead of just relying on the door's natural flatness), as well as its location at the point of maximum leverage (all t…

I ran into a door today that had a handle on the push side. Not even a crossbar - an aluminum folded-over handle, one on each of the double doors. It is, unmistakably, a pull handle , and it had "PUSH" written above it and even underlined, and still it gave me pause.

When I worked for squarespace, their beautiful new offices had glass conference room doors that swung one way, the other way, or slid on a track, depending on the room configuration.

However every one of those doors had the same handle on both sides, giving you no clue as to which scenario this door was providing. You saw people pull/push the wrong way all the time, and then look up/to the side to see the hinges and where the door stop was. I eventually mentally dubbed that quiet look upwards before you touched a door the, “squarespace peek”.

After a while I’d heard that the original plans had the typical plate and handle for push/pull and the ceo felt like it messed with the design of the doors.

Post reply on HN