Amiga :)
Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
491–500 of 994 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#492It kind of pains me to say this, but I'll say Sonos from about 5-6 years ago. When I first got a couple speakers, I touted it as the best consumer electronics experience I'd ever had to except maybe some Apple products. Unfortunately, it has been consistently downhill the past couple of years. What used to "just work" now constantly has issues and glitches, and speakers I got just a few years ago that work great are…
Sonos + Spotify have been so spotty. Playing music from Spotify consistently starts tracks halfway through a song. Sometimes no music plays at all even though it displays as playing in Spotify. Sometimes Spotify just cannot connect. I have something like $3500 in Sonos speakers; it’s really disappointing how unreliable they are.
Anecdotal but anything + spotify is very glitchy. The Car audio system, bluetooth speakers / headphones etc., where other apps seem to work just fine.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#493https://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,…
The UI is definitely not responsive and the website looks ugly.
The UI is very obviously responsive, usable and fast.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#494https://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,…
Meh. Not so much. First time I opened it show half screen banner to download mobile app. And the website wasn't designed for mobile at all.
or maybe mobiles were not designed to order screws
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#495https://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,…
Plus CAD drawings available for every part. I love Mcmaster-Carr
yes, despite peoples complaints that it’s not mobile-first and pretty, it feels extremely futuristic to find a part number, download an stl, and 3D print to check for fit. never had a problem with ordering from them.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#496Victorinox Spartan Swiss knife. https://www.swissarmy.com/ca/en/Products/Swiss-Army-Knives/M...
I have the Pioneer and it is excellent. Amazing quality and good selection of tools. I do wish they included a Phillips head screwdriver.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#497https://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,…
Drilling down into different categories is better than any other site I’ve used. And like Costco, they curate pretty well and just have one supplier for each part, although the supplier may change. If you need a type of gear or screw, there is one option only, no need to compare various brands.
It was just as good 15 years ago too! And it’s probably not true not but it used to be the least possible friction to order things. Even if you weren’t logged in, if ordering from a company premise it would just confirm the address and let you order and send you a bill later.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#498Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#499If 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/
Do you think their shorter axe (n12) would be good to take bike camping?
To bike camp bring a small foldable saw, so instead of spending 1+ hour splitting wood after a long riding day you can spend that time enjoying camping
I have a carpenter axe which is very compact and somewhat lightweight, but gave it up because I never had to use it
Re: Ask HN: What are the best-designed things you've ever used?
#500Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Even worse, it seems almost random which zoom levels have text. Often, especially for train line and station names, zooming in makes the text disappear!