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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?

#541

Post by gnipgnip »

jimmies wrote: 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: -…

Indeed! I had to struggle with a consumer hp dv65xx for a few years before I finally got my hand on a thinkpad. Opening it up was a nightmare, and I broke random plastic things everytime I opened it up.

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

#542

Post by acranox »

i_don_t_know wrote: post #317

The ancient microwave in my first apartment. It had two knobs: one for time, one for power. It's immediately obvious how to cook something for how long, how to add more time, etc. All other microwaves that I've used I had to have someone explain to me what buttons to press in what order to do even the simplest things. And I've never seen anyone use all of those fancy buttons.

I had one of those. My issue with it was the knob went up to an hour, and was very hard to set at sub-minute intervals. So 30 seconds, or 90 seconds were very approximate. The "add 30 second button" is the only button I really need. Since a microwave can do a lot in a minute, a knob that doesn't allow accuracy within a minute isn't my first choice.

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

#543

Post by kbutler »

tdk wrote: post #414

1. Noodler's fountain pens. These are 'Hacker-friendly' pens. With most pens the nib and feed are glued in, but in the Noodlers pens they are push fit, so can be adjusted. You can adjust the amount of flex and flow independently. You can also take out the entire filling mechanism, and use the whole pen body as a reservoir. Neat. http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/209380-noodler... 2. Vim It was a bold desi…

> 2. Vim It was a bold design concept to use 'modes', but it makes it so much more productive.

Vim got modal editing from vi, which stole it from Bravo...in 1976.

And actually, the "insert" mode was the innovation - previous editors were completely command-driven, being designed for use on teletype machines, where you could not have a usable "edit/append" mode.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravo_(software)

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

#544

Post by baby »

kalleboo wrote: post #174

* Chopsticks. One-handed eating is just convenient. * Palm Vx. At the time this thing has fantastic functionality (all that freeware!), the OS had great charm, and I still think it looks really handsome. * Sony Ericsson w580. One of the last really small cell phones before huge screens took over. And the slide mechanism was really satisfying - the ultimate fidget

chopsticks are awesome. Still, a spoon is better to eat rice.

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

#546

Post by drglitch »

cyxxon wrote: post #470
i_don_t_know wrote: post #317

The ancient microwave in my first apartment. It had two knobs: one for time, one for power. It's immediately obvious how to cook something for how long, how to add more time, etc. All other microwaves that I've used I had to have someone explain to me what buttons to press in what order to do even the simplest things. And I've never seen anyone use all of those fancy buttons.

My dad worked as a the head of an engineering department at Miele in Germany, and therefore my family would always get new appliances before they hit the market, to actually test them out. My mum hated it, of course, to always have to relearn new interfaces etc. And yes, one day our perfectly good microwave with just these two dieals was replaced by an abomination: tons of soft-touch buttons, digital clock, what have…

Go give kudos to your dad and his colleagues, Miele are one of best designed appliances I've ever encountered (aside from that microwave).

I successfully navigated washers, espresso machines, etc, set to operate in languages I do not speak and was still able to get them to do what I wanted with minimal effort

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

#547

Post by baby »

SwellJoe wrote: post #111

Zojirushi fuzzy logic rice cooker. I've owned it for more than a decade and made maybe hundreds of pounds of rice. Always perfect. Cast iron skillet. Lodge makes cheap, very high quality, pans that just work, forever (there are many brands, several are great).

Counter argument: there is no point putting money in a rice cooker. Get the cheapest and smallest one (unless you're cooking rice for 6+ people) and you will get exactly the same result. The only annoying thing with these cheaper rice cooker is that you need to unplug them when done, but I bought a switch to sit between the socket and the plug and it works fine :)

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

#548

Post by coldpie »

baby wrote: post #519
idonotknowwhy wrote: post #446

#1 The Nokia N9 (specifically the alarm clock) When trying to find a clone for Android, I found this guy's blog post which explains why it's perfect: http://www.nition.co/2014/08/the-nokia-n9-alarm-clock/ The swipe interface of the operating system is also the best I've ever used. If I play around with the N9 for a few minutes now; then go back to android, it feels clunky an inefficient again. #2 The Nintendo Gamecub…

I remember watching an interview of Yamamoto explaining how Sony blatantly copied the N64 controller, even copying Nintendo's mistake of having 4 right-side buttons of exactly the same shape (for the fingers). Nintendo corrected this with the gamecube controller having different shaped buttons on the right (see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube_controller the A, Y, X and B buttons) For some reason, Nintendo…

Maybe it's because I play a lot of games, but I don't know why four identical shaped buttons would be bad. I never press A and think I'm pressing B because they are the same shape. It's not clear to me why you think different shaped buttons is inherently better.

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

#549

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

Shopping at Aldi. They display all their groceries on the same pallets they use for storage, and they're ruthless about cutting down cost and shopping time.

A shopping trip at Aldi takes half as long and costs half as much as other grocery stores. Excellent design.

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

#550

Post by baby »

coldpie wrote: post #548
baby wrote: post #519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember watching an interview of Yamamoto explaining how Sony blatantly copied the N64 controller, even copying Nintendo's mistake of having 4 right-side buttons of exactly the same shape (for the fingers). Nintendo corrected this with the gamecube controller having different shaped buttons on the right (see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameCube_controller the A, Y, X and B buttons) For some reason, Nintendo…

Maybe it's because I play a lot of games, but I don't know why four identical shaped buttons would be bad. I never press A and think I'm pressing B because they are the same shape. It's not clear to me why you think different shaped buttons is inherently better.

One thing where it shines: new players and tutorials. When the button is shown to the screen they can immediately track it. Sony is pretty bad with that, GF always asks "what is R2? What is R3? ..."
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