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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?

#641

Post by masklinn »

bouncycastle wrote: post #410
akg_67 wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It reminded me of my experience at a Japanese Onsen (hot spring) last week. While entering the Onsen, the sliding door is automated and slides to open on it’s own. While exiting, the automated sliding doesn’t work. It has handles with no indication of pull or push or slide. The design of handles suggest most probably pull. I kept trying to pull/push with no movement. Finally, realized I am supposed to use those handl…

Reminds me of this japanese comedy sketch https://youtu.be/ZkQNP2cqG2I Another tricky thing is figuring out how to flush the public toilets. The user interface is non standard on every toilet. The most surprising way I've encountered was to step on a button on the floor. (Remember to never press the big green button)

> Remember to never press the big green button

Is that one that automatically opens the door, or one which automatically starts a full wash of the entire toilet cabinet's interior?

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

#642

Post by masklinn »

edmcnulty101 wrote: post #79
kcplate wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I’d prefer my coffee maker to not do double duty as a butt washers, but maybe I am funny about these sort of things

I'm sure they have separate ones for bidet usage and coffee usage.

Why? The boiling water disinfects the device when you make your coffee, no sweat.

Think of it as home-made kopi luwak.

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

#644

Post by mpclark »

joconde wrote: post #527
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…

It's well-designed as a means of exchanging viruses with all the other users. At least its purpose is clear, so I can avoid it when I see it.

That’ll be (part of) why doors often also have a similarly designed ‘kick plate’ on the bottom edge

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

#645

Post by drdunce »

efitz wrote: post #375

My 2000 model year BMW M roadster. Not counting the radio, the car had a tiny number of buttons and switches- window up/down, headlight knob, and 5 buttons. There was nothing extraneous or redundant. There were no door lock buttons- the lock indicator was the button to lock the door, and the door open handle was the unlock button. Also, every darn control in the car was exactly where it was supposed to be. It’s hard…

cars used to be so well designed. you never had to look down at a screen to see what was going on, it was just there, at your finger tips. You could tell what gear you were in, if the handbrake, lights, indicators were on/off or virtually anything without taking your eyes off the road for even a second. The interface had evolved with everything being exactly where it ought to be. When you changed it it made a reassuring clunk so that you knew. Now it seems like everyone is reconfiguring the keymappings on a 90s flight simulator while they're driving.

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

#646

Post by masklinn »

GordonS wrote: post #631
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.

It looks like a one-cup French press - what I missing that makes this better?

> what I missing that makes this better?

The main part is that you unscrew the filter piece, so you can just push out the puck of coffee then rinse / dry through the tube. This makes them much easier to clean and dry than a french press where you have to send a jet of water through the bottom in case you had a bit too much coffee, then need an implement to actually reach the bottom of the device. Also makes it easier to throw the grounds into a dedicated (or semi-dedicated e.g. organics, composting) bin without the additional rinsing water.

The second draw is that it's paper-filtered by default, there are metal filters but the paper filters mean way cleaner cups (less residue going through). This also provides a wider and more flexible grind-range.

The third draw is that you filter directly into your mug, or bottle (if the mouth is wide enough), and can e.g. filter onto ice cubes for iced coffee, so less option for miss-pouring and mess.

The fourth draw is it's all plastic so it travels really well, and because the plunger is hollow you can stow things into the plunger (e.g. many hand grinder will fit), so it also makes for a nice travel / hiking device.

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

#648

Post by masklinn »

jtwaleson wrote: post #459
bittercynic wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not too hard to get a replacement rubber seal, and easy to swap in the new part. They say it will last longer if you don't store it with the seal compressed in the tube, but I always leave it like that and it still lasts years.

If you just push it all the way through, the tip of the seal won't be compressed. No effort to do it like that.

I don't really understand why you'd do that though, do you not rinse the press after every use? Just stow it with the pieces separated unless it's in "travel mode" no?

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

#649

Post by MrDresden »

I have no one thing (these are the things that pop into my mind, all within their own category/niche);

* My Hilleberg Akto single person hiking tent scores very highly. It is designed for lightness, durability and simplicity when setting up. It can better be set up/torn down by one person in a storm than most other tents I've owned.

* My Leatherman multitool has been with me for years in some fairly bad conditions. It just keeps working and sometimes in ways that I hadn't imagine it could be used.

* My Aeropress portable coffee maker is in my mind amazingly designed and portable for making a decent cup of coffee anywhere in the world.

* SSH is simply amazing. I think it can be overly too easy to forget what it gives us the ability to do.

* SQLite. It is amazingly designed in pretty much any way you can look at it (requirements, speed, size, resource use etc).

* My Kindle (and other such devices) is an amazing piece of tech. I carry around my whole library in only a few hundred grams, and its power usage levels are so low that I need only charge it for an hour or so each month.

* The Kotlin programming language. Such a breath of fresh air after having been stuck with Java (pre 9) on Android for so long.

* Android's new UI design toolkit Jetpack Compose is a seismic shift in native Android development where everything looks and feels like it has had some serious thought put in behind it.

These are obviously subjective, and I have no longing to get into discussions on the merrits of the software I mention here. There are plenty of places that has been done before.

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

#650

Post by transfire »

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…

Largely agree about Ruby, but I'm still disappointed by how they implemented Refinements.
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