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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?

#841

Post by ozzythecat »

jessriedel wrote: post #716
ozzythecat wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t quite understand this comment. As a customer, I don’t care what a firmware is or if it’s the best software or if it runs in Azure or iCloud. To me, it just works. I don’t care how. The fact that it works way better than competitor products I tried over the years is enough to say it’s well defined. The key is a frictionless experience.

The topic of discussion isn't product performance, it's design. If a certain car model has a high top speed, this may be suggestive evidence that the engine is well designed, but the top speed itself is not considered an example good design. So it would be fine if we had something to say about the design of the Apple software that produced the reliable Bluetooth connection, but just the fact that something doesn't br…

> If a certain car model has a high top speed, this may be suggestive evidence that the engine is well designed, but the top speed itself is not considered an example good design.

I don’t think this is a useful analogy. Top speed is a randomly picked metric, which presumably most car buyers don’t care for.

Once you get into the exotic super car car segment, then one could say that a super car that only tops out at 60mph or is 0-60 in 8 seconds is poorly designed… and more so if they care about performance over other measures (reliability, crash safety, fuel efficiency, comfort, etc).

A design document has both functional and non functional requirements.

> but just the fact that something doesn't break isn't good design.

If your non functional requirements optimize for reliability and consistency, and that’s exactly what your implementation does while making reasonable trade offs, that’s the exact hallmark of not just a good but great design.

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

#842

Post by iudqnolq »

reportingsjr wrote: post #731
milesvp wrote: post #708

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US this is a fire code issue. Doors need to swing inward to avoid people getting trapped inside from outside obstructions. edit: I seem to be misinformed about firecode. I may also be over extrapolating from what I know about bedroom doors as well. The general idea of obstruction is more valid there. It seems the more common reason bathrooms would not be allowed to swing outward is obstructing the minimum widt…

Not sure where you picked this up, but I don't think it is correct. From the 2018 international building code (which is what the US building code is based on): https://up.codes/viewer/illinois/ibc-2018/chapter/10/means-o...

FYI the international building code has a deceptive name. It's essentially the US building code.

> it is the International Building Code ... used in multiple locations worldwide, including the 15 countries of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), Jamaica, and Georgia. Furthermore, the IBC has served as the basis for legislative building codes in Mexico, Abu Dhabi, and Haiti, among other places.

https://blog.ansi.org/?p=8429

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

#843

Post by filoeleven »

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/

Someone I know designed a wood-splitting axe where the central part of the blade has a high center-of-mass and freely pivots in order to kick apart the pieces once the axe hits the wood. It’s an ingenious design based on simple physics, and works quite well. There’s no purchasing info at the link below; it’s a small company whose main focus is on machines for metal roofing, so I suppose it requires a phone call or email to them to find out more.

https://www.esemachines.com/hand-tools Search for “super splitter”

The patent description is more informative: https://patents.justia.com/patent/5020225

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

#844

Post by IshKebab »

drdunce wrote: post #645
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 reassur…

The really annoying thing is that now they have touchscreen computers but you still need some proprietary hardware tool to fix software problems in the car. Why do no cars expose debug info / service tools in their UIs?

My Skoda has an issue with headlight levelling and I'm pretty sure it just needs some kind of software reset or recalibration but they just don't let you. Infuriating!

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

#845

Post by joconde »

oftenwrong wrote: post #827
joconde wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Docker. People like to hate a winner, and they've gone the paid route, and they did just take already-available kernel features and wrap them up... But man, they did it well and they revolutionised software development and deployment. They made design decisions that prevent simple things like "installing a .deb package from the host filesystem without keeping the package in an image layer", then fixed some of these…

You don't need buildkit for that; you can use multi-stage builds without buildkit to exclude your deb file from the final image.

I don’t find it satisfying: I can copy files from one stage to another, but I can’t install a .deb (or any other package for that matter).

Copying a list of paths will break if the package changes, and it can’t easily do anything done by pre-install and post-install scripts (like changing a file, registering a GPG key, etc.)

The official excuse from Docker is that “multi-stage builds cover that use”, but that’s not true if you need to install local packages. I think the buildkit feature that lets you mount folder in the build container is a hidden admission that this is wrong, but it’s annoying that the build process will then only work on machines where a non-standard option is set.

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

#846

Post by papertokyo »

drdunce wrote: post #645
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 reassur…

This is why I desperately hope that manufacturers don't follow Tesla's example of putting everything in a digital UI. It makes sense when you have a limited amount of space in which to support infinite uses (e.g. a smartphone) but not in something like a car where having dedicated, tactile controls is both a safety benefit and a more enjoyable user experience.

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

#847

Post by zestros »

mongol wrote: post #395
jordanpg wrote: post #147

Brother HL-2070N black and white laser printer. 14 years and still going strong.

I have the same. Mine is only 11 years. Yet to change toner.

Same here, the one criticism I have is that I had to put tape on the toner cartridge to defeat the toner empty sensor. After doing that I've been able to continue to use the "empty" cartridge for an additional 5 or 6 years (I only print maybe 50 pages a year though).

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

#848

Post by masklinn »

bouncycastle wrote: post #800
masklinn wrote: post #641

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Worse. It raises an alarm and automatically sends down a bunch of security guards to check on you, lol Sometimes the button is red, but it can be any color, sometimes it looks like a flush button.

Wow, never heard of that one, pretty nice variation on an awful pattern. Is it in handicap stalls or does it also exist in "regular"?

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

#849

Post by fri_sch »

> I'll go first. I think the Bialetti Brikka is exceptional: https://www.amazon.com/Bialetti-Stovetop-Producing-Crema-Ric...

Sorry for the shameless plug but I have a problem with the Bialetti Brikka. I think it's great, but recently I did a full cleaning of all parts and since then it stopped working. Each time when the coffee is starting to boil up it spurts out of the hole in the lid and makes a huge mess. I checked everything but didn't find anything that might be causing this. Any ideas how to fix it? Thanks!

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

#850

Post by masklinn »

edmcnulty101 wrote: post #823
masklinn wrote: post #642

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? The boiling water disinfects the device when you make your coffee, no sweat. Think of it as home-made kopi luwak.

Doesn't it have to process through the civet intestine though to get the effect? This would just be a little poop infusion which could definitely add a little robustness and richness to the mix. Sort of an earthy tone.

> Doesn't it have to process through the civet intestine though to get the effect?

Home-made recipes are not always as good as the real thing.

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