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

Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 392 posts

Re: Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?

#31

Post by wackget »

chromy wrote: post #17

Look for tracing/profiling/binary analysis UIs: - https://superuser.com/questions/1117466/using-windows-perfor... - https://github.com/wolfpld/tracy - https://github.com/WerWolv/ImHex 3D modeling / CAD software: - Blender/Rhino etc - Similar for audio you can search for 'DAWs' ( https://blog.landr.com/best-daw/ ) Many examples on https://x.com/usgraphics/media only some software. Not on the data side but can be usefu…

As someone who recently tried to use Blender for an extremely simple task... Blender's UI is absolutely terrible and should not be used as an example of anything except how to design an unintuitive UI.

Re: Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?

#32

Post by agumonkey »

abound wrote: post #21

I didn't see anyone mention the McMaster-Carr website [1]. It may not be the "densest" out there, but it's clean, functional, and nicely presents a lot of information at once. [1] https://www.mcmaster.com/

And there's something utilitarian in its internal and external design. No flashy, no fancy.. 99% informational and low lag.

Re: Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?

#33

Post by thih9 »

Programs used by pro creatives. Some people regularly spend 8h/day using a single such product as their primary work tool.

E.g. pro desktop versions of photo, print, video, sound, etc editing software usually feature good UX and high information density.

One well known example of that is Blender - here is a chapter from their manual about its user interface: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/interface/window_s...

Re: Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?

#35

Post by mg »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #29
mg wrote: post #9

I am developing this project, which replaces product lists with what I call "product charts": https://www.productchart.com The idea is to sort products not by one parameter (like price or release date) but by two - which creates an x/y chart. The product info is displayed dynamically - by default only the image is show. On hover, more info is displayed in a tooltip. And when you click "details", all data is shown. Th…

Good idea, but wow, the popup mechanism is obnoxious. It needs to be off to the side in a fixed location that doesn't obscure what you're looking at, or make you chase the 'Hide' button with your mouse.

Hmm... the way I use it is that when I put the mouse on an item, that is the one I am looking at. So it is fine that some others are hidden. And when I want to see all items again, I move the mouse into an empty area (usually right next to the item I just looked at) so the popup goes away.

Also, I usually use the filters first. Say for laptops, I set the screen size to >=12inch and the weight to Do you use it differently?

Re: Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?

#37

Post by threetonesun »

My go to for UI inspiration especially packing in a lot of information in a small space are mobile apps in the audio editing/creating domain. Loopy Pro is one I always bring up, but there are a lot of audio apps that have to fit a lot of information on the screen at once while being highly intuitive because the app itself is not the primary interface, a midi controller or instrument is.

Re: Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?

#39

Post by CleanCoder »

agumonkey wrote: post #32
abound wrote: post #21

I didn't see anyone mention the McMaster-Carr website [1]. It may not be the "densest" out there, but it's clean, functional, and nicely presents a lot of information at once. [1] https://www.mcmaster.com/

And there's something utilitarian in its internal and external design. No flashy, no fancy.. 99% informational and low lag.

The low lag part is especially impressive. Here is Wes Bos taking a deeper dive into the intricacies of technologies used to accomplish this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ln-8QM8KhQ

Re: Ask HN: What are good high-information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)?

#40

Post by rollcat »

chromy wrote: post #17

Look for tracing/profiling/binary analysis UIs: - https://superuser.com/questions/1117466/using-windows-perfor... - https://github.com/wolfpld/tracy - https://github.com/WerWolv/ImHex 3D modeling / CAD software: - Blender/Rhino etc - Similar for audio you can search for 'DAWs' ( https://blog.landr.com/best-daw/ ) Many examples on https://x.com/usgraphics/media only some software. Not on the data side but can be usefu…

Agree on DAWs. Even though I'm familiar with the general concepts, every time I try out a new one (Logic, Reaper, Ableton), it's quite overwhelming at first. You have a pretty good idea about what's supposed to be there, but the sheer amount of knobs and buttons... But once you get in the flow, you quickly find out it has all the information you need, nothing more nothing less, it becomes second nature.

(Notable omission: GarbageBand. It has the opposite effect, it instantly puts you into action, but becomes more frustrating the more you use it.)

Post reply on HN