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The bad case of Hacker News authentication usability design

arvinderkang.com

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Re: The bad case of Hacker News authentication usability design

#31

Post by pooriaazimi »

d0mine wrote: post #25
pooriaazimi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like HN the way it is, only if I could vote on iPad (or worse, on iPhone) without having to zoom 600% in first. Those up/down arrows being so close to each other drives me crazy.

news:yc [1] allows you to vote without a problem on iPad [1] http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/news-yc/id434787119?mt=8&...

Yes, I have it and it's very good and pretty. But I just can't possibly live without a chronological list of submissions (like http://hckrnews.com/) so right now that app just sits in my first home screen and I never use it!

Re: The bad case of Hacker News authentication usability design

#32

Post by NathanKP »

eps wrote: post #27

Ironically, the linked site is unusable on iPhone. The page width is twice the size of the screen AND it cannot be zoomed out. Lovely stuff, can't wait to read what the author has to say on usability of other's people work.

I came here to say exactly this. The site design is horrible on iPhone. I had to use the Mobile Safari reader to even be able to read the content.

Re: The bad case of Hacker News authentication usability design

#33

Post by rmATinnovafy »

dwynings wrote: post #30
rmATinnovafy wrote: post #26

I can zoom in fine in android 2.2. Why don't the YC people open up the site code and put it on github so we can contribute into making a better site?

Little known fact: the source code is available. http://arclanguage.org/install

I did not know that. Thanks for the link. I shall go and dust off my LISP.

Now, if any fix is written, where is it to be submitted?

Re: The bad case of Hacker News authentication usability design

#34

Post by punjsingh »

And I started seem to have the flame war! Here are my two cents if they make anyone feel better: First it is a recommendation from a user not lecture from a UI expert. Second as a developer i'm flattered that compared my crappy blog which mostly I read to boost my alter ego ;)- its usability expectations with HN. Third your point well taken, I need to work on responsive CSS when I get to my machine later in the day. In the meantime you can use Safari reader if you really want to read the article on iPhone. Sorry for the inconvenience to iPhone users. Thanks.

Re: The bad case of Hacker News authentication usability design

#35

Post by masklinn »

nsmartt wrote: post #14
citricsquid wrote: post #2

> Before I unintentionally start a flame war This statement would be needed if anyone thought HN was an example of good design and usability, I don't think I've ever seen a comment here claim that, it seems everyone acknowledges that HN was built to work (as in, do the very minimum it can to exist) and nothing more. The lack of polish with HN is part of the charm really.

>The lack of polish with HN is part of the charm really. I do agree with that. However, there's a big difference between polish and usability. The lack of polish may be charming, but usability flaws are anything but charming.

> The lack of polish may be charming

I don't think so, personally: the common redirection to pages which don't exist is bothering, and so is the overall slowness of the posting and (especially) edition.

Oh, and the completely fucked up comment formatting (or lack thereof) markup.

Re: The bad case of Hacker News authentication usability design

#36

Post by abcd_f »

willvarfar wrote: post #3

Hmm, posting on a Saturday is not the best tactical time to get someone at HN to read this post... it'll have disappeared off the front-page long before Monday

It wouldn't have a chance to hit the front page if it were submitted on Monday. Slow news day is exactly the time for submitting this sort of fluff.

Re: The bad case of Hacker News authentication usability design

#37

Post by mambodog »

pooriaazimi wrote: post #23
citricsquid wrote: post #2

> Before I unintentionally start a flame war This statement would be needed if anyone thought HN was an example of good design and usability, I don't think I've ever seen a comment here claim that, it seems everyone acknowledges that HN was built to work (as in, do the very minimum it can to exist) and nothing more. The lack of polish with HN is part of the charm really.

I like HN the way it is, only if I could vote on iPad (or worse, on iPhone) without having to zoom 600% in first. Those up/down arrows being so close to each other drives me crazy.

Have you tried http://ihackernews.com/ ?

Re: The bad case of Hacker News authentication usability design

#38

Post by dwynings »

rmATinnovafy wrote: post #33
dwynings wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Little known fact: the source code is available. http://arclanguage.org/install

I did not know that. Thanks for the link. I shall go and dust off my LISP. Now, if any fix is written, where is it to be submitted?

I'm not sure... you may have to email pg

Re: The bad case of Hacker News authentication usability design

#39

Post by pooriaazimi »

mambodog wrote: post #37
pooriaazimi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like HN the way it is, only if I could vote on iPad (or worse, on iPhone) without having to zoom 600% in first. Those up/down arrows being so close to each other drives me crazy.

Have you tried http://ihackernews.com/ ?

No, I have no knowledge of its existence. It looks good - I'll try it for a few days.

It might be good to submit it as a new link... I'm sure it's been posted before (though I'd never seen it), I'm sure there are many HNers who don't know about it and it might be useful for them (for iOS, there are a few nice applications; but on other platforms, I think there might be none and this web app could be a life-saver for many!)

Re: The bad case of Hacker News authentication usability design

#40

Post by kens »

dwynings wrote: post #30
rmATinnovafy wrote: post #26

I can zoom in fine in android 2.2. Why don't the YC people open up the site code and put it on github so we can contribute into making a better site?

Little known fact: the source code is available. http://arclanguage.org/install

Note that the released source code is pretty different from the actual running site. In particular, all the rsvp code that caused the problem is not in the released source.

The HN source code is in the Arc language. See my site http://files.arcfn.com/doc/index.html for Arc documentation, specifically http://files.arcfn.com/doc/srv.html for the web server internals (including why links expire). Also see the App Server page which explains account management.

If you want to hack on this, there's a small but enthusiastic Arc community at http://arclanguage.org/forum

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