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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?

#611

Post by barbs »

brundolf wrote: post #290

I genuinely loved the second-generation Zune. The aluminum case felt lovely in the hand, it had swipe-based momentum scrolling before that was common (without even a touchscreen!). It had a matte paint on the front that felt almost like velvet, the buttons clicked nicely, the UI was both gorgeous and practical, the desktop software was the same (after the first couple revisions). I was really sad when mine got stolen…

Re: Gamecube controller: Agreed! It really did (does?) feel like the most ergonomic controller out there, though I do wish they had a z button on the left side.

Also, can't forget the notches in the analog stick area to accurately indicate direction.

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

#612

Post by maccard »

poglet wrote: post #129
ISL wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. It's real tempting to answer, "indoor plumbing". It's really nice to flip a lever and get clean, safe water. It's real good not to need to stroll to the outhouse, too.

Mostly unrelated but I would like to be able to set the temperate and water pressure for my shower so I can just enter and press a single button. This would also be great for those showers where you can never get the water temperature or pressure right so you have to keep adjusting it. I would also like to run a bath by doing the same thing, and having the water stop when it's at the right level. Maybe there could be…

Thermostatic mixer showers are very common (in the UK at least) and are very affordable (sub $100) and as reliable as your hot water supply. My understanding is that water pressure is much harder to control for; there's so many variables that you just can't do anything about, and without installing a giant tank and a pump if your pressure is low it's always going to be low.

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

#614

Post by johnx123-up »

nikivi wrote: post #44

https://linear.app is great. I list all sites I love here: https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/design/design-inspiration#we...

Since you've mentioned Linear, I'd add Restya Core. It has many interesting features. (Disclosure: I was on their private beta)

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

#615

Post by johnwalkr »

langcalvin wrote: post #278

I'll go a game route: Mario Kart. It's just so perfect. All of them from the SNES to the Switch. I've played countless hours and never get bored. The level designs are all so interesting and unique I find myself discovering something new every time. It's social and I've seen it dominate dinner parties.

Good one! Also gives better items to slower players which is a very fun way to level the playing field.

Just don't try the ride at Universal Studios Japan. It's a complete disappointment. It's just a slow-moving ride, plus Hololens.

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

#616

Post by johnx123-up »

guidovranken wrote: post #27

BitTorrent is amazing. It just works. Anyone anywhere can create a torrent of their files, dump the magnet link somewhere, and everyone else can reliably retrieve it. It is self-reinforcing; the more people using a torrent, the better the robustness, redundancy and download speeds. You can often get better speeds from downloading something via torrent than from a web server. It's an open protocol that is relatively e…

I'd add uTorrent... it was created in few kb and AFAIK that started the no-bloatware awareness for sometime.

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

#617

Post by Lhiw »

Hakko 950 soldering iron. It's an analog dial version of an extremely awful digital interface. It's small and compact so takes up little desk space, heats up fast, has incredibly stable heat and adjustments don't require looking at what your hand is doing.

https://www.hakko.com/english/products/hakko_fx950.html

There are similar things on the market but nothing that ties it altogether quite so succinctly.

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

#619

Post by edmcnulty101 »

spacelamb wrote: post #112
edmcnulty101 wrote: post #71

These are the brands Ive had good success with, almost everything Ive bought has met or exceeded my expectations: Apple, Levis, Patagonia/LL Bean/North Face, Garmin smartwatch, Goruck, Toyota, Bosch or Milwaukee tools, Fender, Sonicare, Thule, Yakima, Ankur cables, weather tech floormats. Well designed websites: Google, Old reddit, and HN, can't believe they've stayed true all these years. Brands, I or a friend, has…

Thanks for the recs, though Google has caused unexpected design problems in my usage. Sometimes it unpredictably switches to dark mode, then light mode on Firefox and Safari. Google's answer box also sometimes displays wrong information (infamously, "Google turned me into a serial killer" on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27622100 ). I'm curious about Amazon Basics and Beats. For the former, they sell so ma…

Google: I just appreciate sticking with the design simplicity after all these years and not going full New Reddit with the front page. That serial killer thing is hilarious and scary. Their draconian customer service may be the worst ever.

Amazon Basics: is the ultimate cheap product. Everything I've bought has just failed alot faster than if I bought a more name brand.

Beats: I thought the same thing about Beats. I bought the power beats pro and one of the buds wouldn't charge unless you fiddled with it and checked the phone to make sure there was a connection , which doesn't sound like a big deal but it's a hassle to do every day. And if the base was jarred accidentally while charging it could lose that connection. It was just a hassle.

The amount of times I went running with only one earbud working was too many.

I mailed them back and the new set they sent had the exact same issue.

I have cheapo 30 dollar bids now and they don't have that issue.

This was like immediately after it was purchased by Apple so maybe the Apple QA hadn't kicked in yet.

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

#620

Post by baash05 »

mikewarot wrote: post #81

Turbo Pascal 7, then Borland Delphi 5 were the most productive programming environments ever. Very few bugs, wicked fast, and full proper documentation. Nothing since comes even close.

I remember VS 2000.. That was a game changer as an IDE for me. Though yeah borland c++ was great too. Even metroworks for palm. Back when IDE's did their job, out of the box.
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