4 ms·

Ask YC: Which companies/products have the best UI/UX?

13 points by jasonlbaptiste 19y ago

Thoughts? Local miami startup, Scrapblog has an awesome ui.

mixmax 19y ago
I like this one: http://www.asmomarine.com http://www.asmomarine.com Very clean and professional. Disclaimer: a friend of mine did it.
- mixmax 19y ago
  Did this get modded down because of the design or because a friend of mine did it? Not that I mind, I'm just curious as to whether there is someone out there that dislikes it and why. I have a suspicion that Americans and Europeans don't quite agree on what is good design.
  - aristus 19y ago
    Likely it was because it's not novel, and is fairly pedestrian. People who care about design have seen thousands like it already. For what it is it's ok.
    - mixmax 19y ago
      thanks :-)
jasonlbaptiste 19y ago
oh muxtape is cool.
nilobject 19y ago
Depends on your definition of best. The sites that tend to be flashy without purpose I don't like. Some common sites that I tend to use frequently that the UI never seems to get in my way: News.YC, Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. To me, simplicity is bliss.
ljlolel 19y ago
Github (github.com) is beautiful all around. Git can be complicated, but github made setting up a repo there so easy that I made several just yesterday.
- bjclark 19y ago
  Actually, I just saw one of the creators demo it at a ruby conference, and he couldn't even figure out how to great a pull request on his own app. So, I'm going to have to say, NOT a great UX there.
laktek 19y ago
I love the interfaces of 37signals (as many of you would do).. Apart from that I still love Flickr. BTW, the admin interface for Wordpress.org by HappyCog would also mark as a great UI design (http://wordpress.org/development/2008/03/wordpress-25-rc2/ http://wordpress.org/development/2008/03/wordpress-25-rc2/).
- rksprst 19y ago
  The wordpress design is great, lots of useful features and easy to use. But the voice of that guy in the screencast sounds like a sex phone operator or something, it was a bit freaky.
  - laktek 19y ago
    LOL! Actually I also felt the same... Anyway its the voice of Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WP.
bmaier 19y ago
google definitely, igoogle not quite as much but still good
- german 19y ago
  That's funny, I prefer igoogle
ashu 19y ago
www.apple.com
- bjclark 19y ago
  Apple is SUCH a good example of a beautiful UI. Compare it to Dell. They are able to put you in touch with information beautifully and their search is probably the best example of live search on the net.
joshwa 19y ago
iminlikewithyou is pretty darn awesome. And not minimalist at all--very rich interaction, and very well done.
- joshwa 19y ago
  argh, sorry about the double post. the buxfer news.yc comment submit doesn't clear itself when it submits sucessfully. can someone with delete privs please kill the parent? thanks!
joshwa 19y ago
iminlikewithyou is pretty darn awesome. And not minimalist at all--very rich interaction, and very well done.
khangtoh 19y ago
How about http://www.simplebucket.com http://www.simplebucket.com Clean and easy on the eyes ;)
ph0rque 19y ago
jottit's UX is something I'm in awe of.
edw519 19y ago
Google maps
- Tichy 19y ago
  I must admit I suck at using Google Maps. I don't use it that often, and I still haven't quite figured out how to zoom in to the place I am looking for. I would expect to be able to do it with the mouse wheel, but somehow it never works out quite right. I keep having to use the sliders and occasionally readjusting the focus. So I can't give Google Maps a very good rating for usability.
  - edw519 19y ago
    I never use the sliders; you're right - they're not very good. My mouse wheel works great - on several computers. Maybe something wrong with your mouse?
    - Tichy 19y ago
      Ok, now I figured it out: the wheel still puts the focus on the position on the mouse pointer. I somehow expect it to just zoom into the middle - perhaps I am used to it from some other software. Now that I know it, I guess my user experience will be greatly improved ;-)
german 19y ago
I'm very proud of our UI, http://prezentit.com/tryit http://prezentit.com/tryit
- nilobject 19y ago
  At first glance it looks nice, but it doesn't work in Safari :-/
- aswanson 19y ago
  I like it too.
dfranke 19y ago
I'm a fan of the Amarok UX.
eibrahim 19y ago
To me UX is more important than UI, so I vote for Google Reader
ivank 19y ago
Nothing on the web really satisfies me interface-wise. Some Flash apps come close, but they break browser keyboard shortcuts. So, desktop apps: foobar2000, uTorrent, Directory Opus, Thunderbird. Eclipse has a brilliant drag-and-split arrange, though I wish it was Emacs everywhere else. And Dropbox's desktop integration (no UI) is great.
spydez 19y ago
So UI is 'user interface', but what is UX?
- nilobject 19y ago
  User Experience
- deleted 19y ago
  [deleted]
nextmoveone 19y ago
I personally enjoy gmails ui. I like linkedin's as well. Publictivity looks pretty freaking sweet... can I get access?
- jasonlbaptiste 19y ago
  youre from south florida too?!? drop me an email jason [at] publictivity.com .
meat-eater 19y ago
flickr is nice. Got me into whole social media thing. Gmail is also very nice.
tx 19y ago
Picasa (desktop version) and vim. Mac OS X "Settings" dialog (among others) with real-time feedback. Nothing on the web comes close to a decent desktop/console speed and usability yet: most of it is slow, laggy and the keyboard is nearly useless. gMail is a good exception.
xenoterracide 19y ago
meebo
kevinl 19y ago
desktop: office 2007, web: gmail, server: command line
edu 19y ago
I love the iPod UI/UX. For mobile phones Nokia is the best I've tried (I've not tried the iPhone). Dead-tree books. Analogic watches/clocks. Gmail. Emacs. Quicksilver. A heavy metal concert. Amazon.

Thoughts? Local miami startup, Scrapblog has an awesome ui.

I like this one: http://www.asmomarine.com http://www.asmomarine.com Very clean and professional. Disclaimer: a friend of mine did it.

mixmax 19y ago
Did this get modded down because of the design or because a friend of mine did it? Not that I mind, I'm just curious as to whether there is someone out there that dislikes it and why. I have a suspicion that Americans and Europeans don't quite agree on what is good design.
- aristus 19y ago
  Likely it was because it's not novel, and is fairly pedestrian. People who care about design have seen thousands like it already. For what it is it's ok.
  - mixmax 19y ago
    thanks :-)

jasonlbaptiste 19y ago

oh muxtape is cool.

nilobject 19y ago

Depends on your definition of best. The sites that tend to be flashy without purpose I don't like. Some common sites that I tend to use frequently that the UI never seems to get in my way: News.YC, Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter. To me, simplicity is bliss.

ljlolel 19y ago

Github (github.com) is beautiful all around. Git can be complicated, but github made setting up a repo there so easy that I made several just yesterday.

bjclark 19y ago
Actually, I just saw one of the creators demo it at a ruby conference, and he couldn't even figure out how to great a pull request on his own app. So, I'm going to have to say, NOT a great UX there.

laktek 19y ago

I love the interfaces of 37signals (as many of you would do).. Apart from that I still love Flickr. BTW, the admin interface for Wordpress.org by HappyCog would also mark as a great UI design (http://wordpress.org/development/2008/03/wordpress-25-rc2/ http://wordpress.org/development/2008/03/wordpress-25-rc2/).

rksprst 19y ago
The wordpress design is great, lots of useful features and easy to use. But the voice of that guy in the screencast sounds like a sex phone operator or something, it was a bit freaky.
- laktek 19y ago
  LOL! Actually I also felt the same... Anyway its the voice of Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WP.

bmaier 19y ago

google definitely, igoogle not quite as much but still good

german 19y ago
That's funny, I prefer igoogle

ashu 19y ago

www.apple.com

bjclark 19y ago
Apple is SUCH a good example of a beautiful UI. Compare it to Dell. They are able to put you in touch with information beautifully and their search is probably the best example of live search on the net.

joshwa 19y ago

iminlikewithyou is pretty darn awesome. And not minimalist at all--very rich interaction, and very well done.

joshwa 19y ago
argh, sorry about the double post. the buxfer news.yc comment submit doesn't clear itself when it submits sucessfully. can someone with delete privs please kill the parent? thanks!

joshwa 19y ago

iminlikewithyou is pretty darn awesome. And not minimalist at all--very rich interaction, and very well done.

khangtoh 19y ago

How about http://www.simplebucket.com http://www.simplebucket.com Clean and easy on the eyes ;)

ph0rque 19y ago

jottit's UX is something I'm in awe of.

edw519 19y ago

Google maps

Tichy 19y ago
I must admit I suck at using Google Maps. I don't use it that often, and I still haven't quite figured out how to zoom in to the place I am looking for. I would expect to be able to do it with the mouse wheel, but somehow it never works out quite right. I keep having to use the sliders and occasionally readjusting the focus. So I can't give Google Maps a very good rating for usability.
- edw519 19y ago
  I never use the sliders; you're right - they're not very good. My mouse wheel works great - on several computers. Maybe something wrong with your mouse?
  - Tichy 19y ago
    Ok, now I figured it out: the wheel still puts the focus on the position on the mouse pointer. I somehow expect it to just zoom into the middle - perhaps I am used to it from some other software. Now that I know it, I guess my user experience will be greatly improved ;-)

german 19y ago

I'm very proud of our UI, http://prezentit.com/tryit http://prezentit.com/tryit

nilobject 19y ago
At first glance it looks nice, but it doesn't work in Safari :-/
aswanson 19y ago
I like it too.

dfranke 19y ago

I'm a fan of the Amarok UX.

eibrahim 19y ago

To me UX is more important than UI, so I vote for Google Reader

ivank 19y ago

Nothing on the web really satisfies me interface-wise. Some Flash apps come close, but they break browser keyboard shortcuts. So, desktop apps: foobar2000, uTorrent, Directory Opus, Thunderbird. Eclipse has a brilliant drag-and-split arrange, though I wish it was Emacs everywhere else. And Dropbox's desktop integration (no UI) is great.

spydez 19y ago

So UI is 'user interface', but what is UX?

nilobject 19y ago
User Experience
deleted 19y ago
[deleted]

nextmoveone 19y ago

I personally enjoy gmails ui. I like linkedin's as well. Publictivity looks pretty freaking sweet... can I get access?

jasonlbaptiste 19y ago
youre from south florida too?!? drop me an email jason [at] publictivity.com .

meat-eater 19y ago

flickr is nice. Got me into whole social media thing. Gmail is also very nice.

tx 19y ago

Picasa (desktop version) and vim. Mac OS X "Settings" dialog (among others) with real-time feedback. Nothing on the web comes close to a decent desktop/console speed and usability yet: most of it is slow, laggy and the keyboard is nearly useless. gMail is a good exception.

xenoterracide 19y ago

meebo

kevinl 19y ago

desktop: office 2007, web: gmail, server: command line

edu 19y ago

I love the iPod UI/UX. For mobile phones Nokia is the best I've tried (I've not tried the iPhone). Dead-tree books. Analogic watches/clocks. Gmail. Emacs. Quicksilver. A heavy metal concert. Amazon.