5 ms·

Who else prefers minimalist UIs like HN and (linked) the original Digg?

20 points by wlfsbrg 16y ago

sghael 16y ago
While the examples (HN and old Digg) are minimal, I also find them "un-refined". I prefer minimal and refined. Like Delicious. Simple color palette, lots of white space, and no extraneous stuff like gradients, rounded corners, drop shadows, etc.
wlfsbrg 16y ago
I've always loved content for content's sake, and seen design as a nice to have rather than an absolute necessity. HN is one of my favorite sites because it has highly targeted content, a large pool of contributors, and a wonderful forum of discussion.
rst 16y ago
Arguably anyone who uses Craigslist.
- andrenotgiant 16y ago
  Not really a choice there - people use craigslist because that's where the people are.
ComputerGuru 16y ago
Is it enough to upvote this post if we agree, or must we comment and make our voices heard? I love minimalist designs. And <you'll all kill me and downvote me for this one cringe> I hate javascript, most of the time. 99 times out of a hundred, javascript is used to make things "pretty" or "neat" or "flashy" or "cool" when all it does is make things slow and add bloat. I'm not saying it doesn't have its uses, but you REALLY DON'T need that 500kb library to move text around the screen or change an icon. But I'm a systems developer and I code in C and ASM, so what do I know about web development..
- cryptoz 16y ago
  > I hate javascript, most of the time. Yeah, I hate how easy and fast upvoting is on HN. It's almost...too fast.
  - ComputerGuru 16y ago
    Like I said, most of the time. No one is complaining that replies on HN aren't AJAX'd :)
roc 16y ago
I'm a fan of minimalism, but I'd tend toward something of a middle ground. e.g. in the case of old digg, I'd go for something that added color to headlines to more clearly separate articles, de-emphasized the category/posted-by line, and narrowed the summary column. too-wide blocks of text, too-close bunches of paragraphs and too-strict hit-boxes for buttons are pretty common on 'minimalist' sites and those drive me absolutely crazy anymore. Too-small fonts also used to bother me, but browsers have largely resolved that. So long as minimalist design plays well with dynamic font scaling, that doesn't bother me anymore.
Tycho 16y ago
HN is a good example of how doing one thing very right (no clutter) can overshadow doing many things wrong/unsatisfactorily (no built in search, no instructions on how to use certain features...). Also Applies to a lot of Apple products
radicaldreamer 16y ago
A lot of technical people love these kinds of UIs, but they can be unwelcoming to the average user on the web who might not be as technical or might be intimidated by the amount and presentation of the content, especially if it's mostly text.
SeanDav 16y ago
min deftnly
marssaxman 16y ago
This site's UI is basically perfect for my taste.
u48998 16y ago
It's not about minimal, it's about scope. I see HN as content-based system, where as, Digg and rest of the others went the route of social-based. The site where the content is the king, is still valuable versus the site where people are the king. There is a trade off with reputation of course, one has to first build the reputation and credibility before one can claim a solid content-based system. If you recall, the problem started with Digg when people started gaming it. There were stories after stories of how people are gaming the system. This is when they first lost their credibility. There is a fine line.
corysama 16y ago
Mods: Please make sure that posts like this don't become common. Reddit has tons of "Does Anybody Else?" posts. They are a thinly veiled "Upvote if you like <some popular thing>". I'd hate to see the practice creep into HN...
sielskr 16y ago
I like the UIs of HN and Craigslist much better than most sites.
aDemoUzer 16y ago
I don't prefer it all. I find the current digg UI to be most appealing.

20 points by wlfsbrg 16y ago

While the examples (HN and old Digg) are minimal, I also find them "un-refined". I prefer minimal and refined. Like Delicious. Simple color palette, lots of white space, and no extraneous stuff like gradients, rounded corners, drop shadows, etc.

wlfsbrg 16y ago

I've always loved content for content's sake, and seen design as a nice to have rather than an absolute necessity. HN is one of my favorite sites because it has highly targeted content, a large pool of contributors, and a wonderful forum of discussion.

rst 16y ago

Arguably anyone who uses Craigslist.

andrenotgiant 16y ago
Not really a choice there - people use craigslist because that's where the people are.

ComputerGuru 16y ago

Is it enough to upvote this post if we agree, or must we comment and make our voices heard? I love minimalist designs. And <you'll all kill me and downvote me for this one cringe> I hate javascript, most of the time. 99 times out of a hundred, javascript is used to make things "pretty" or "neat" or "flashy" or "cool" when all it does is make things slow and add bloat. I'm not saying it doesn't have its uses, but you REALLY DON'T need that 500kb library to move text around the screen or change an icon. But I'm a systems developer and I code in C and ASM, so what do I know about web development..

cryptoz 16y ago
> I hate javascript, most of the time. Yeah, I hate how easy and fast upvoting is on HN. It's almost...too fast.
- ComputerGuru 16y ago
  Like I said, most of the time. No one is complaining that replies on HN aren't AJAX'd :)

roc 16y ago

I'm a fan of minimalism, but I'd tend toward something of a middle ground. e.g. in the case of old digg, I'd go for something that added color to headlines to more clearly separate articles, de-emphasized the category/posted-by line, and narrowed the summary column. too-wide blocks of text, too-close bunches of paragraphs and too-strict hit-boxes for buttons are pretty common on 'minimalist' sites and those drive me absolutely crazy anymore. Too-small fonts also used to bother me, but browsers have largely resolved that. So long as minimalist design plays well with dynamic font scaling, that doesn't bother me anymore.

Tycho 16y ago

HN is a good example of how doing one thing very right (no clutter) can overshadow doing many things wrong/unsatisfactorily (no built in search, no instructions on how to use certain features...). Also Applies to a lot of Apple products

radicaldreamer 16y ago

A lot of technical people love these kinds of UIs, but they can be unwelcoming to the average user on the web who might not be as technical or might be intimidated by the amount and presentation of the content, especially if it's mostly text.

SeanDav 16y ago

min deftnly

marssaxman 16y ago

This site's UI is basically perfect for my taste.

u48998 16y ago

It's not about minimal, it's about scope. I see HN as content-based system, where as, Digg and rest of the others went the route of social-based. The site where the content is the king, is still valuable versus the site where people are the king. There is a trade off with reputation of course, one has to first build the reputation and credibility before one can claim a solid content-based system. If you recall, the problem started with Digg when people started gaming it. There were stories after stories of how people are gaming the system. This is when they first lost their credibility. There is a fine line.

corysama 16y ago

Mods: Please make sure that posts like this don't become common. Reddit has tons of "Does Anybody Else?" posts. They are a thinly veiled "Upvote if you like <some popular thing>". I'd hate to see the practice creep into HN...

sielskr 16y ago

I like the UIs of HN and Craigslist much better than most sites.

aDemoUzer 16y ago

I don't prefer it all. I find the current digg UI to be most appealing.