5 ms·

Do you use HN on mobile?

yellowapple 3y ago
I do, and it's fine. Not ideal (things like the vote arrows are hard to hit with fingers, as the most egregious example), but still vastly better than the average "mobile" website. I'm typing this comment on a third-party app (Hacki) I'm trying out for the first time, so that's another option.
- interestica 3y ago
  The vote arrows -- if that's an essential part of the UI, why is it so bad? And text sizing for mobile varies greatly by mobile device -- why?
  - bee_rider 3y ago
    On iOS at least you can just change the text size in safari. HN respects the user setting. Sites that try to overdo their UI tend to screw this up somehow. The arrows could be better, but they aren’t actually an essential part of the site from an individual user point of view. They are there to help HN. If they decided that getting this help from mobile users isn’t a priority, that’s fine.
zirgs 3y ago
Yes, and it works fine.
jlokier 3y ago
I do, using a 3rd party app which has an excellent user-friendly UI. Due in part to the excellent UI and user-friendly reading experience, both on that mobile app and in a browser on my laptop, HN is the site I visit most often every day for a pleasant break to learn new things. Reddit on the other hand is something I look at maybe once a month, where I'm reminded each time it's disorienting and hard work to use, so it's not somewhere I go to enjoy a calm read. So for me Reddit is just for finding specific information from a search result then leaving. The Reddit UI has a lot to do with that. It ties to the "randomness" of the content. HN content also has randomness but because of its UI you can skim a lot in seconds so it's easier to pick out things of interest with low stress and just enjoy them. Typically I glance through the top 100 to 150 headlines of HN to pick a few of interest, several times a day. It takes about 10-20 seconds to read those headlines, and to know I'm done - which is very different from scrolling-oriented sites which deprive the reader of perspective. I can see how this might be different for people who cannot skim text quickly or who find that difficult, or who are trained to infiniscroll through things showing only a tiny number of large cards on the screen at a time. The latter is how you destroy perspective.
- lawn 3y ago
  What app do you use?
  - jawilson2 3y ago
    I'm using Octal on iphone. I'm pretty much just a consumer though.
  - distances 3y ago
    I'm also interested. I'm still using Materialistic, but it's not even in the Play Store any more so I would like to find something maintained.
    - jlokier 3y ago
      Ah, I'm using Materialistic too having tried others and found them less good. I had no idea it was gone from the Play Store or not updated in a long time - or maybe I forgot soon after installing. I'm using the version installed via F-Droid. The good news is it still works :-) It has a lot of forks. I wonder if anyone's developed it more.
    - sorenjan 3y ago
      I recently switched from Materialistic to Harmonic, and I like it. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simon.harmonichackernews https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simon.harm...
      - gremlinsinc 3y ago
        I was using materialistic but didn't like that I couldn't edit replies so just switched to harmonic, and loving it.
      - distances 3y ago
        Thanks for the hint, I'll try it out!
  - jerry_tk 3y ago

I do, and it's fine. Not ideal (things like the vote arrows are hard to hit with fingers, as the most egregious example), but still vastly better than the average "mobile" website. I'm typing this comment on a third-party app (Hacki) I'm trying out for the first time, so that's another option.

interestica 3y ago
The vote arrows -- if that's an essential part of the UI, why is it so bad? And text sizing for mobile varies greatly by mobile device -- why?
- bee_rider 3y ago
  On iOS at least you can just change the text size in safari. HN respects the user setting. Sites that try to overdo their UI tend to screw this up somehow. The arrows could be better, but they aren’t actually an essential part of the site from an individual user point of view. They are there to help HN. If they decided that getting this help from mobile users isn’t a priority, that’s fine.

zirgs 3y ago

Yes, and it works fine.

jlokier 3y ago

I do, using a 3rd party app which has an excellent user-friendly UI. Due in part to the excellent UI and user-friendly reading experience, both on that mobile app and in a browser on my laptop, HN is the site I visit most often every day for a pleasant break to learn new things. Reddit on the other hand is something I look at maybe once a month, where I'm reminded each time it's disorienting and hard work to use, so it's not somewhere I go to enjoy a calm read. So for me Reddit is just for finding specific information from a search result then leaving. The Reddit UI has a lot to do with that. It ties to the "randomness" of the content. HN content also has randomness but because of its UI you can skim a lot in seconds so it's easier to pick out things of interest with low stress and just enjoy them. Typically I glance through the top 100 to 150 headlines of HN to pick a few of interest, several times a day. It takes about 10-20 seconds to read those headlines, and to know I'm done - which is very different from scrolling-oriented sites which deprive the reader of perspective. I can see how this might be different for people who cannot skim text quickly or who find that difficult, or who are trained to infiniscroll through things showing only a tiny number of large cards on the screen at a time. The latter is how you destroy perspective.

lawn 3y ago
What app do you use?
- jawilson2 3y ago
  I'm using Octal on iphone. I'm pretty much just a consumer though.
- distances 3y ago
  I'm also interested. I'm still using Materialistic, but it's not even in the Play Store any more so I would like to find something maintained.
  - jlokier 3y ago
    Ah, I'm using Materialistic too having tried others and found them less good. I had no idea it was gone from the Play Store or not updated in a long time - or maybe I forgot soon after installing. I'm using the version installed via F-Droid. The good news is it still works :-) It has a lot of forks. I wonder if anyone's developed it more.
  - sorenjan 3y ago
    I recently switched from Materialistic to Harmonic, and I like it. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simon.harmonichackernews https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simon.harm...
    - gremlinsinc 3y ago
      I was using materialistic but didn't like that I couldn't edit replies so just switched to harmonic, and loving it.
    - distances 3y ago
      Thanks for the hint, I'll try it out!
- jerry_tk 3y ago