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Show HN: VoiceDraw – Talk system design out loud, the diagrams draw themselves

49 points by ajaypanthagani 4mo ago

I was frustated by having to draw system design diagrams by hand when discussing it with my team mates or in an interview. So I thought "Wouldn't it be great if someone draws it for me, while I think out loud?". That is when I came up with VoiceDraw. You can just think out loud or discuss your system architecture with a friend/interviewer, the diagrams are automatically drawn along with your reasoning, open questions and tradeoffs beautifully written on to the side. Demo Video: https://youtu.be/36PgHKSuccE https://youtu.be/36PgHKSuccE

whiteros_e 4mo ago
the diagrams look better than what I would draw myself
- ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
  Thank you for trying it out! Glad you liked it
abdullahkhalids 4mo ago
I am getting a "can’t connect to the server at voicedraw.com" error
- ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
  Thanks for reporting. Could you share your browser, OS, and country? Also, did voicedraw.com fail to load entirely in the browser, or were you able to open the site before seeing the error?
  - abdullahkhalids 4mo ago
    macOS Tahoe, Firefox 151.0.4, Canada. It's a connection error, so closer to "did voicedraw.com fail to load entirely in the browser,"
faldor20 4mo ago
It's a great idea and something I would absolutely use. However I can't get it to draw anything at all. I just get one single box or some messy rubbish
- ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
  [flagged]
- YassineKaibi 4mo ago
  it's not for drawing anything, it's for drawing diagrams (like flowcharts) specifically.
eranation 4mo ago
Great idea! Just quick feedback. Asked it to “Draw a pelican riding a bicycle.” On mobile the response (not a technical diagram) wasn’t visible, initially thought it just didn’t work). Asked it then to draw a diagram for an X replacement, it nailed it.
- ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
  Thanks for trying it out, noted on the response toast visibility on mobile. Will fix it asap.
awwaiid 4mo ago
Should probably indicate somewhere purposeful that it is built on Excalidraw
- ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
  It is actually listed on the sites privacy policy. https://voicedraw.com/privacy#:~:text=Apple%20for%20Safari).-,Excalidraw,-.%20The%20drawing https://voicedraw.com/privacy#:~:text=Apple%20for%20Safari).... Feedback taken though, will explore ways to make it more visible.
  - awwaiid 4mo ago
    Yes -- there are also links if you click into the lower-right help button to the excalidraw documentation, blog, etc.
jareds 4mo ago
As a blind software developer this looks interesting, but the output descriptions are not useful. I asked it "create a diagram for a rest api with a database, app server, and cache." The diagrams alt text was "609 / 100k tokens used" The text it returned was "Created a simple REST API architecture with three core components: a web app server, a cache layer, and a database. Organized them into logical tiers." If it can generate the diagram it would be nice if the alt text was a detailed description of the diagram.
- ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
  Great point, I hadn't considered this use case. I've added richer, screen-reader-friendly diagram descriptions to the roadmap. Thanks for the feedback!
vivzkestrel 4mo ago
- stack? - how lomg did it take you to build this? - how many of you made this? - how did you get the idea?
YassineKaibi 4mo ago
great tool! definitely prefer typing though, and it really reminds of excalidraw.
ldubinets 4mo ago
Cool! I built a similar tool at https://shimmerdiagrams.com https://shimmerdiagrams.com Would be curious to connect and compare notes! Yours is probably way better, I had built mine as a prototype and specifically interested in running all models local and in browser.
- Cilvic 4mo ago
  Cool to see that you did transcription AND LLM for the diagram with "in-browser" / local. Tangent: But I'm wondering whether there would be something from the browser side to enforce this? Like a sandbox so that my browser allows me to launch this via "download" only so that after I download everything there is no way for the website to get any of my data. As a (non-technical) user what kind of guarantee do I have that the prompts, transcript etc. are treated only local?
- ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
  Hi, your tool looks cool. Sure would love to connect.You can reach out to me at team@voicedraw.com
- Luckyemmet 3mo ago
  Interesting concept.
levi840714 4mo ago
[flagged]
Nicolau_Amorim 4mo ago
[flagged]

whiteros_e 4mo ago

the diagrams look better than what I would draw myself

ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
Thank you for trying it out! Glad you liked it

abdullahkhalids 4mo ago

I am getting a "can’t connect to the server at voicedraw.com" error

ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
Thanks for reporting. Could you share your browser, OS, and country? Also, did voicedraw.com fail to load entirely in the browser, or were you able to open the site before seeing the error?
- abdullahkhalids 4mo ago
  macOS Tahoe, Firefox 151.0.4, Canada. It's a connection error, so closer to "did voicedraw.com fail to load entirely in the browser,"

faldor20 4mo ago

It's a great idea and something I would absolutely use. However I can't get it to draw anything at all. I just get one single box or some messy rubbish

ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
[flagged]
YassineKaibi 4mo ago
it's not for drawing anything, it's for drawing diagrams (like flowcharts) specifically.

eranation 4mo ago

Great idea! Just quick feedback. Asked it to “Draw a pelican riding a bicycle.” On mobile the response (not a technical diagram) wasn’t visible, initially thought it just didn’t work). Asked it then to draw a diagram for an X replacement, it nailed it.

ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
Thanks for trying it out, noted on the response toast visibility on mobile. Will fix it asap.

awwaiid 4mo ago

Should probably indicate somewhere purposeful that it is built on Excalidraw

ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
It is actually listed on the sites privacy policy. https://voicedraw.com/privacy#:~:text=Apple%20for%20Safari).-,Excalidraw,-.%20The%20drawing https://voicedraw.com/privacy#:~:text=Apple%20for%20Safari).... Feedback taken though, will explore ways to make it more visible.
- awwaiid 4mo ago
  Yes -- there are also links if you click into the lower-right help button to the excalidraw documentation, blog, etc.

jareds 4mo ago

As a blind software developer this looks interesting, but the output descriptions are not useful. I asked it "create a diagram for a rest api with a database, app server, and cache." The diagrams alt text was "609 / 100k tokens used" The text it returned was "Created a simple REST API architecture with three core components: a web app server, a cache layer, and a database. Organized them into logical tiers." If it can generate the diagram it would be nice if the alt text was a detailed description of the diagram.

ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
Great point, I hadn't considered this use case. I've added richer, screen-reader-friendly diagram descriptions to the roadmap. Thanks for the feedback!

vivzkestrel 4mo ago

- stack? - how lomg did it take you to build this? - how many of you made this? - how did you get the idea?

YassineKaibi 4mo ago

great tool! definitely prefer typing though, and it really reminds of excalidraw.

ldubinets 4mo ago

Cool! I built a similar tool at https://shimmerdiagrams.com https://shimmerdiagrams.com Would be curious to connect and compare notes! Yours is probably way better, I had built mine as a prototype and specifically interested in running all models local and in browser.

Cilvic 4mo ago
Cool to see that you did transcription AND LLM for the diagram with "in-browser" / local. Tangent: But I'm wondering whether there would be something from the browser side to enforce this? Like a sandbox so that my browser allows me to launch this via "download" only so that after I download everything there is no way for the website to get any of my data. As a (non-technical) user what kind of guarantee do I have that the prompts, transcript etc. are treated only local?
ajaypanthagani 4mo ago
Hi, your tool looks cool. Sure would love to connect.You can reach out to me at team@voicedraw.com
Luckyemmet 3mo ago
Interesting concept.

levi840714 4mo ago

[flagged]

Nicolau_Amorim 4mo ago

[flagged]