
Ask HN: What is the most incredible UI you have experienced and why? - n_coats
Every now and then, I&#x27;ll come across a site&#x2F;app with a UI that completely pulls me in. It seems flawless. Most of them have a healthy blend of imagery complimented perfectly with other front-end components.<p>Are there any UI&#x27;s that you find incredible, either from an artistic or technological perspective, and what is it about them that captures your attention?
======
Someone1234
For all of its flaws I will say Google Docs Spreadsheet.

While it doesn't replace Excel fully, you can use it and almost forget you're
using a "webapp." The cells/columns look great, feel great, and they almost
nail the desktop experience down to a tee.

It is actually a fairly old webapp, but I still haven't seen anything which
made you forget that it was a webapp quite that well. Even GMail/Outlook.com
still feel like webapps even with how good they both are design wise.

------
gnusouth
I really like XFCE's Thunar. In particular, the bulk rename feature is easier
to use than any command-line tool and is really powerful. I use it for all my
file renaming.

In the 10ish years that I've been using software I don't feel it has really
improved much. I think my ideal UI is a traditional window with a few menu
items and a really deep preferences window, like some of the software I used
to use on OS X Leopard. Lots of recent software seems to sacrifice
customisability in the name of simplicity (Windows 8+, GNOME 3, Ubuntu Unity).
I don't think this needs to be the case, complexity tucked away inside menus
won't ever bother users who want pure simplicity. I think lots of developers
drawn to the "command-line-only" mindset would actually be happier with GUIs
of this kind, but I'm speaking only from my experience (I use the command-line
extensively, and Linux, not OS X).

------
garethsprice
Truly great UIs aren't memorable - they just work and you don't even think
about them. Elevators, gas ovens, hourglasses. If you can make a useful
application with a UI as simple, intuitive and forgettable as any of those,
you've succeeded.

~~~
rprospero
Not a UX person, so I'm a little surprised that you list the hourglass. I
always thought that they had a terrible UI, mostly on account of not having a
proper reset mechanism.

~~~
rfergie
Can't tell if you are joking or not.

The reset mechanism for an hourglass is intuitive and gives very clear
feedback on whether or not the operation suceeded

------
LarryMade2
Second Life's 3-D navigation, menus and editing, from the camera control for
the AV to constructing #D virtual objects with primitives.

I think that’s why SL is still so popular because it got the interface right,
non-technically inclined people can learn to build rudimentary objects in a
couple hours and its enough to hook many of them into becoming content
builders.

Another would be FoxBase+/Mac for under a meg of object code the UI for data
management and screen/form building was great. I got ugly when MS came in and
standardized it into FoxPro for Windows compatibility.

The oldest best UI was the Print Shop on 8-bits changed the face of cork
bulletin boards since.

------
VikingCoder
Old versions of Winamp were pretty great.

Also I remember being pretty blown away when Delphi came out.

~~~
brickmort
I have a special place in my heart for Winamp's classic UI. In my opinion, it
was the most intuitive interface for a music player. it had a playlist,
equalizer, plugins, all of which were condensable to a fraction of it's full
size. Of course, now there are a number of similar players that have the same
capabilities, but shit, Winamp 2.x was where it started. Even today, it blows
todays iTunes interface _way_ out of the water.

------
archagon
Incredible? I don't know if I'd quite go so far, but Reeder on iOS has a
really fluid, slidey interface that works like a stack of cards. The best part
is that you can drag to navigate back/forward from almost anywhere on the
screen. I find myself constantly swiping back and forth just because it's so
much fun.

------
brudgers
AutoCAD. Keyboard. pointer. non-branching scripts. branching scripts, dumb
simple UI configuration, simple UI configuration, and full blown API's for
creating full blown application layers.

It's UI's are sufficient for the spectrum of users, not tailored as demoware
or onboarding new users You can even awk and sed the drawing data.

------
kphild
Airbnb. It still amazes me how playing huge video clips in the background adds
to the experience without being distracting.

~~~
n_coats
yes! That's a great example!

------
yen223
No love for Apple?

Touchscreen-centric gadgets have appeared long before the iPhone came to the
market, but the work Apple put in to the first iPhone's UI made touchscreens
more useful than the traditional phone keypad interface for the first time.

------
AnimalMuppet
I think it was FrameMaker, on an SGI Indigo. It was the most amazing example
of "progressive disclosure" that I've ever seen. It was amazing how easy it
was to find what you wanted, and yet how uncluttered it was.

------
talltofu
I love this [https://www.wealthfront.com/tools/startup-salary-equity-
comp...](https://www.wealthfront.com/tools/startup-salary-equity-
compensation). It uses D3.js

------
coppolaemilio
FL Studio is super confortable to write songs on it! You should check it out.

