
Ask HN: Why does HN's minimalist design work? - progrocks9
I had always thought that HN was too plain, but with almost of 2 years reading it daily I think that it&#x27;s perfectly designed to come back everyday. Do they ever had UX design sessions for creating this or was unplanned?
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dang
I'm glad you feel that way, since I feel that way too.

It was all designed by one person (pg) who is an inveterate minimalist, has
good taste, and likes text. He wanted to make a site that seemed bookish (his
word) so it would attract people who wanted to read and discourage people who
didn't—in the gentlest way, by seeming boring. He also wanted to make a news
site that looked like top, the terminal app.

One thing that I don't think is widely appreciated about HN's design is the
balance it finds between information density (i.e. fitting a lot on the page)
and minimalism. If you try to move that needle in either direction it makes
things worse: more cramped or less informative. Most attempts to redesign HN
add tons more whitespace, but this lets you take in fewer stories at a glance.
Of course, tastes vary widely and many people disagree.

The link to Reddit is genetic, since pg gave the original idea for Reddit to
Alexis and Steve, and only made HN when his feature requests were no longer at
the top of their list. Presumably that is also how the idea of keeping HN
small got started :) There was also an early version of Delicious that looked
a bit like what HN and Reddit later became.

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urahara
"Bookish" is an excellent word, the experience here is very similar to reading
a good book, but an interactive one. I fell in love with this design from the
1st glance actually. Interestingly, I experience it be very different from
Reddit.

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urahara
For me it works so well because there are 0 distractions, just the necessary
functionality on top of the high-quality community and content. But the 2nd
part is the key, value goes first.

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mattbgates
I love the minimalistic design approach. I've incorporated it into my own
designs.. usually using Craigslist as my major influence. No sidebars. No ads
that disrupt the reader to the point of annoyance. And I try to make
everything pretty easy to navigate.

I usually always get my sister to beta test. She knows enough about computers,
but when it comes using computer programs, she can get lost sometimes. So if
she questions something, I change it until she has no more questions.

I'm pretty sure the one who designed HN just had a preference for a
minimalistic approach and everyone thought it was great, and it has stuck
since then. No point in ever changing something that just works. And you can't
really do much more beyond "minimalist" \-- maybe "brutalist" but it isn't
something that is favored by everyone.

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Jugurtha
A variety of factors, I think:

\- The creator (((pg)). I bet the imbalanced parentheses gave him a stroke
even if he didn't read this. Voodoo stuff.

\- The audience (who they are, what they come here for, all the site is not
that makes them return): mostly people who are accustomed to text as a medium
of communication (code, docs, books, articles, papers) and might prefer it to
other media.

You might like [http://textfiles.com/](http://textfiles.com/)

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nafizh
It is simple but not simpler. The voting system has its issues, but compared
to other sites, it works pretty well.

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Mz
My general hand-wavy impression is that it was dreamed up by a guy with a PhD
and that was it.

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gt565k
It probably took on after Reddit, since HN went live 2 years after reddit.

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Mz
I rather doubt that. HN has always had an area in the profile to give some
info about yourself. Reddit only now has profile stuff in Beta testing.

It may have taken a few cues from Reddit, there are some really substantial
differences between the two things.

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miguelrochefort
> UX designer sessions

You must be kidding.

