

Ask HN: Am I the only one who finds HN's interface user unfriendly? - iwonagr

One comes in and immediately sees a lot of text that is not pleasant. If someone is a programmer they probably are tired of seeing a screen full of letters.<p>Same with the functionality. It just takes too much time to figure it all out.<p>Can someone help me figure out how to use HN in a way it&#x27;s beneficial for the HN community and myself? I guess I don&#x27;t understand it well. I do not see how I can benefit from browsing through all those topics that are not categorized to find anything that is of my interest. Similarly, if I can post just anything, how will that help any user?<p>Why are you guys here? (this is a genuine question, I&#x27;d like to understand more of how this all works)
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ColinWright
To me, the interface suits the purpose perfectly. There are many discussions
about tagging and categories, but having the single "all in" front page is
intended to prevent fragmentation and broadly keep a single community.

    
    
        > One comes in and immediately sees
        > a lot of text that is not pleasant.
    

To me it's a delight to find a site that's clean and clear, without swathes of
pointless graphics, or icons and buttons that I don't understand.

    
    
        > Same with the functionality. It just
        > takes too much time to figure it all
        > out.
    

Really? You submit, you reply, you click on a link to read a story. What are
you finding difficult?

    
    
        > Can someone help me figure out how to
        > use HN in a way it's beneficial for the
        > HN community and myself?
    

Read stuff people have submitted. If you think it's interesting and have
something constructive to add, make a comment, or join the discussion. What
else are you expecting?

    
    
        > I do not see how I can benefit from
        > browsing through all those topics that
        > are not categorized to find anything
        > that is of my interest.
    

If all you're interested in are you own specific narrow interests, then go
find the appropriate sub-reddit or similar. This is for people who want to get
at least a little outside their own echo-chamber and see things that others
are interested in. There are people here with whom I share interests, and then
they have interests outside my own, and this is where I get to find things
about those other interests. If people with whom I have something in common
are interested in them, maybe it's something I should know about.

HN is intended to help you grow outside your own, specific interests. If you
don't want to do that, this isn't the best place for you.

------
veddox
> If someone is a programmer they probably are tired of seeing a screen full
> of letters.

Actually, as a (Linux) programmer I feel right at home with a plain text
design... Minimalism suggests efficiency, and is part of the Unix tradition.
Although I like well-designed pages, HN is about content, not looks. To quote
PG: "The graphic design is as plain as possible ... The goal is that the only
thing to interest someone arriving at HN for the first time should be the
ideas expressed there."
([http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html))

Quite apart from that, it is one of the few sites left on the Internet that is
friendly all those without a cheap, high-speed connection. One HN page takes
about 10KB, that is a real plus in some parts of the world (like where I am at
the moment).

I do not find the functionality in any way difficult.

I joined this site recently because it seems to be a great community of people
with similar interests, and a brilliant place to learn new stuff.

~~~
dang
PG has said that his inspiration for the design of HN was top, the Unix
utility.

I'm glad to hear something nice about the performance of the site. That is my
bugbear. One day I shall wrestle it to the mat.

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ggchappell
> One comes in and immediately sees a lot of text that is not pleasant.

What do you want to see? (Not a rhetorical question!)

I come here to read articles, read comments, and then possibly reply. The
interface allows me to start doing each of those with one click. Looks great
to me. If the interface showed me something else, then that something else
would be just one extra step to get through before I got to do what I wanted.

------
iwonagr
Oh and one more...how do I ask an HN question in the 'ask' section?

~~~
starshadowx2
Yeah, I had to Google how to find out how to do this, it doesn't seem to be
written anywhere.

~~~
iwonagr
There is a FAQ section at the bottom that has a lot of information. Don't
worry though- I didn't see it either. It takes a little time to figure out how
this all works here :) Thanks to Colin I have a better vision.

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kishoridu
It is like a green tea. Initially looks unfriendly but once you develop the
taste you will enjoy it.

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JoeAltmaier
What else? An infographic? Sounds like a Designer complaint.

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narrowrail
1\. Start Up 2\. Cash In 3\. Sell Out 4\. Bro Down

