

Show HN: I Designed this HN Mac App – Should I develop it? - holgersindbaek
http://www.hackernewstab.com

======
icambron
I don't have a strong opinion on whether you should build it or not (I have a
Mac but won't use it, which has almost nothing to do with whether it's a good
idea or not), but here's some other admittedly unsolicited advice (and of
course I recognize that you may know all of this already):

Remember that most people who think it's a bad idea won't respond, and people
who do respond are doing so because they're interested, or think they are. So
there's some bias to account for. And secondly people who say they want
something can't really be trusted; it costs nothing to upvote you and people
are really quick to say "yes, I'd buy/use that" and though they certainly mean
it at the time, it's very often turns out to be untrue when it's actually time
to download and install it.

Of course, it might work anyway; I'm just saying that I doubt that asking HN
whether you should code it is a good predictor.

~~~
holgersindbaek
Thanks for the advice. I follow what you are saying.

Reason I'm doing this is, that I come up with a lot of projects and it's hard
to know which of them people will actually like.

I'm putting out a feeler here, to see wether people are even interested. It
seems so :-).

------
huhtenberg
Holger, your design has the same issue as every other HN app - it trades
condensed view for spacing and typography. The brilliance of HN's native
design is an ability to see 20-30 stories per screenful. This is a must have.
Otherwise it turns into Designer News [1] :)

Secondly, an app that is merely an alternative view of HN webpage is not
terribly interesting. It should really offer something else. For example, an
ability to track/follow other users, ability to pick up stories from /new page
that might of an interest to me, track my account stats, track replies to my
comments and submissions, etc.

If you are going to sink your time in this project, make damn sure there'll be
(paid) downloads at the end of the road.

[1] <https://news.layervault.com>

~~~
hawkw
I find it kind of amusing that Hacker News is better designed than Designer
News.

~~~
connortomas
I'd argue that "better designed" is subjective here. Hacker News is optimised
for high content density. Designer News has lower content density, but there's
more space between posts (and visual signposts in the form of "badges") which
makes the front-page easier to scan. I appreciate both approaches.

~~~
hawkw
While "better designed" is definitely subjective, I find that HN reads easier
and is more visually appealing. Personally, HN feels superior on an aesthetic
as well as functional level - many of DN's design techniques feel kind of
cliched or tacky.

------
jrajav
If you do, please make it configurable to be a normal app as well as a menu
bar app. I don't like menu bar apps that do not actually need to display some
sort of persistent notification or control, and there may be others who feel
the same way.

Also, we generally shy from "yes" and "love it" type replies here; you can
probably assume that 1 upvote = 1 yes.

~~~
holgersindbaek
Thanks for the input. I'll definitely consider that. Shouldn't be too hard.

~~~
clooth
There is a ready component ([http://www.cocoacontrols.com/platforms/mac-
os-x/controls/obm...](http://www.cocoacontrols.com/platforms/mac-
os-x/controls/obmenubarwindow)) that you can use to create a menu bar
application which can be dragged out to be a regular window. Just remember to
keep states and stuff.

------
pkamb
I wouldn't use an alternative HN story reader on OS X. I like the cramped web
interface too much.

However I do like (and make![1]) passive alert menubar apps. Make one of those
for HN and I would use it (and submit pull requests). Alert for new thread
replies, karma, etc.

[1] Shameless plug for Reddit Notifier, on the Mac App Store:
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reddit-notifier-mac-os-x-
men...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reddit-notifier-mac-os-x-
menubar/id468366517?mt=12)

~~~
holgersindbaek
Nice one. I'll definitely look into that. Thanks for the tip.

~~~
pkamb
In fact, if you want to do the icons/design and find an acceptable HN API, I
could get it working with the Reddit Notifier source pretty easily. Shoot me
an email if interested.

------
jmount
You asked: in my opinion no. The market has already largely abandoned RSS
readers and I don't see single site and magazine apps having a fighting
chance.

~~~
stcredzero
What about general utility apps, other than RSS readers?

------
mokash
Looks nice but I don't think I would ever use something like this. 70% of the
time I'm on a browser so I prefer to just come to the website. A good app for
iPad would be good since tapping the tiny HN links on there is terrible.

~~~
elemeno
There's a decent iPhone/iPad app called news:yc in the App Store already.

~~~
clooth
I use HackerNode, a brilliant app.

~~~
holgersindbaek
Nice one. What do you like about that one? Seems like there's a lot of people
who've downloaded it.

~~~
clooth
@holgersindbaek: I love the quick browsing and general feel of it. I have to
admit though, I rarely exit the front page listing & links or use it for
anything else than checking up on what's going on in the world.

------
leoh
I think it's cool, but there are a couple issues:

\- You display the number '8' in your demo -- what does this represent?
Stories are frequently added to HN

\- You provide a lot of functionality in the Menu tool (vote, comment), but
you don't provide the actual content -- presumably this is opened in a
browser? If you look at Spotlight, it provides a preview, though this is
probably not readable enough

\- It seems to me that keeping simple is important; for example, keeping to a
single rectangle like Spotlight could be a good UI pattern; having multiple
rectangles that are locked in places feels very klunky

That said, I think designing this could be very fun and a great learning
experience. Someone once told me that the the reason to create tools is to
help yourself; if this tool ends up being fun and useful for you to use, you
have succeeded (a lot of others call this "dogfooding", though I think that
has a bit of a negative ring to it).

Some tips regarding engineering:

\- this could be a useful GitHub project to get started with NSStatusItems
(i.e. menubar apps), if you haven't already seen it --
<https://github.com/shpakovski/Popup>

\- it might be very very effective to use Python, at least for prototyping,
especially for scraping information from HN; in particular, I am thinking of
BeautifulSoup, though similar packages may exist for ObjC; to integrate Python
into your app, you can either use something like PyObjc or directly bundle in
a python interpreter and read output from it...

Good luck!

~~~
holgersindbaek
Thanks for the feedback.

The number eight signifies that there's 8 stories on the frontpage that you
haven't read yet.

You also read the story itself in the browser (I don't wanna go back and forth
from the browser). You can see that "functionality" if you click on "web
view".

Thanks for the tip :-).

------
eranation
If you can add some smart filtering, e.g. by topic, source website etc, this
would be even more valuable to me. Also ability to add to evernote / chrome
bookmarks / pocket directly from the app

Last but not least, the HN community is great, but I would design it to
support other new sources, if I could get all my content in one location, with
filtering, and web preview, I would be a bit happier. (why not google reader?
not sure actually, but fact is it's just not doing the job, neither flipboard,
or any news aggregator that I know to date feels to me like the perfect
solution, but that's just me).

So I'm not sure you'll be able to make a living solely from this app, but I
will consider it if it really helps me organize my reading, and save me time.

Edit:

1\. Forgot to mention the design looks great!

2\. Note that not far ago someone posted here a Mac HN app (currently down,
here is the cached version:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.hackyapp.com/))

Here is the HN discussion on it, I think this will help you decide.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5170182>

~~~
holgersindbaek
Interesting. Thanks for the feedback :-).

------
antr
Looks great. I'd be happy to pay $2-$3 for it. Pocket/Instapaper integration
would be great i.e. one click and it's saved to read later

~~~
nwh
The Pocket browser widget already injects it's own links into HN, the exact
reason I removed the thing.

------
ImprovedSilence
I love the look of the interface (web and comment view). That said, being a
reader of HN, I like to use the "open web" as opposed to apps. I know a good
percentage of the population here share my views. And while this may not
necessarily describe you're app, it shows the sentiment:
<http://xkcd.com/1174/>

But I'm confused when you call this a Mac app. Does that mean it would be for
say, my macbook air, which I really have no need for it. or perhaps my
iPad/iPhone, which, even though I have the HN page bookmarked as an app, I'm
more readily willing to try out the "app", simply because the interface needs
enhancing.

edit: All that said, definitely still build it. If only even for yourself,
your portfolio, and the learning experience.

~~~
holgersindbaek
I know where you are coming from. I also like to use the open web, but it bugs
me when I end up with opening 5-10 tabs each time I go into HN and have to
navigate around between them and close them again.

It is for the Mac and not for the iPhone/iPad (might come later).

If you have no need for it, it's probably not for you. Hehe.

~~~
ImprovedSilence
>> but it bugs me when I end up with opening 5-10 tabs each time I go into HN

haha, too true. I'm a bit of a tabaholic I suppose. It's nothing to have 10-20
tabs in a window, with separate windows open for different stuff (HN window,
work window, mail/FB window..) Heck, I'll stumble across tabs I meant to read
last week or last month all the time...

~~~
gknoy
I'm the same way: I look at the list of stories, open all the ones that look
interesting in new tabs, and do the same with the comments for them as well.
Then, I have a nice queue of six to twelve tabs to peruse.

------
datboitom
I think one improvement you can make in this design is to make it easy to
distinguish different types of posts. There are posts that are news, some are
blog posts, some are showcases, others may just be job listings. Currently its
not always so clear on HN.

~~~
holgersindbaek
Awesome idea. Thanks!

------
gurkendoktor
Does it really live in the menu bar? It's hard enough to fight all the
notifications and distractions at work as it is. I would be more likely to use
a full screen app (the exact opposite of a menu bar item) for rare, but
focused reading sessions.

------
tobiasbischoff
Sure, go on. The hardest part, designing it, is already done! Take a look at
HNKit an news:yc <https://github.com/Xuzz/newsyc> for a head start.

~~~
holgersindbaek
Thanks. I'll take a look at it.

I've already taken a look at some other HN examples (there's a lot of open
source ones out there), but not sure if I will go with any of those. Might
start from scratch.

------
atte
I would try it out. I'm also going to take this opportunity to make a
shameless plug: answering the question, "Should I build this?" is precisely
the goal of LaunchSky.com.

~~~
holgersindbaek
Nice one. Just signed up. When are you launching? Looking forward to seeing
how the platform will work.

~~~
atte
Thanks! We plan to go live with our beta in 3-4 weeks, and we're already
accepting pitches from our beta list. Email me at info@launchsky.com and I'll
send you a beta invite.

------
dmckay
You should absolutely develop it. It doesn't matter if anyone will use it or
other's opinions about it. Here's the deal, from your own post, you have
plenty of time on your hands and you could learn a lot from developing this
application. It's also yet another project for your resume. Try developing it
in something you aren't familiar with, backbone or flask or sinatra, etc.

------
justjimmy
Make a web app that has HN Item list on the left column. Right column displays
the story/link but also allow quickly switching between that and the HN
comments section.

I'd throw money at you.

I don't need/want a mac app for reading stuff that's available on the web.
That just makes me bounce between 1 extra app/window if I want to read/learn
more about a certain subject.

~~~
holgersindbaek
Guess I can count you out then.

Thanks for the feedback.

------
1123581321
I briefly experimented with HN in a discreet RSS reader (Feeds App), and I
won't let it on my computer outside the browser again as it was too
distracting. I also don't keep any of the iPhone apps for HN I've tried around
for that reason. Your designs look nice, though.

~~~
holgersindbaek
Thanks for the compliments.

What made you think it was too distracting? Could you see the updates all the
time?

~~~
1123581321
Yes, HN became ever-present unless I closed the program. And if I did, why
have it? When it's in the browser, it's much more optional and I can work all
day if I like without seeing any reminders of it.

------
jdrummond
Ok, so I upvoted it. I like the idea.

But, my Mac is retired for a long time now and, if you really make a Mac app,
I won't be able to use it.

You should consider... ummm... air? This way we can all enjoy your app.

------
snowwrestler
You should develop it if you want it. But I would not count on making much
money or impact with it. Not that many people read Hacker News, and most of
them are just fine reading it in a browser.

I understand why people are tempted to build apps around HN...we're all
builders, and we spend a lot of time here. But that doesn't mean it's a good
business decision.

In general, 3rd party apps for reading a website are a bad idea. They compete
directly against the content resource upon which they are totally dependent.
See: the fate of Twitter apps.

------
DamagedProperty
I LOVE how you presented your design. I got it right away. Very slick. I don't
think I would use this because it might kill my productivity more than going
to HN already does.

------
_august
Looks useful. I have a suggestion, keep the width of the webpage and the
comments view the same. This way the buttons remain in the same place when
switching back and forth.

------
bernardom
This is awesome: actually taking the time to poll your intended customers to
see whether it's even worth building the app, rather than building first and
finding out later.

------
Goopplesoft
I don't think you're going to get many nays on here, we like HN and that app
looks slick.

I just think it a tad redundant since browsers/website are pretty much
native...

~~~
holgersindbaek
I've been thinking about that as well. We'll see if it's the case.

Think the app could be really nice though and save me some time when I feed my
HN addiction. I always find myself opening 5-7 tabs each time I go into HN.
Then I have to navigate between them, close the ones I haven't read and such.
Can become tedious.

With this app, I'll also have a constant overview of how much of the frontpage
I haven't read :-).

------
peter_l_downs
Looks great, Holger! Have you seen <http://www.guidefreitas.com/hacker-news-
menu-tab-app> ?

~~~
holgersindbaek
Nice one. Like the functionality of having all the posts in the topbar. It's
really convenient.

I'd like to read the posts in the app as well though. Don't wanna go back and
forth from the browser.

I also want a better view for comments. HN design can become a bit messy :-).

------
hayksaakian
Tangent: scrolling is horrible on my gnexus. I have no idea where I am on the
site, and every time I scroll up or down I find myself lost somewhere else.

------
adrianmn
I will give you a different angle. Do you want to develop it for
fun/fame/experience or for profit? If the former you should do it.

------
pagliara
I think a great feature would be the ability to filter articles by points
(i.e. only posts greater than 100 points, etc)

~~~
holgersindbaek
Nice idea.

Do you often wish that you could do that on HN?

~~~
sprobertson
<http://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=100>

------
Zev
You designed an iOS app, not a Mac app. That it happens to live in the menubar
doesn't actually mean very much ;)

~~~
holgersindbaek
What do you mean that I designed an iOS app?

------
aauldy
Looks great, HN wrapped in sex, love it!

------
PhilipA
I would much rather want a responsive version, so I don't have to download an
app to look at HN.

------
HugoDias
You should develop that, for sure.

~~~
holgersindbaek
Thanks guys. Let me know if there are any other features or such that you
would?!

------
littledot5566
Looks like a great project.

------
clockwork_189
Yes please! :)

------
nell
What tool did you use to design this?

~~~
holgersindbaek
Photoshop.

------
moron4hire
There is no reason not to. "Should I develop it" always has the answer "yes".

~~~
megablast
Well, if there is no interest in it, and you could be working on something
else. You need to weight these decisions.

~~~
moron4hire
it is impossible to tell interest until the project is built. Who, having
heard the premise of Twitter in 2005, would have said "Oh yeah, that sounds
exactly like something I want"?

~~~
biot
The Twitter equivalent would be asking Twitter users if they'd use TweetDeck
given only mockups of the app.

------
JulianGarnier
nope

