Reading up on user-experience
100 deep · digging since nov 19, 25
- What the iPhone Duo means for web development (and Video.js) | Video.js
The post demonstrates that Video.js can mimic a native folded‑phone video player on iPhone Duo via Device Posture, Viewport Segments, and an enabled Fullscreen flag, despite remaining platform constraints.
- The best way to use icons in Web UIs
Lea Verou shows how CSS custom properties and mask can inject and style icons via pseudo‑elements, offering a more flexible, maintainable alternative to inline SVGs or icon fonts.
- Senior Software Engineer, Native Mobile, Remote - USA - Coinbase | Adam Wolf
Coinbase is migrating its consumer trading app from React Native to fully native Swift and Kotlin, citing AI coding agents that halve feature‑building costs and improve performance.
- in defense of agents that click buttons — smooth
The article argues that LLMs already fluently understand the web’s established UI patterns, making plain HTML a more efficient agent interface than designing new APIs.
- Build live dashboards and animate explainers with Claude
Claude launches beta dashboards that auto‑update from data sources and motion‑based explainers, while making Docs, Slides, and Design free for all users.
- Lossless image editing with AI
Using an AI-generated mask to isolate edited regions prevents image degradation and enables lossless, repeatable edits on arbitrarily large images.
- The Dock on Mac, From OS 10 to macOS 27 - Jim Nielsen’s Blog
The post shares a compiled visual timeline of macOS Dock icons from OS X Cheetah through macOS Golden Gate across successive releases.
- Daring Fireball: X Once Again Marks the Spot
Despite criticisms of Elon Musk's ownership, X remains a vibrant platform where notable figures and interesting content thrive, outperforming alternatives like Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon.
- original thoughts have terrible UX
The author argues that forming original opinions is a high‑cost, low‑return activity and advocates outsourcing thinking to standardized opinion providers.
- The left hand should know what the right hand is doing – Unsung
The post highlights several UI flaws where software components repeat or contradict each other, causing user confusion and eroding trust.
- GPT Image 2.5 AI Image Generator
GPT Image 2.5 offers Flare and Sunburst models for fast or detailed AI image generation and editing, providing 5 free signup credits and tiered credit packs.
- A simpler way to organize your work - Workflowy
Workflowy offers a minimalist, tree‑list note‑taking tool that helps users stay focused and organized without the bloat of feature‑heavy apps.
- I hired an illustrator to draw my house. Now it's my Home Assistant dashboard
The author commissioned a custom illustration of their house and turned it into the background for a personalized Home Assistant Lovelace dashboard.
- Beauty in DVD Menus
The article celebrates the artistic and thoughtful design of DVD menus, highlighting how they blended functionality with visual flair in home media.
- Example.com just launched the biggest redesign in decades
Example.com has launched its most substantial redesign in decades, introducing a completely overhauled interface with enhanced usability, modern aesthetics, and improved functionality for users worldwide.
- Show HN: Bigwords.page – Turn any screen into a sign. The URL is the app
Bigwords.page lets you turn any screen into a large‑type sign by simply visiting its URL, with no installation required for quick messaging.
- Show HN: A walkable 3D art history museum built from Wikipedia
The article showcases a web-based, navigable 3D museum that visualizes art history data sourced from Wikipedia and lets users explore artistic movements and works in an interactive virtual environment.
- Vibecoding isn't as fun as writing code by hand
The author argues that relying on vibe‑coding tools reduces enjoyment and satisfaction compared to manually writing code, claiming it feels less engaging and creative.
- The Best Design for Agent GUIs
Effective agent GUIs place the agent's caret directly in the user's document, enable tracked‑change steering, and use comment‑anchored collaboration to balance user alignment with output.
- GitHub - oxynote/oxynote at console.dev
Oxynote is a self-hosted workspace that embeds live metric charts beside explanatory text, provides Stripe‑style API docs, and enforces pull‑request‑style reviews for documentation changes.
- The Luddite Influencer
August Lamm urges readers to abandon smartphone use in order to regain control and meaning in their daily lives today.
- Anti-Patterns in Software Blogging
The article lists common software‑blogging anti‑patterns—meandering intros, assumed knowledge, overlinking, sequel bait, excessive formality, and poor mobile/readability—and offers fixes for developers.
- It’s official: Airline websites are slow, but they don’t have to be
Analysis of 111 airline websites shows 95% fail Google’s Core Web Vitals on mobile, with top‑rated carriers like Qatar Airways and Cathay Pacific among the slowest.
- Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026
Only 22% of developers report being happy at work, while 62% favor AI tools and 39% use Python for AI coding.
- Why A.I. Food Slop Looks So Gross
AI-generated food images often appear unappetizing because models overemphasize texture and color patterns, producing surreal, uncanny-valley visuals that trigger disgust.
- Graphical
Graphical offers a theme builder and component library for coding agents to create customizable interfaces, available as a one‑time purchase.
- 10-Minute Challenge: 43 Paintings in One
The article invites readers to engage in a 10‑minute, uninterrupted viewing of a single artwork that purportedly contains 43 paintings, promoting deep observation.
- I Went Viral and Became an Undercover Pro - imateapot
A casual clip from a Minnesota Cycling Federation fundraiser exploded online, gathering roughly 69 million views and spawning dozens of reposts that invented false pro‑cyclist narratives.
- 56k.rip – the 1996 dial-up internet experience
The 56k.rip project recreates the sights and sounds of a 1996 dial‑up connection, letting users experience vintage internet speeds and interface.
- How our vibe coded website looks like a designer made it
The article explains how the authors used vibe‑coding techniques to build a website that visually resembles a professionally designed site.
- Tells of a Slop UI
It describes a clumsy, poorly thought‑out user interface dubbed a 'slop UI' and critiques its impact on usability for users.
- Show HN: Real-time Solar System with 526k asteroids and all tracked satellites
The post showcases a real-time visualization of the solar system displaying 526,000 asteroids and all tracked satellites, with interactive controls for exploring orbital paths and satellite constellations.
- Show HN: Reladraw – A diagram language where you decide where to place things
Reladraw introduces a declarative diagram language that lets users manually position elements while still benefiting from automatic layout constraints and instant visual feedback.
- How to do valuable work in 2026 - Hugo Montenegro
AI now outperforms humans at coding, making context, product intuition, initiative, and communication the key sources of valuable engineering work in 2026.
- building uncamera — shad.design
The author describes creating Uncamera, an iPhone camera app that uses film‑stock LUTs and tactile dial controls to produce photos that feel like analogue memories.
- We're building multiplayer AI. Here's what we've learned so far
PostHog shares lessons from building multiplayer AI, identifying shared context, portable artifacts, and organizational scope as key design challenges beyond simple chat-based interfaces.
- Free PDF & Image Tools, No Upload
Weesize compresses, converts, and signs PDFs and photos entirely in the browser without uploading files to any server.
- Age check · HiFinder
HiFinder provides a community‑sourced map of calm outdoor locations for adults, requiring users to be over 18 and obey local laws.
- Apple has added persistent 'ads' to iOS, and it's driving users crazy
Apple has begun showing persistent advertisements within iOS interfaces such as Settings and the App Store, prompting widespread user complaints about intrusiveness.
- I don't want the details
Argues that detailed explanations are often unnecessary and that high-level summaries are more effective for communication.
- The Effect of CRTs on Pixel Art (2024)
The article explains that CRT monitors soften pixel art through phosphor glow and scanlines, altering its visual fidelity and influencing artists' design choices.
- Apple Reference Image: A New Approach for Verified Photography
Apple unveils Reference Image, a system that embeds verifiable metadata into photos to guarantee authenticity and combat deepfakes for users.
- Show HN: Koi.rest – watch some fish and regain your balance
Koi.rest offers a simple web page featuring looping fish videos designed to help users relax and regain mental balance.
- Show HN: Whiteboard (YC W26) – An open-source IDE for thoughtful software design
Whiteboard, a YC W26-backed open-source IDE, aims to facilitate thoughtful software design by integrating diagramming and coding tools for developers.
- Ask HN: How to recover Google auth after phone stolen?
User asks Hacker News for steps to regain Google account access after losing their phone and two‑factor authentication device, seeking recovery options.
- Ask HN: Is it impossible to disable Siri on macOS 27?
An Ask HN post asks whether macOS 27 has made it impossible to disable Siri, questioning Apple's decision to keep the assistant always on.
- My weird new hobby: Wandering around Tokyo on Google Maps
The author describes how exploring Tokyo’s streets through Google Maps Street View became a quirky hobby, letting them virtually wander neighborhoods, notice details, and enjoy travel‑like discovery from home.
- Animal Island UI
Animal Island UI is a curated gallery of playful, unconventional web interface designs — buttons, cursors, and menus — broken by a single animation bug.
- Rendering huge pull requests in the GitHub Copilot app - The GitHub Blog
GitHub rebuilt the Copilot app’s diff rendering using virtualization and a dual‑geometry system to smoothly display million‑line pull requests with hundreds of inline comments.
- Project Swap: What happens when agents trade for us? \ Anthropic
The book-swap market's inefficiency was primarily due to Claude's imperfect understanding of participants' preferences, not its bargaining ability.
- Explyt 5.20: stop waiting in the chat — a background task panel and notifications outside the IDE
Explyt 5.20 introduces a background task panel, system notifications, two‑stage Memory Bank cleanup, and performance tweaks to reduce IDE interruptions.
- GoodVibes: hide the topics you are done with
GoodVibes is a free Chrome extension that uses AI to hide posts about unwanted topics like politics or spoilers across X, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Hacker News.
- How we made claude.ai 3x faster in two weeks / claude.dev
Claude and engineers made claude.ai 3x faster in two weeks by using Claude to build benchmarks, find bottlenecks, and ship 3,000 changes safely.
- How Notion handles concurrent editing with CRDTs
Notion redesigned its text editor with CRDTs and Peritext annotations to merge concurrent edits across blocks without data loss, deploying it to production in July 2025.
- Show HN: Vellum, the best diagram editor you'll ever use
Vellum debuts as a diagram editor with AI-assisted features, premium pricing, and HN users discuss its UI, usefulness versus Draw.io, and suggest improvements.
- Why Didn't Google Build Muse?
Google possessed the data and platforms needed for a Muse‑style AI assistant, yet delayed Gemini Spark, fragmented its efforts, and offered a weaker user experience, allowing Meta to lead.
- Vellum
Commenters discuss Vellum, a diagram tool from Blueprintr, highlighting its AI features, usefulness for manual diagrams, and appeal to network engineers needing better visuals.
Takes
Lots of confused replies from people that don’t realize how: - You can game on Apple TV, and gaming at 120hz is fantastic - 120hz makes every menu and interaction feel snappier, so the entire OS feels massively better If you have a modern smartphone, just turn off pro motion/high refresh rate and see how everything feels worse.
@linuz90
One more excuse not to switch to Omarchy has been stricken from the list: Traditional desktop mode with a dock! We'll keep killing reasons until there's very little reason not to join us in the future.
@dhh
Our new AI dev tools are getting really good, so I put them to work and shipped a feature to production. Keyboard shortcuts are now live in Coinbase Advanced. It's a quality-of-life update for active traders, and hopefully helps out in our next trading competition as well. Press ? for the cheat sheet to get started in Coinbase Advanced (link in follow on post)
@brian_armstrong
Alright, I've made the shadcn/ui skills really good at 𝙳𝙴𝚂𝙸𝙶𝙽.𝚖𝚍. Ask for a design system and it picks a preset, then builds everything: colors, tokens, type scale, elevation, styles the primitives and blocks. Start with a solid foundation and build something unique.
@shadcn
you’ll notice the interface is prettttyyyyy slick all that screen real estate for your muse to really spread out in big ups to @ivanbruel and the whole muse team!
@alexandr_wang
Sometimes I read on flights, and sometimes…
@bcherny
wisprflow has become un usable. seems like they have fucked up there tts model. i am cancelling the subscription. any good free alternative?
@code_kartik
I just updated my tiny personal site with Timeless Sans and it is looking neat! https://matnie.com/
@mateusznieckarz
Silicon Valley keeps building me a husband when what I really want is a wife lol I don't want an agent that only does one-off, random tasks that are nice but not life-changing: booking flights, making dinner reservations, or buying tickets I want an AI wife who knows what’s on the family calendar, remembers there’s a birthday party Saturday and we haven’t bought a gift then sends me options, realizes we’re almost out of diapers and buys them, knows which bills are coming up, remembers someone needs a dentist appointment and books it, figures out what the hell we’re eating all week and what we need from the grocery store, and generally keeps track of the 47 things that need to happen before anyone else even realizes they need to happen. So, who's building me an AI wife that carries the mental load instead of an AI husband that waits for me to give it a chore??
@SoniaBaschez
I write all my articles in Notion. It took me 30 seconds to see how the new native editor in the iOS beta feels 1000x better than before. Finally.
@viticci
just one shotted a new landing page for my mobile app and i am just speechless...
@jackfriks
Linear designer getting absolutely mogged by US Chief Design Officer wasn't on my bingo card. Excruciatingly bullish on National Design Studio
@joshmanders
Just connected my ChatGPT Dot to iMessage using @thelinqapp. It's exactly like Instinct, except it actually has context on me + can use my computer + has my entire Gbrain knowledge graph and all my plugins. Instinct = feature not a product.
@awilkinson
I asked Opus 5.5 to make an interactive website companion for the latest @AcquiredFM Home Depot episode. It came out pretty nice! Water color illustrations all drawn by Claude, too: https://claude.ai/artifact/RdE6uE7WozcP2MLfx3BDky Episode here: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/home-depot
@bcherny
For two weeks, start a design, deck, or doc in the Claude app, and the work that follows in that conversation uses 50% less of your usage limits. Give it a try with Claude Sonnet 5.5. It has a strong eye for design and builds slides that need minimal editing.
@claudeai
We just launched a feature we began exploring a decade+ ago, but never released it. It was originally destined for Campfire, our chat tool. The feature is called Bonfire. Now that Campfire is built into Basecamp, Bonfire belongs there. And today it's live for all Basecamp 5 customers. What's Bonfire? I put together a short video to show you what it is and how it works:
@jasonfried
Hi! What would you like to see us ship for dots and space in the next two weeks? Or how can we improve things in other parts of the product.
@thsottiaux
Same, but went with tinycast. Definitely interested in what Stephen's got going on here though. Raycast v2 has been really unfortunate and in the day of agentic programming, there's not a good excuse for drifting away from native.
@codejake
enfold on X: "The most beautiful email experience ever made." / X
@tryenfold
We built the notes app we always wished Apple Notes was. Beautiful, connected by backlinks, instant to search, and every note is a plain Markdown file your AI agents can read. Reflect Open is out of beta today. Open source, free on Mac, and on iPhone and iPad.
@reflectnotes
introducing the tldraw plugin for ChatGPT, a realtime multiplayer canvas available now in the ChatGPT app
@tldraw
I've long wished that online mapping services were far richer and higher-density. They elide so much detail today! We have gloriously high-DPI screens... I want to wallow in cartographic filigree. AI of course now makes this possible: https://bayatlas.vercel.app
@patrickc
So much of Airbnb’s success came from @jgebbia’s design brilliance. I’m delighted he brought those gifts to our government. Our country designed great buildings, but for most Americans, the front door to government is now a website. Starting today, that experience they will be beautiful, elegant, and human. Proud of you, Joe.
@bchesky
Read this on thread on ChatGPT Space if you only read one thing about it.
@thsottiaux
I made a site to explain System One thinking (Jev is an example of this)! We make fast judgments all day, some models can too. The guide explains how to use those quick judgments in software. In my typical way, it leverages interactive animations, and Night Owl 🦉
@sarah_edo
Why I'm Building Muse
@alexandr_wang
Linear is next level: they integrated Jev into the emoji picker already and it’s AMAZING (This is response on a thread on how Google Docs’ emoji picker has been the same unusable mess for ~20 years; the ✅ icon still unfindable on my free and paid accounts)
@GergelyOrosz
Software is increasingly treated as disposable in the AI era. Yet we spend half our waking lives looking at screens! We don’t want to spend that time with zombie products—monotonous, vacant, and uncared for. We want products with soul. 💜 I go deep on this in my talk from @lennysan's Summit:
@lil_dill
You should put a pixel-perfect version of your app on your homepage Why? 1. Signing up for new things is annoying if the UI sucks 2. People exaggerate agent-friendliness 3. They just want to do a thing Show a common use case being done with an agent. If your app is not bad, this will increase your conversion rate. This used to be hard to build and maintain, now it is easy. You should probably do it.
@frantzfries
Some screens from the new Shopify design language that I had the pleasure of working on.
@kevinclark
incredibly thoughtful piece on AI and creativity hopefully we can make our producst better at enabling and amplifying creatives
@trq212
Your agent can handle significantly more than you are currently asking of it
@benjitaylor
i love prompting for a full walkthrough of a flow i.e here i had it show me all of the steps involved in oauth and found redundant steps, layout shift, and some weird ui state agents don't have to produce slop, they can also help you make great software
@RhysSullivan
Voice! I've gotten so used to just call ChatGPT and talk about all the work, check on emails, do some coding, manage my calendar and it works across the full ecosystem of plugins, including 3P developed plugins.
@thsottiaux
A little prompt you may find useful for adding polish to your products... --- Here are a few libraries of react components and UI sounds that could be useful for adding bits of polish and whimsy to the UI. Do a deep audit of both the components available across these libraries as well as ways to use them within our UI. In many cases, this isn't just about replacing a bit of UI/UX but actually adding new bits. Don't shy away from that. https://www.interior.dev/docs https://www.beautifului.dev https://cuelume.dev --- Enjoy!
@Shpigford
I asked Opus 5.5 to try a bunch of redesigns of my personal website using my MAX sub, using workflows to iterate and critique. I was really pleased with how it hit the tone I was looking for. Then I asked it to make a trailer with all of its iterations.
@trq212
@hraness @DevinAI @zeddotdev I did this last year, that's not the future. Web's way nicer.
@steipete
Just cranking out the new fun stuff! Now you can add backgrounds to your Basecamp 5 projects. Here's a project where we keep all relevant customer feedback. Added a background and now when you hit the project and you instantly know exactly where you are. Lots of customization potential here. To add, click the project name to enter the settings view. You'll find the new Wallpaper option right there. Full screen or old school tiled backgrounds, you pick.
@jasonfried
When I switched to Omarchy, this was one of the things that was stopping me: I really want my (latest) iPhone pictures available from a native Omarchy app. Mostly because the website for iCloud Photos really sucks.
@jankeesvw
What are your thoughts on the Claude desktop app? What do you love/hate? What features should be added? What are some of your biggest frustrations with it?
@RobertJBye
what if drag and drop was smart? powered by @typesafeai jev
@MalayVasa
Just shipped a new convenience feature in Basecamp 5. Now you can drag images/files directly onto a docs & files tool on your project page to upload them directly to the project. Before you had to click through then upload. Now you can just drop them right where you want them on the project page. Small details add up.
@jasonfried
I setup a “personal assistant” to help summarize all the things I needed to do the day. Day 1 was amazing, at least I thought From day 2 to day 10 ignored the whole thing lol Turns out I just don’t want to make a bunch of decisions, and an AI agent doesn’t change that. 👇
@GergelyOrosz