[jermaink]

HN is a perfect example of an classic, evergreen product. Or call it a crocodile product, as crocodiles are somewhat location-loyal.

Are there more examples of products that did (on purpose) not change significantly?

If you consider the sentiment on the recent GMail redesign, Facebook, .. it often appears that product managers are the only ones that want to change the product and its appeal. I think Reddit also had the crocodile concept for long time. Google‘s main search page changed minor since the past 10 years. I guess there are more examples (Quora, Craigslist, Wikipedia..?)

@pavlov your examples capture the could-be quite well.

[japhyr]

> Are there more examples of products that did (on purpose) not change significantly?

I think Craigslist would be the classic example of a simple design that hasn't changed significantly over its lifetime.

[noarchy]

It may not be popular to bring it up here, but the Drudge Report remains very similar to how it has looked for over 20 years.

Here's a look at the site on a random(ish) day in 2001: https://web.archive.org/web/20010119181300/http://www.drudge...

[SmellyGeekBoy]

Amazon and ebay are good examples of sites that have made very slow, incremental changes over the years.

[bhandziuk]

I don't know, Amazon seems pretty bloated at times. The page may look similar to old Amazon pages but there is just so much happening I'm overwhelmed. "Related Items" " People who bought this also looked at", multiple sections of "Sponsored Items", "Customers Also Bought", "Frequently Bought together". Sigh. Just show me this product and the information about it (specs, reviews, questions [and don't show me any questions which were just answered with "I don't know"])

[chasedehan]

The overwhelming is especially prevalent on AWS - I get super confused every time I do work there. So many buttons, services, etc. It's for that reason primarily that I prefer using GCP as it is kept a bit more similar.

[tannhaeuser]

Google Search?

[romwell]

Nope. The search box UI looks very similar, but the UX has changed a ton.

From not being able to use "+" in queries to how your queries are interpreted to what you actually get as your results (from map results to AMP articles, there's a whole spectrum), it's very much a different product these days.

[Scarblac]

In the Netherlands an early very (1998) popular web page is http://www.startpagina.nl , and it's still popular with non-tech savvy people. http://www.nu.nl (1999) is the country's most popular news page, http://www.marktplaats.nl (1999) the most popular Craig's list / Ebay equivalent.

They have all tweaked their UI over two decades if you look closely but make sure they look more or less the same as ever.

Actually Teletext ( https://nos.nl/teletekst ) is still used by many and it looks exactly like it does on TV.

[GijsjanB]

Teletekst is an outlier, because it did not start as a web page, but the design has been consistent over the years and I still use the site and the app for news, TV guide and weather forecast daily!

[aequitas]

https://www.gratiz.nl/ (1996) also never changed its winning recipe.

[jacquesm]

MP got reworked extensively, they did keep their colorscheme.

[usrusr]

Counter opinion: I think of hn as a perfect example of a non-product. I can't think of anything positive about hn that isn't ultimately traceable to its nature of not being a product.

[0xcafecafe]

As an avid redditor, I wish they preserved the crocodile concept. I can't bring myself to like their "new reddit" and always keep going back to "old.reddit.com/...".

[Topgamer7]

Their leadership has this notion that people just don't like change, and that's why they use old. To me, I just don't like the new design. It's painful, old is simple, clear, and quick.

[PascLeRasc]

I think of this tweet every time reddit tries to redirect me to the new layout (NSFW): https://twitter.com/dril/status/1022669063674363904?lang=en

[newman8r]

https://www.erowid.org doesn't seem to have changed much in the past 2 decades