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by csbartus 4688 days ago
Hacker News redesigns and mobile apps are popping up almost weekly here at HN .... I'm trying all them out.

Yet still using the original. Being a designer I was always thinking what makes this ugly design so time resistant.

One single answer comes to my mind: the character of its creator.

3 comments

I would say it's more a matter of habit, if you've used the original for such a long time you feel so familiar with it that any other way of using HN just seems "unnatural". I too have tried many alternatives, yet still coming back to the original ;)
Then you must not be using HN on a mobile device, because it is pretty much unusable.. that is, unless you like panning left and right incessantly as you read titles.
I think this "ugly design" as you say is resistant because it is a good design. It's functionnal and as such, I don't see any reason why it should change. A good design is a design we can read easily and use easily. For instance, I find Designer News far less easy to read than HN. HN's design might be ugly but it's convenient and it's all what matters. I agree that HN could have a better mobile experience. But the current design works particularly well on desktop.
>A good design is a design we can read easily and use easily

HN on mobile achives neither.

I agree, I was talking about the desktop version. I just wanted to say that the so-called "ugliness" of HN's design has nothing to do with the fact it's not convenient on mobile.