Hacker News with Generative AI: Design

How Silica Gel Took Over the World (scopeofwork.net)
I find them stuffed into the toes of a new pair of sneakers. I find them wedged into a sheaf of seaweed snacks. I find them in the over-inflated bag that contains my new inhaler, and in the vacuum-sealed one puckered around my kids’ 3D printing filament.
Consumer Products, Everyday Objects, Design
109 points by Hooke 12 hours ago | 80 comments
Ask HN: Why do text posts have such low contrast? (ycombinator.com)
I'm curious why this color was chosen.
User Interface, Design, Hacker News
8 points by Buildstarted 14 hours ago | 5 comments
Actually drawing some ovals – that are not ellipses (2017) (medium.com)
In the last part I hopefully made it clear why you wouldn’t want to use an actual ellipse when making a real object, curves constructed from multiple fixed radius arcs are much more useful and look just the same.
Computer Graphics, Design, Geometry, Programming
41 points by todsacerdoti 2 days ago | 17 comments
Beautiful and Minimalistic Chrome Extension (lofitab.com)
Transform your new tab into a productive and calming lofi experience with todos, weather, clock, and beautiful backgrounds.
Chrome Extensions, Productivity, Design, Music
20 points by reynnan 4 days ago | 13 comments
Making of the New York and Erie Railroad Organizational Diagram (c82.net)
Org charts tend to be a rather boring affair—with their lists of names and who reports to whom—but they didn’t start out that way. One of the first in American business, is a stunning portrait of a classic institution—the New York and Erie Railroad. Drawn in 1855 and only rediscovered in recent decades, this diagram captured my attention and I finally took the time to recreate it from scratch as a fun technical exercise.
History, Design, Business, Visualization
50 points by tobr 4 days ago | 3 comments
The Design of the New Swiss Passport (kottke.org)
There are so many reasons these days to covet a Swiss passport but let me give you one more: the design kicks ass.
Design, Switzerland, Passports
18 points by bookofjoe 4 days ago | 1 comments
The Design of the New Swiss Passport (kottke.org)
There are so many reasons these days to covet a Swiss passport but let me give you one more: the design kicks ass.
Design, Switzerland, Passports
17 points by Tomte 5 days ago | 0 comments
Pompidou Center – The pioneering building that scandalised Paris (bbc.com)
The daring, radical Pompidou Centre was derided by many when its design was first unveiled – yet it has continued to influence the architecture of public buildings ever since. As the building approaches a major renovation, its co-creator Renzo Piano recalls the furore.
Architecture, History, France, Art, Design
3 points by pseudolus 5 days ago | 1 comments
Blender releases their Oscar winning version tool (blender.org)
Blender 4.4 is all about stability. During the 2024–2025 northern hemisphere winter, Blender developers doubled down on quality and stability in a group effort called “Winter of Quality.”
Software, Open Source, 3D Modeling, Film, Design
808 points by babuloseo 6 days ago | 282 comments
Postel's Law and the Three Ring Circus (alexgaynor.net)
Postel’s Law famously states that “implementations should follow a general principle of robustness: be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others.”
Computer Science, Networking, Principles, Design
58 points by zdw 6 days ago | 32 comments
What Killed Innovation? (shirleywu.studio)
I entered the data visualization field in 2012, when D3.js had just come out and interactive graphics were going through a digital Renaissance.  By the time I was fully steeped in the field in 2016, it felt like a new, experimental project was coming out every week—each one pushing the boundaries of how we think about, visualize, and communicate data.
Data Visualization, Design, Trends, History
127 points by speckx 8 days ago | 112 comments
The game designer playing through his own psyche (newyorker.com)
A little more than a decade ago, the video-game designer Davey Wreden experienced a crippling success.
Video Games, Psychology, Design, Success
141 points by FinnLobsien 9 days ago | 99 comments
The HTML Review (thehtml.review)
The meaning of MAYA is the supernatural power wielded by gods and demons to produce illusions. Broadly: illusion.
Web Development, Semantics, Technology, Design, Philosophy
37 points by bookofjoe 10 days ago | 7 comments
Colored Bar Paper Colors (mw.rat.bz)
Recently I created an article titled Retro Monochrome and High Contrast Color Display Palettes. That article deals with colors that are used when having bright text on dark backgrounds. In this article I feature colors to be used as light background colors with dark (usually black) foreground text on top.
Design, Color Palettes, Web Design
27 points by m_walden 10 days ago | 8 comments
Matching drop shadows across CSS, Android, iOS, Figma, and Sketch (bjango.com)
If you’ve ever tried to implement consistent shadows across multiple platforms and design tools, you may have noticed that they don’t look the same. Thankfully, it is possible to get them all to match.
Design, CSS, iOS, Android, Figma, Sketch
12 points by marcedwards 11 days ago | 0 comments
Show HN: Font Pair – I was wasting hours choosing fonts, so I built this (github.com/CodeWithNeer)
Picking fonts should be illegal with how hard it is. So I made a tool that gives you clean, cool, random font combos with one click. No guessing. Just vibes.
Tools, Design, Web Development, Fonts
5 points by CodeWithNeer 11 days ago | 6 comments
Simple Phone Bending (leancrew.com)
Here’s a simple problem assigned to me by John Siracusa. He was the guest host on this week’s episode of Upgrade, and early in the show he and Jason Snell were discussing the “thin iPhone” that’s rumored to be coming out this fall. Apparently, there will be only one size of this phone, and there’s speculation that there won’t be a “Plus” or “Max” size because of concerns about another Bendgate.
Hardware, Apple, Design, Rumors, Phones
3 points by tosh 11 days ago | 1 comments
A New Form Factor for Drones: Vertical and Coaxial (core77.com)
Since its invention, the form factor of the airplane has been bird-based; both airplanes and birds remain aloft by having appreciable wingspans. And in broad strokes, the overall form of the airplane hasn't changed much in the past 100 years.
Drones, Aerospace Engineering, Design, Innovation
39 points by surprisetalk 12 days ago | 28 comments
Show HN: Nicely designed editor for mockups and screenshots (postspark.app)
✨ Create stunning visuals for social media in minutes
Design, Social Media, Tools
10 points by world1dan 13 days ago | 3 comments
Pocket Keyboard Design Contest (2024) (chrischrislolo.github.io)
The results are in! Thank you to everyone who has participated in the contest! I am floored by all of the creativity and thought put into the entries!! I'd like to list out the entries, what I like about each one, and finally outline the winners. Thank you to PCBWay for sponsoring the prizes and making this contest possible!
Design, Contests, Hardware, Community
60 points by ashenke 13 days ago | 11 comments
Minding the gaps: A new way to draw separators in CSS (windows.com)
Drawing separator lines between various sections of a webpage is a common design technique, which can help to structure the content and make it more readable, as well as more aesthetically pleasing.
CSS, Web Development, Design
286 points by SigmundurM 13 days ago | 97 comments
C4 Model (c4model.com)
Software, Design, Architecture, Diagrams
3 points by Tomte 14 days ago | 0 comments
EU confirms Apple can make a portless iPhone without USB-C (9to5mac.com)
The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be the slimmest iPhone Apple has ever made, and a report over the weekend suggested that the company even considered making it the first portless phone.
Apple, iPhones, Mobile Technology, EU Regulations, Design
28 points by ksec 14 days ago | 50 comments
Designing Electronics That Work (hscott.net)
Over the last 5 years, I’ve been putting together a 300+ page book with basically everything I learned the hard way over the last 10 years founding and working at several hardware startups.
Electronics, Hardware, Startups, Design
286 points by teleforce 15 days ago | 115 comments
Hexagons and Beyond: Flexible, Responsive Grid Patterns, Sans Media Queries (20 (css-tricks.com)
A little while back, Chris shared this nice hexagonal grid. And true to its name, it’s using —wait for it — CSS Grid to form that layout. It’s a neat trick! Combining grid columns, grid gaps, and creative clipping churns out the final result.
CSS Grid, Web Development, Design, Responsive Design
64 points by todsacerdoti 15 days ago | 11 comments
The High Heel Problem (simonschreibt.de)
This article looks at how different types of shoes can affect game development and examines how games deal with this in practice.
Game Development, Footwear, Design
332 points by lehi 15 days ago | 41 comments
Gimp 3.0 Release Notes (gimp.org)
After seven years of active development, we are proud to announce the next major release of GIMP – GIMP 3.0! While the original focus was on updating to a newer GUI library, this release is packed with many new features, enhancements, and usability improvements.
Software, New Releases, Open Source, Image Editing, Design
7 points by Vinnl 16 days ago | 2 comments
Gene Winfield, One of History's Greatest Hot-Rodders, Dies at 97 (thedrive.com)
Not many people get the chance to live 97 years, but Gene Winfield did. The creator of hot rod and Kustom icons born in 1927, passed away Tuesday after spending time in a professional care facility. He leaves behind cars and innovations, of course, though more valuable than that are the impressions he left on the generations of builders who followed him.
Automotive, History, Obituaries, Design
19 points by PaulHoule 16 days ago | 3 comments
Our interfaces have lost their senses (wattenberger.com)
Our interfaces have lost their senses
User Experience, Design, Technology
370 points by me_smith 17 days ago | 174 comments
Gnome betrayed the entire FOSS movement by using Adobe software (nixsanctuary.com)
When you open the "Introducing GNOME 47" page on GNOME official website (Wayback Machine) you will see this image at the top:
Open Source, GNOME, Design, Adobe
23 points by kabarum 17 days ago | 10 comments