The hottest UI Design Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

#9 - Creating an intuitive in-game menu

A Good Interface • 59 implied HN points • 16 Nov 23
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. Understanding player expectations is crucial for designing intuitive in-game menus. Players have certain expectations for content and structure, deviating from which can lead to frustration.
  2. Menu navigation and flow are essential in creating a user-friendly experience. Design clear paths, group similar items, and prioritize important actions for quick and easy navigation.
  3. Consistency in iconography, terminology, and design elements, as well as testing with real players, feedback, and iteration, are key to crafting a well-crafted in-game menu that enhances the player experience.

AR and the (Possible) Return of Skeuomorphism

Thoughts • 19 implied HN points • 11 Feb 24
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. Skeuomorphism was a popular UI design concept that mimicked physical objects, making interfaces user-friendly for those new to technology.
  2. Affordances in digital interfaces, as seen in skeuomorphism, help users interact intuitively, like how door handles suggest pushing or rotating.
  3. With AR/XR devices gaining popularity, there's potential for a comeback of skeuomorphism in a more functional form, bridging virtual and physical worlds.
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#6 - What's the right size?

A Good Interface • 39 implied HN points • 06 Oct 23
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. Size your buttons correctly: Follow guidelines like 10mm x 10mm for mobile games and 44px / 48px for non-touch screens for optimal user interaction.
  2. Text matters too: Ensure text size is at least 16px for readability and paragraphs have 50-75 characters per line. Line spacing should be at least 1.5 times the font size.
  3. Provide user options: Let players customize their experience, like font size, to cater to diverse preferences and enhance accessibility.

#5 - Best practices for modals in video games

A Good Interface • 19 implied HN points • 20 Sep 23
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. Modal windows are design elements in video games used to highlight important information while keeping the current context for the player.
  2. Modal windows should be displayed sparingly and for specific reasons like conveying essential information, blocking progress until required input, and collecting new settings.
  3. Best practices for modal windows in video games include initiating them through user actions, providing an emergency exit, having a clear title, and including a call to action with appropriate sizing.

#4 - Build a powerful pagination

A Good Interface • 19 implied HN points • 06 Sep 23
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. Learn how to create effective pagination between inventory and leaderboard.
  2. Understand the benefits of pagination like facilitating navigation and saving data in a game.
  3. Improve pagination with tips like correct placement, next/prev buttons, visible states/actions, and offer more control with filters and sorts.

Introducing The Vault – AI Experiments by Designers ✨

A Generalist newsletter • 5 implied HN points • 02 Jul 25
🪑 Design UI Design
  1. The Vault is a space for designers to showcase their AI-powered tools and creations. It's like a community for sharing innovative apps built with design and AI.
  2. This initiative encourages designers to combine their skills with AI to create functional tools, not just beautiful designs. It's about doing both as the next step in design.
  3. Designers are invited to get involved by sharing their AI projects. The goal is to build a community that fosters creativity and collaboration in the design world.

Burkhard on Qt Embedded Systems: No. 2

burkhardstubert • 19 implied HN points • 31 Jan 20
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. Using address sanitizers can help find bugs in your code more easily. They show where problems are happening, making debugging faster.
  2. The SAE J1939 standard helps different devices communicate by defining the meaning of messages in vehicle systems. This is important for consistent data across various manufacturers.
  3. Creating portable code separates it from hardware specifics, making it easier to test and run on different systems. This is a key focus for using Qt effectively.

The Relationship between No-Code and iPaaS

The API Changelog • 4 implied HN points • 23 Jan 24
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. No-code allows users with little or no coding experience to build software solutions, especially integrations between applications.
  2. Visual UIs in iPaaS solutions simplify the process of creating integrations without code, but may lack troubleshooting capabilities for non-technical users.
  3. An emerging trend involves intent-based UIs powered by AI, enabling users to control APIs and connect applications using voice commands.

Chat Limitations, Rise of LLM’s, Generative UIs

Microfrontends, Architecture and Trade-offs • 0 implied HN points • 14 Apr 23
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. Consider the nature of the task to determine the most effective interaction mode, as chat may not always be optimal.
  2. The improvement of Large Language Models (LLMs) could lead to a world where UIs are generated on demand based on user intent.
  3. Generative UIs could self-assemble based on user requests and adapt to tasks, offering a dynamic and efficient user experience.

How we built the most creative hack of Arcesium Hackathon 2018

Shubhi’s Substack • 0 implied HN points • 17 Mar 19
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. Built a domain-specific language (AXL) to help domain experts write logic, reducing codebase size by 80% and time taken to write code from several days to 2-3 hours.
  2. Focused on creating a DSL with simple, English-like syntax, built-in domain knowledge, and extensibility to allow importing libraries and reusing components.
  3. Implemented the language using Python, with modules for Lexer, Parser, and Interpreter, and developed a UI called 'The AXL Playground' for easier usage by non-technical users.

Overlapping ItemDecorator

Better Engineers • 0 implied HN points • 17 Mar 20
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. You can create an overlapping effect in a RecyclerView by using a custom ItemDecoration.
  2. The code provided sets offsets for the RecyclerView items to allow one item to slightly overlap another.
  3. This technique can enhance the visual presentation of your UI, making it look more dynamic.

3 styling systems in 1 React app

Andrew's Substack • 0 implied HN points • 14 Oct 24
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. Use Tailwind for most styles in your React app since it helps maintain consistency and keeps stylesheets small.
  2. CSS modules are helpful for specific cases like custom animations or grid areas when Tailwind isn't enough.
  3. For very dynamic styles that depend on JavaScript, using inline styles in React is the way to go, but these situations should be rare.

Sort Product Update – January 2025

Database Engineering by Sort • 0 implied HN points • 06 Jan 25
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. The new Data Explorer is designed to be user-friendly and looks similar to a spreadsheet, making it easier to manage data. You can filter rows and propose changes quickly with just a few clicks.
  2. A feature called 'Describe Changes' allows users to detail updates to data in simple language, like changing a customer’s address. The improvements also make it easier to view these described changes.
  3. The founders encourage user feedback and suggestions for future updates, highlighting their commitment to improving the platform.

Alternatives to Arduino IDE Serial plotter

Barn Lab • 0 implied HN points • 17 Mar 23
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. Serial graphers are tools for data visualization and analysis using data from a serial port.
  2. Alternatives to Arduino IDE Serial plotter include Serial Port Plotter, Processing Grapher, and SerialTest, offering different features and capabilities.
  3. SerialTest stands out for its versatility, allowing sending and receiving data over various protocols, customizable UI, and dark theme.

HTML — The Facade of Complexity

Baby CTO • 0 implied HN points • 19 Aug 23
🕹 Technology UI Design
  1. HTML is more than just a programming language - it forms part of a trio with CSS and JS.
  2. HTML is a vital part of web development, allowing the browser to generate human-readable content.
  3. The web platform is a complex machine where HTML, CSS, and JS work together to create user interfaces on a level of diversity similar to regular computers.