Hacker News User Interface Example?
My opinion: The user interface (UI)
example of Hacker News (HN) is in strong
contrast to the UI in many millions of Web
sites, sites where some common UI design
ideas are causing many users to become
angry and leave.

(1) Full Screen

E.g., via email a site sends me a code of
a few digits and wants me to type the
digits into their Web page, full screen,
but I need at least two windows open, one
for their site and one for an email
program.

For a site that puts up a full screen
window, my common reaction is to get angry
and leave the site -- GALS.

(2) Cursor Tracking

Some sites track my mouse cursor and in
response make major changes in the window
as I'm trying to read it.

Again commonly my reaction is to get angry
and leave the site -- GALS

(3) Overlays

Sites frequently cover up much of their
main content with some smaller windows.

GALS.

(4) Invisible Boxes

Text boxes, single line and multi-line,
are basic UI tools, but some sites make
the boxes invisible until a user moves
their mouse cursor guessing and clicking.

GALS.

(5) Elegant Text

Text that is so small/light it is
difficult to read is frustrating and not
elegant.

GALS.

(6) Long Text Lines

A line of text with more than 50
characters, each large enough to read, can
easily have length greater than the width
of the window, especially if the window is
not full screen.

GALS.

So, usually flow the text so that the
lines fit the window width.

(7) Missing Scroll Bars

Horizontal and vertical scroll bars are
often useful or nearly necessary and when
missing -- GALS.

(8) Swollen Head Disease

Windows commonly have some header
material -- logos, links, text -- at the
top of the window, but also commonly
vertical space is in short supply with the
desired, unique content reduced to 10% of
the window height.

GALS.

(9) Dynamic Header Disease

So, I'm reading some content, scroll up to
read some the content again, and, BAM,
suddenly some header material appears and
covers up just what I'm trying to read.

GALS.

More generally, once a Web site has sent a
window to a user, it is the user's turn to
read the window and respond; so, minimize
or eliminate changes in the window that
was sent before the user responds.

(10) Hyperactive Content

Some sites start with text, images, video,
whatever, sometimes in little sub-windows,
rapidly changing, flashing, too fast to
review. Maybe the flashing is supposed to
get the user excited and enthralled with
the site.

GALS.

(11) Changing Key Functions

Some sites change the functions of the
keys Page Up, Page Down, etc.

Fancy programming? Yes. Good UI? Nope.

GALS.

(12) Billions Already Know

Important UI controls include check
boxes, radio buttons, push buttons, single
line text boxes, multi-line text boxes,
links and now are understood by billions
of people.

When these controls are changed, the
designer understands the new controls and
billions of people don't.

GALS.

(13) Icons

Using the Roman alphabet. can type words,
display them on a screen, print them,
pronounce them, etc., but with icons
can't.

With too many icons, GALS.

(14) Favors

Favors are usually just unwelcome
interruptions in the work I'm trying to
do.

GALS.

(15) Top of Z-Order

Each window needs an area in, say, the
upper left (UL) corner of the window where
a click will bring the window to the top
of the Z-order.

Without such an area, GALS.

(16) Acronyms

We expect that the users of a Web page
know less than the creator of the page.
So, users may not know all the acronyms
the creator knows.

With too many acronyms, GALS.

There are more such issues -- likely it's
all common sense.