Design & creativity

Links about design & creativity that Hacker News readers keep rediscovering.

Hall of Fame: 54
Candidates: 93
Types: 7
Median span: 6.2 yrs

Browse Design & creativity by type

Every link below is about design & creativity and belongs to the selected type.

7 types

Essays & writing 40 Design & creativity links 18 Hall · 22 Candidates Tools, games & demos 25 Design & creativity links 8 Hall · 17 Candidates Reference 23 Design & creativity links 7 Hall · 16 Candidates Books & learning 19 Design & creativity links 7 Hall · 12 Candidates Software & code 19 Design & creativity links 8 Hall · 11 Candidates Sites & organizations 15 Design & creativity links 4 Hall · 11 Candidates Audio, video & images 6 Design & creativity links 2 Hall · 4 Candidates

Strongest Hall records

54 items

Pointer Pointer (2012)

pointerpointer.com Tools, games & demos 18 submissions · 18 people · 13.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2014-11 Resurfaced 2025-10-09

455max pts

Laws of UX

lawsofux.com Reference 17 submissions · 17 people · 8.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-08 Resurfaced 2026-04-29

1037max pts

Windows93 SP2

www.windows93.net Tools, games & demos 16 submissions · 16 people · 11.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-06 Resurfaced 2021-07-28

790max pts

A Single Div

a.singlediv.com Reference 16 submissions · 16 people · 9.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-05 Resurfaced 2024-05-02

649max pts

Silk

weavesilk.com Tools, games & demos 12 submissions · 12 people · 13.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2015-05 Resurfaced 2024-12-19

687max pts

Practical Typography

practicaltypography.com Books & learning 24 submissions · 24 people · 12.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2018-11 Resurfaced 2021-04-04

472max pts

Get started making music

learningmusic.ableton.com Books & learning 9 submissions · 9 people · 6.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-09 Resurfaced 2023-05-14

2106max pts

Tufte CSS

edwardtufte.github.io Software & code 12 submissions · 12 people · 9.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-07 Resurfaced 2025-09-03

377max pts

Dark Patterns - User Interfaces Designed to Trick People

darkpatterns.org Reference 15 submissions · 15 people · 10.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2016-12 Resurfaced 2019-09-02

639max pts

An app can be a home-cooked meal (2020)

www.robinsloan.com Essays & writing 16 submissions · 15 people · 5.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-09 Resurfaced 2024-01-05

1051max pts

Never Use Black (2012)

ianstormtaylor.com Essays & writing 10 submissions · 6 people · 9.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-08 Resurfaced 2021-12-03

761max pts

Sonic Pi is a code-based music creation and performance tool

sonic-pi.net Software & code 8 submissions · 7 people · 11.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-05 Resurfaced 2022-11-08

342max pts

Web Design Museum

www.webdesignmuseum.org Reference 13 submissions · 13 people · 7.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-02 Resurfaced 2024-08-29

372max pts

A Brief Rant on the Future of Interaction Design

worrydream.com Essays & writing 11 submissions · 11 people · 10.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-05 Resurfaced 2022-05-25

830max pts

Monodraw

monodraw.helftone.com Sites & organizations 7 submissions · 7 people · 7.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-03 Resurfaced 2025-08-27

996max pts

Always Bet on Text (2014)

graydon2.dreamwidth.org Essays & writing 10 submissions · 10 people · 11.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-02 Resurfaced 2023-01-07

570max pts

p5.js

p5js.org Software & code 8 submissions · 8 people · 10.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-10 Resurfaced 2024-08-03

468max pts

Webdesigners: please make text readable

contrastrebellion.com Essays & writing 8 submissions · 8 people · 11.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2017-06 Resurfaced 2023-05-07

467max pts

Why Japanese web design is so different (2013)

randomwire.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 8.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-11 Resurfaced 2022-03-02

367max pts

Inter UI, a typeface designed for user interfaces

rsms.me Sites & organizations 11 submissions · 11 people · 7.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-07 Resurfaced 2021-07-30

664max pts

User Inyerface – A worst-practice UI experiment

userinyerface.com Tools, games & demos 6 submissions · 6 people · 6.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-12 Resurfaced 2023-05-18

944max pts

Should I use a carousel?

shouldiuseacarousel.com Essays & writing 9 submissions · 9 people · 11.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-07 Resurfaced 2025-06-08

483max pts

Write like you talk

paulgraham.com Essays & writing 10 submissions · 10 people · 7.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-10 Resurfaced 2022-10-23

647max pts

The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think

www.nngroup.com Essays & writing 8 submissions · 8 people · 6.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-09 Resurfaced 2023-07-06

512max pts

FiraCode: Free monospaced font with programming ligatures

github.com Software & code 11 submissions · 11 people · 10.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-07 Resurfaced 2023-07-19

247max pts

Technical Writing Courses

developers.google.com Books & learning 13 submissions · 13 people · 5.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-08 Resurfaced 2026-01-29

571max pts

The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

uxdesign.cc Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 8.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-03 Resurfaced 2026-03-18

763max pts

“It turns out”

jsomers.net Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 16.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-03 Resurfaced 2026-03-04

328max pts

Guidelines for Brutalist Web Design

brutalist-web.design Reference 7 submissions · 6 people · 7.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-05 Resurfaced 2023-05-02

730max pts

The Simpsons in CSS

pattle.github.io Audio, video & images 6 submissions · 5 people · 11.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-02 Resurfaced 2020-02-27

554max pts

Ligatures in programming fonts: hell no

practicaltypography.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 4 people · 6.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-02 Resurfaced 2023-05-13

251max pts

Bruno Simon – 3D Portfolio

bruno-simon.com Tools, games & demos 11 submissions · 11 people · 6.1 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-12 Resurfaced 2025-12-09

777max pts

The Average Font

iotic.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 14.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2025-11 Resurfaced 2025-11-08

481max pts

Don Norman on how design fails older consumers

www.fastcompany.com Essays & writing 9 submissions · 9 people · 4.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-10 Resurfaced 2023-10-16

234max pts

Building Your Color Palette

refactoringui.com Books & learning 6 submissions · 6 people · 5.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-12 Resurfaced 2020-11-22

1019max pts

Windows 10 wallpaper was physically built and photographed (2015)

gmunk.com Audio, video & images 7 submissions · 6 people · 4.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-05 Resurfaced 2024-05-22

773max pts

CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font

www.codingfont.com Tools, games & demos 7 submissions · 6 people · 4.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-03 Resurfaced 2026-03-30

499max pts

On Generative Algorithms

inconvergent.net Books & learning 9 submissions · 8 people · 6.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2018-09 Resurfaced 2021-12-13

479max pts

Pencil: open-source GUI prototyping tool

pencil.evolus.vn Software & code 6 submissions · 6 people · 10.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-05 Resurfaced 2023-03-01

320max pts

MagicaVoxel – A free voxel art editor and interactive path tracing renderer

ephtracy.github.io Software & code 5 submissions · 5 people · 7.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-10 Resurfaced 2023-10-28

334max pts

Music theory for nerds

eev.ee Books & learning 5 submissions · 5 people · 7.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-09 Resurfaced 2022-02-16

766max pts

Black Perl

en.wikipedia.org Reference 6 submissions · 6 people · 11.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-07 Resurfaced 2013-09-12

330max pts

Six Principles for Making New Things (2008)

paulgraham.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 11.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2019-01 Resurfaced 2018-10-12

173max pts

Paper Models of Vintage Computers

rockybergen.com Reference 9 submissions · 8 people · 3.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-02 Resurfaced 2023-02-24

391max pts

JetBrains Mono: A free and open-source typeface for developers

www.jetbrains.com Sites & organizations 7 submissions · 7 people · 3.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-07 Resurfaced 2023-07-19

506max pts

Google Web Designer

www.google.com Software & code 6 submissions · 6 people · 3.2 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2016-12 Resurfaced 2016-12-16

1126max pts

Atkinson Hyperlegible Font

brailleinstitute.org Software & code 5 submissions · 5 people · 4.7 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-03 Resurfaced 2024-09-15

799max pts

Please, enough with the dead butterflies (2017)

www.emilydamstra.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 4.5 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-01 Resurfaced 2024-03-03

614max pts

Please don’t theme our apps

stopthemingmy.app Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 4.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-09 Resurfaced 2023-10-05

169max pts

Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator (2018)

azgaar.github.io Tools, games & demos 6 submissions · 6 people · 4.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2021-11 Resurfaced 2021-11-12

470max pts

Learning Synths

learningsynths.ableton.com Books & learning 6 submissions · 6 people · 4.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-01 Resurfaced 2022-05-05

969max pts

Why I Two-Space

stevelosh.com Essays & writing 5 submissions · 4 people · 10.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-10 Resurfaced 2022-10-23

77max pts

Sketch.systems

sketch.systems Tools, games & demos 6 submissions · 6 people · 5.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2023-06 Resurfaced 2023-06-18

333max pts

National Park Typeface

nationalparktypeface.com Sites & organizations 5 submissions · 5 people · 5.6 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2024-09 Resurfaced 2021-12-16

623max pts

Recently resurfaced in design & creativity

latest 20+ point return

Laws of UX

lawsofux.com Reference 17 submissions · 17 people · 8.3 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2020-08 Resurfaced 2026-04-29

1037max pts

CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font

www.codingfont.com Tools, games & demos 7 submissions · 6 people · 4.4 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-03 Resurfaced 2026-03-30

499max pts

The worst volume control UI in the world (2017)

uxdesign.cc Essays & writing 7 submissions · 7 people · 8.8 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-03 Resurfaced 2026-03-18

763max pts

“It turns out”

jsomers.net Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 16.0 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2026-03 Resurfaced 2026-03-04

328max pts

Technical Writing Courses

developers.google.com Books & learning 13 submissions · 13 people · 5.9 years

Hall of Fame Class of 2022-08 Resurfaced 2026-01-29

571max pts

Candidates

Browse 93 candidates

Dwitter – A social network for short JavaScript demos

www.dwitter.net Sites & organizations 13 submissions · 13 people · 8.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2018-10-12

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

361max pts

KernType – A Kerning Game

type.method.ac Tools, games & demos 17 submissions · 15 people · 14.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-07-27

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

216max pts

This page is a truly naked, brutalist HTML quine

secretgeek.github.io Tools, games & demos 4 submissions · 4 people · 5.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-09-25

Needs:5 submissions

952max pts

The Nature of Code (Book)

natureofcode.com Books & learning 13 submissions · 12 people · 13.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-04-25

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

210max pts

After Dark Screensavers in CSS

www.bryanbraun.com Tools, games & demos 6 submissions · 6 people · 7.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-03-05

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

555max pts

Carbon: Create and share images of source code

carbon.now.sh Tools, games & demos 7 submissions · 7 people · 6.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-10-15

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

247max pts

FE-Schrift: forgery-impeding typeface

en.wikipedia.org Reference 9 submissions · 9 people · 8.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2019-07-22

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

227max pts

98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs

jdan.github.io Software & code 4 submissions · 4 people · 4.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-11-06

Needs:5 submissions

838max pts

Solarized - Color scheme for vim, mutt, terminal emulators

ethanschoonover.com Software & code 4 submissions · 4 people · 14.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-10-31

Needs:5 submissions

496max pts

PhotoPea: Advanced Image Editor

www.photopea.com Tools, games & demos 12 submissions · 12 people · 7.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2026-02-20

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

161max pts

Designing Windows 95’s User Interface

socket3.wordpress.com Essays & writing 6 submissions · 6 people · 4.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-07-28

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

568max pts

USWDS: The United States Web Design System

designsystem.digital.gov Reference 7 submissions · 7 people · 6.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-09-10

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

482max pts

Typography of “Alien” (2014)

typesetinthefuture.com Essays & writing 8 submissions · 2 people · 9.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-08-12

Needs:3 submitters

502max pts

Google Will Eat Itself (2005)

www.gwei.org Tools, games & demos 5 submissions · 5 people · 13.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-06-12

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

210max pts

If your product is Great, it doesn't need to be Good.

paulbuchheit.blogspot.com Essays & writing 9 submissions · 8 people · 14.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-05-22

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

265max pts

Teach Yourself Demoscene in 14 Days

github.com Books & learning 7 submissions · 6 people · 6.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-05-23

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

427max pts

What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

www.gianlucagimini.it Audio, video & images 4 submissions · 4 people · 4.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-06-11

Needs:5 submissions

566max pts

Turtletoy

turtletoy.net Tools, games & demos 4 submissions · 4 people · 7.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-12-03

Needs:5 submissions

382max pts

Teach, Don't Tell

stevelosh.com Books & learning 6 submissions · 5 people · 11.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2025-03-16

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

212max pts

Comic Mono

dtinth.github.io Software & code 3 submissions · 3 people · 3.7 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-09-18

Needs:5 submissions

747max pts

The $300 Million Button

www.uie.com Essays & writing 10 submissions · 10 people · 6.6 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2011-07-27 archived copy

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

142max pts

Learning from Terminals to Design the Future of User Interfaces

brandur.org Essays & writing 5 submissions · 5 people · 7.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2018-08-03

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

785max pts

Which Emoji Scissors Close?

wh0.github.io Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 6.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-10-27

Needs:5 submissions

1545max pts

Penpot: Open-source design and prototyping platform

penpot.app Software & code 5 submissions · 5 people · 3.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-05-01

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

1145max pts

The Humble Brilliance of Italy's Moka Coffee Pot (2018)

www.atlasobscura.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 3 people · 5.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-01-23

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

294max pts

Markdown.css – make HTML look like plain-text

mrcoles.com Tools, games & demos 4 submissions · 4 people · 8.1 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2016-12-28

Needs:5 submissions

420max pts

Touch Pianist

touchpianist.com Tools, games & demos 3 submissions · 3 people · 8.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-09-08

Needs:5 submissions

837max pts

Inside Rolex's Manufacturing Facilities (2015)

www.hodinkee.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 6.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-01-30

Needs:5 submissions

149max pts

People Staring at Computers

kylemcdonald.net Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 3.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-10-21

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart5 submissions

743max pts

Victor Mono Typeface

rubjo.github.io Sites & organizations 4 submissions · 4 people · 4.4 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-11-19

Needs:5 submissions3 active years

208max pts

GIMP Windows Installers move from Sourceforge to ftp.gimp.org

www.gimp.org Software & code 8 submissions · 8 people · 6.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2015-08-06

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

169max pts

The Uncomfortable – a collection of deliberately inconvenient objects

www.theuncomfortable.com Reference 6 submissions · 6 people · 8.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-01-25

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

163max pts

Susan Kare designed the suite of icons that made the Macintosh revolutionary

www.newyorker.com Essays & writing 4 submissions · 4 people · 7.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-06-05

Needs:5 submissions

423max pts

IBM Plex – A new typeface

www.ibm.com Sites & organizations 4 submissions · 4 people · 7.0 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2022-02-11

Needs:5 submissions

240max pts

Windows 98 Icons are Great (2015)

alexmeub.com Essays & writing 3 submissions · 3 people · 5.2 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2023-01-15

Needs:5 submissions

553max pts

GitHub Audio

github.audio Tools, games & demos 6 submissions · 6 people · 3.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2020-07-04

Needs:3 active years

388max pts

Random Darknet Shopper

wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.bitnik.org Sites & organizations 6 submissions · 6 people · 7.8 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2018-04-18

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

157max pts

Amiga Graphics

amiga.lychesis.net Reference 5 submissions · 3 people · 10.3 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2026-04-18

Needs:2 breakout events 720+ days apart

265max pts

Design Principles

principles.design Reference 4 submissions · 4 people · 5.9 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2021-09-11

Needs:5 submissions

361max pts

1:60 scale Boeing 777 made from manila folders

www.lucaiaconistewart.com Sites & organizations 3 submissions · 3 people · 4.5 years

Candidate Resurfaced 2024-12-27

Needs:5 submissions

885max pts