Ask HN: What are good high information density UIs (screenshots, apps, sites)

1 month ago 4

Bloomberg is the obvious example.

It is an extremely well-designed and effective high-information density UI designed to be very efficient to use but requiring some skills to get the most out of it.

I am developing this project, which replaces product lists with what I call "product charts":

https://www.productchart.com

The idea is to sort products not by one parameter (like price or release date) but by two - which creates an x/y chart. The product info is displayed dynamically - by default only the image is show. On hover, more info is displayed in a tooltip. And when you click "details", all data is shown.

This way, 300 products easily fit on the screen.

You need to watch it on a monitor to see the chart interface. On mobile, I just display a normal list.

Project management software that includes customizable dashboards, gantt charts or kanban. Spreadsheet apps are the definition of high information density UIs that you manage through zooming.

Audio DAW or video production apps jam tiny buttons and indicators all over the place. A mixing console is the epitome of this. Shit, the cockpit of a plane. AutoCAD. Stock trading apps. These aren’t great in the web UI sense - the pattern that emerges is that dense UIs are for experts or people who dedicate a lot of time to learning the UI and appreciate the long-term efficiency that short term inefficient brings.

I always thought video games were a good thing to look at here. They're NOT always an appropriate reference (being an entertainment medium), but you often have to get a pile of info up on the screen, legible, quickly. The Game UI Database is pretty cool, with 1300-ish games: https://www.gameuidatabase.com

> Search engines are full to the brim with vague articles repeating each other's talking points

You just described the modern search experience on any topic.

As much as I hate it, i'd suggest asking a few "AI"s and trying Kagi.

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