I cut the bite of the Apple logo out of my iPhone | Hacker News Reader

I cut the bite of the Apple logo out of my iPhone

simonfreund.com

65 pointskuuunst88 comments

The UX for this page is a lesson. There's no affordance, no hints, that you should be moving sideways instead of the standard 'down' that websites typically use. The '1/5' made me think there might be more, but I guessed I was misunderstanding somehow.

It was only after I came to the comments and saw people talking about water jets that I realized there was definitely more content than a single picture. I had to go back and search the page for a clue as to where to find the additional content. The links I could see, 'previous' and 'work' took me elsewhere entirely.

Lesson: if you aren't following standard patterns, give the users strong hints as to what they are supposed to do.

Damn, you're right. I had to go back to the page after I looked at that image for a while thinking "so what?"

I still think the same, but at least I now know I can see more images of it

Edit: Don't forget the big empty space at the bottom, the 1/5 indicator (that I now realise are pages) disappearing when you scroll, and text that highlights in the same colour as the background

Same. And given the... simplicity of this "art", I figured this first image was all we get. It's no banana on the wall.

I've gotta disagree, the first thing I did (before reading the comments here) was click on the 1/5. The UI made perfect sense to me. Horses for courses, I guess.

Hehe it didn’t occur to me to click the 1/5. Only the “1” is linked, it’s a pretty small target on my iPad, and it moves backward instead of forward… a little surprising. The 1/5 was enough clue to make me try scrolling sideways, after trying vertical, so it took a sec.

Is the “x/y” think usually clickable on Instagram or whatever? I was completely unaware of this.

Swiping left and right is supposed to work on this page but barely does. I find I had to swipe multiple times to get it to change images.

I agree with the criticisms. This page design is pretty terrible.

Two transparent arrows (one left, one right) would've solved it. The numbers don't look aesthetically well, compared to the images and mechanic of the scrolling. Stick with your theme.

It says 1/5. Just out of curiosity, what did that mean to you? Anyone who has used Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, etc. (i.e. most people) should understand this UI.

I knew there might be more content, but had no idea how to get there. It never occurred to me that I should move sideways. There was no hint.

And it's a shame because it's an otherwise really nice website.

Those uis also have little clickable arrows to the left and right of the image, at least on reddit. That is the kind of hint op wants.

I would at least have expected that I can swipe left and right to move between images, but on desktop Chrome (Mac), doing the standard "two finger swipe" just goes back and forth in the browser history.

You have to "push down" on the touchpad with a single finger to drag the images. It's utterly confusing. Hardwiring a webpage to "mobile phone expectations" is just as bad as expecting that there's a keyboard and mouse attached.

(I also tried the left/right arrow keys, but that didn't work either. What does work is clicking on the 1/5 numbers, but there's no indication that those are clickable links)

Two clickable arrows on the left and right edge would do wonder, or just go with vanilla HTML and don't create such a weird contraption :)

Arrow keys also work, but you need to focus the image first...

> Hardwiring a webpage to "mobile phone expectations" is just as bad as expecting that there's a keyboard and mouse attached.

Swiping didn't even work on mobile for me, I had to tap on the numbers and it moved me either forwards or backwards for some reason. It's broken.

Looked like a date to me.

Even noticing that, it's still not completely clear how to interact with the page. My right/left arrow keys don't work unless I first click the image

Well, for one; on mobile - they're incredibly small to try to press, furthermore, the scrolling to move between the images is completely broken on both my iPhones and my Mac.

As I said in another comment, this is one of the most poorly-designed sites I've ever seen on HN. I thought it was satire, as in like an example of what not to do in web design, I'm honestly shocked it's supposed to be taken seriously.

> It says 1/5. Just out of curiosity, what did that mean to you?

A rating by nouve-riche hipsters? tbh I didn't even clock it, as left corner is usually general menu / logo..

Location is context; Usually a progress counter like that for a gallery is presented either top centre or bottom centre, with additional widgets to indicate manual scrolability.

usually, pagination like 1/5 are accompanied with arrows, text like next/previous/first/last and clicking on the '5' usually takes you to the page 5, not the next one

Personally I use these apps, but I didn't expect that kind of navigation on desktop, so it took me a few seconds to realize.

To me it was cursor: pointer; that made me interact with the image.

I literally had no idea there was more content until I read your comment. Scrolled a bit up and down, thought that was it and left.

> The '1/5' made me think there might be more, but I guessed I was misunderstanding somehow.

Same here, I eventually realised I could click on the "5" to advance pages. I didn't even discover the scrolling/dragging behaviour until reading the comments.

I just spent 10 minutes exploring his site because of the odd UX. Good or bad, it was rather refreshing.

In terms of not following patterns, the selected text turning transparent is another confusing choice

works fine with javascript disabled

worse still is using this on ios at least is a nightmare as swiping/scrolling sideways didn’t work so you have to click the numbers

Took me 30 seconds to figure out how to move to the next screen. Web designers, please do not assume that all your visitors are using a mobile phone.

BTW what is the meaning of this activity? Just some fun I guess?

I was using a mobile phone and it was still difficult to swipe between pictures as well. Though maybe my iphone simply didn’t want to see the needless carnage.

It keeps moving the whole UI around rather than scrolling

Sometimes native iOS does this too. Drives me nuts

Didn't know that, it's kinda weird.

Agree, on Safari on iPhone the scroll is completely inconsistent and broken.

There's a page where the author shows his shaved pubes, so I assume it's "art".

... I completely failed, assumed it was one image until I read your comment.

Disagree, I figured out immediately that I have to click on the 5 to switch the page, and I'm viewing this on desktop. I interpreted the design as minimalist - all action are clearly in blue and are placed in each corner. I guess that tells much about user adaptability - people who are conservative and people who think outside the box

I'm always amazed at the capability of water jets, this is a very clean cut and based on the video it looks like the "loose" section afterwards didn't move at all.

That model of iPhone was created prior to the water-resistant versions so you really should avoid getting it wet as shown in the video.

The trick is to cut off the part of the phone that contains the liquid indicator, that way they can’t refuse service because of water damage.

You should probably also avoid cutting a hole in an iPhone. :P

And do not eat iPod Shuffle[0]!

https://lawhaha.com/warning-do-not-eat-your-ipod-shuffle/

Site (really) doesn't work on widescreen monitors. Can't zoom it "fix" it either :(

I could not figure out how to move through the slideshow on mobile.

Swiping worked for me on Android.

Click on the X/5 in the upper left to scroll either way

Is it just me or is the usability of websites of artists / art galleries significatively worse than other websites? I always feel like these were made by someone who only care about the art and totally forget the UX. For example, invisible controls (here you can use arrow keys on desktop but it’s not indicated anywhere), incomprehensible minimalism (there’s a "previous" link here that points to the previous work, not the previous image) or horizontal slideshows that forget that swipping left and right has already a function on Safari.

It seems appropriate that a website for an artist would prioritize artistic expression, even in the interaction design. Where else would you prefer experiments like these happen?

Just like a museum dedicated to one artist, most of these websites are here to present the art works. Experiments are fine but if I can’t navigate in your website it’s useless. The top 3 most upvoted comments on this thread are about the site’s bad UX. If it were correctly done they would be about the art itself.

This may be the most poorly-designed website I’ve seen hit the front page of HN. It’s the first I’ve actually tested on a other device to assure me it was truly broken and it wasn’t just my iPhone.

Is this supposed to be an example of poor UX/ineffective web design? If so, that should be included in the description.

Either the standard for front page HN material went way, way down or this is just missing a tag to indicate it’s an example of what not to do/satire?

I was totally not expecting that. Honestly I thought they had filled the bit of the apple so it’s a normal apple, but this is much better!

So, iPhones can be cut in half by running water. I expect better product robustness from a trillion dollar company.

Upd: many people have difficulties understanding humour. Sad.

ugh - steel like 40mm is routinely cut with water jets. If anything using a water jet to cut an iphone is similar to using a pneumatic hammer to kill a fly.

The wear and tear suggest that Apple's products can't stand up to life. How they ever became worth that much, I'll never know.

Water jets load the water with abrasive to cut through stuff. Once did a cut that required 50 pounds of it for a square foot Al plate…

Oh interesting, I always assumed it was just the hydralic pressure of VERY fast water in a tiny area

I put my iPhone under a running tap but I don't have two phones now.

Newer iPhones are somewhat waterproof. You need to place it for more than half an hour under a water column of more than three meters or something.

Tasty.

On desktop I clicked on the "1" in "1 / 5" for lack of any other indication where to click. I accidentally viewed the slideshow backwards.

Out of genuine curiosity and without judgement: what response were you expecting from the UI when you clicked the 1?

I clicked the 5 because it is the only thing I found that looked like a link, and half expected to go to the end of something (this was after scrolling through amazon results, page after page without finding what I was looking for, so I guess my idea of "reaching the end" might have been biased.

Something. Anything.

There were so few options, that trying something other than "previous" seemed worth a chance.

Same for me on mobile.

Regarding the UI comments: I first visited the sited on my phone, and for Android or iPhone users the interface is intuitive, the obvious thing works. But on the desktop it is weird. So this is a reversal of what we used to see, where sites had reduced functionality or were broken for mobile users. I wonder if we will start seeing a lot more of this?

The 1/5 is intuitive, but the horizontal scroll is completely broken. I tried to swipe a couple of times and it didn’t do anything. I tried again after reading the comments and it finally moved, but very inconsistently. It kept coming back to the current picture

Banksy would approve!

Curious to understand: what kind of machinery is this and why does the cutting happen in water?

A water jet sends an extremely high pressure thin jet of water that can precisely cut many materials.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_jet_cutter

water + an abrasive in this case, water won't cut an iphone

The water is filled with sapphires.

Actually, the abrasive is garnet, but the orifice that forms the jet is a drilled sapphire.

Source: I own and operate a waterjet.

Banksy?

thanks, you're right

It's a gantry type 3 axis CNC with what amounts to a stupendously high-pressure pressure washer attached to it. The cutting head has a hopper that feeds a dry cutting abrasive in fine granular form (sand like or finer) into the water jet. The extreme pressure accelerates the water and abrasive to high impact velocity which cleanly cuts many materials including ceramics, glasses and very hard metals. A nice bonus is there is little heat input so you wont get warping or worry about annealing hard metals. Just under the cutting bed is a bath of water the jet terminates into. They do generate a little water mist during punch through but surprisingly is pretty dry around the machine. They make really nice clean cuts but require a lot of upkeep and the abrasive is a consumable you have to keep buying.

Ive seen one operating next to a plasma cutter (same CNC setup) in a fab shop and it was a night and day comparison. The plasma cutter was shooting sparks and embers everywhere while belching noxious smoke and the machine was filthy and covered in soot. Its more akin to welding. The benefit is they have less upkeep and consumables. Though plasma can not handle the variety of materials a water jet can.

I appreciate the concept but the implementation grates on me because I can't get past the small edge sharp edge of material left at the terminus of the lower portion of the curve and the case.

Yes, I agree. That will totally ruin the usability. Apple would never make that oversight!

I think they're just holding it wrong.

Waiting for the follow up with the creation of a apple-cut-out bumper to fix this.

I also took a few seconds to figure out how to get to the extra images.

Yeah, that's not a bite of an Apple logo because the proportions and location are wrong (bite on right side, slightly upper indeed, but large enough to contain a lot of the device).

What a freaking terrible site design.

I assume it's a work of art now.

does it still work?

Yes but has 1 fewer CPU cores and less RAM

I don't think so, those first generation iPhones are not water-proof

Sometimes you can get away with discharging the battery, doing your wet work, and then drying very thoroughly before applying power again.

It doesn't look so. I'd approach it in a different way: what is the biggest bite size you could cut out while still having an usable phone? You'd need to play not just with the size but also with the position.

But even though I have a box full of old iphones with broken lightning sockets I would prefer to find another use for them.

Depends on whether the important components like the CPU and their connections are intact. I remember that video from "waterjet channel" where they cut a hole in the middle of a Nintendo Switch and it still worked because the hole ended up entirely through the battery.

Or, it's impossible to tell whether it still works without looking up the internal layout of this iPhone model, which I'm too lazy to do.

What's the point of this?

Speaking of UX; what is up with the black bar at the top of HN?

When someone significant to tech in general dies, HN goes black for a while to mark their passing.. This one is for Lorinda Cherry of bc fame.

I see. Thank you.

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