The perfect HackerNews launch
YCombinator is a startup incubator, and HackerNews is a news site where people submit cool tech stuff.
The startups in the incubator get to do a “launch HN” once - get their product featured on the front page of HackerNews. Kind of like launching on ProductHunt.
Here’s what I think people on HN generally are:
- Inquisitive (or you wouldn’t enjoy the site)
- More technical than average (hanging around here can do that to you)
- Selective about signing up (they’ve probably seen 5 similar products already)
- Appreciate innovation, user delight and good UX (again, or you wouldn’t enjoy the site)
MagicPatterns, a YCombinator startup, launched on HN recently.
It does more of what I’ve been doused with endlessly for the past two years: AI + UI generation (please no more 🙏😭).
Hard pass.
Except, it managed to get me to give it a shot with a tiny UX detail that showed care.
They added a feature on their product on the day of the launch - a little button that logs you in with one click. No email, signup, nothing.
See it on HN -> click -> you're suddenly *inside* their product!
Is this unique though?
I’ve seen in-product banners and messaging before, when apps launch on HN/ProductHunt.
But they address how I can help their product - they want me to vote, engage or boost their stats. This is the first time I’ve seen launch personalization where the product helps me by bringing friction to 0.
And it gets me to promote them.
That’s the story of how they got me to try the product.
But that’s hardly good enough a reason to get me to continue using the product.
The product embodies the same UX thoughtfullness (apart from just being good at it). Here are two examples.
1: I use Claude Code, and come back to check on results in 15 minutes just to see it stuck in the first step saying "do you want to allow searching the docs?" <yes | no>. 😐
It’s not about asking me for permissions - it’s about me wasting that block of time not knowing it was stuck, just one Alt+Tab away.
MagicPatterns was the first genAI app I’ve used that introduced sound notifications when it was done.
2: I dislike paying for an app’s failure, even when the cost is inconsequential. Maybe it’s a psychology thing. Anyway,…
So AI or not, UX matters!
(also, pretty ironic that this is a post about thoughtfulness in UI/UX in an app that helps generate (generally mindless) UIs using LLMs!)
