Categories › Computing History & Culture
GUI, HCI & interface history Videos Recommended on Hacker News (110)
GUI, HCI & interface history is one of the 150 topics Hacker News readers organize their video recommendations around. These 110 videos each earned real recommendations in real HN threads between 2007 and 2026 — 217 recommendations in total — and they're ranked by how many separate months the community kept coming back to them, not by view count.
Interface history and human-computer interaction: Lisa, Macintosh, Engelbart mother of all demos, Smalltalk, Windows UI, Ribbon, Bret Victor, direct manipulation, future of interfaces.
Why HN keeps sending people here — on Bret Victor - Inventing on Principle: “My mind was blown when I saw this video 2 years ago” — an HN commenter, 2014.
Features
Evergreen only
11 mo on HNBret Victor - Inventing on Principle
Rui Oliveira
12 HN recommender · 2013–2025
11 mo on HNBret Victor The Future of Programming
Joey Reid
12 HN recommender · 2017–2026
10 mo on HNA Tour of the Acme Editor
Russ Cox
11 HN recommender · 2012–2026
10 mo on HNAlan Kay's tribute to Ted Nelson at "Intertwingled" Festival
TheTedNelson
7 HN recommender · 2016–2025
8 mo on HNThe Mother of All Demos, presented by Douglas Engelbart (1968)
Marcel
8 HN recommender · 2013–2026
8 mo on HNAlan Kay: Doing with Images Makes Symbols (Full Version)
Kenneth Friedman
8 HN recommender · 2016–2023
6 mo on HNIn Search of Tomorrow
Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS)
9 HN recommender · 2015–2018
6 mo on HNBret Victor - The Humane Representation of Thought
Colin McDonnell
4 HN recommender · 2017–2025
5 mo on HNEric Bier Demonstrates Cedar
Computer History Museum
3 HN recommender · 2020–2025
5 mo on HNIvan Sutherland Sketchpad Demo 1963
Interface Studies
5 HN recommender · 2016–2025
4 mo on HNMouse Cursor History (and why I made my own)
Posy
4 HN recommender · 2022–2026
5 mo on HNAlan Kay at OOPSLA 1997 - The computer revolution hasnt happened yet
Jeff Gonis
6 HN recommender · 2013–2025
5 mo on HNSteve Jobs, "Computers are like a bicycle for our minds." - Michael Lawrence Films
Michael Lawrence
5 HN recommender · 2010–2025
5 mo on HNTed Nelson demonstrates Xanadu Space
photonhunter
5 HN recommender · 2011–2022
5 mo on HNSymbolics Lisp Machine demo Jan 2013
Kalman Reti
5 HN recommender · 2014–2024
4 mo on HNBret Victor - Seeing Spaces
Colin McDonnell
3 HN recommender · 2017–2024
4 mo on HNAlto System Project: Dan Ingalls demonstrates Smalltalk
Computer History Museum
3 HN recommender · 2020–2025
3 mo on HNHead Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote
Johnny Lee
3 HN recommender · 2010–2026
4 mo on HNWindows 8: The Animated Evaluation
blogphilofilms
3 HN recommender · 2012–2015
4 mo on HNXanadu Basics 1a - VISIBLE CONNECTION
TheTedNelson
3 HN recommender · 2018–2021
4 mo on HNBret Victor - Media for Thinking the Unthinkable
Colin McDonnell
4 HN recommender · 2015–2026
3 mo on HNSketchpad, by Dr. Ivan Sutherland with comments by Alan Kay
David Carroll
3 HN recommender · 2013–2024
3 mo on HNThe GUI should be better. A lot better.
Accursed Farms
4 HN recommender · 2020–2024
3 mo on HNTed Nelson in Herzog's "Lo and Behold"
TheTedNelson
3 HN recommender · 2017–2022
3 mo on HNBret Victor - Drawing Dynamic Visualizations
Colin McDonnell
3 HN recommender · 2021–2025
2 mo on HNBret Victor - Inventing on Principle
Colin McDonnell
2 HN recommender · 2015–2024
3 mo on HNComputers for Cynics 0 - The Myth of Technology
TheTedNelson
3 HN recommender · 2013–2024
3 mo on HNAvi Bryant demos Dabble db
Tavis Rudd
2 HN recommender · 2014–2023
2 mo on HNCode Bubbles: Rethinking the User Interface Paradigm of Integrated Development Environments
AndrewBragdon
2 HN recommender · 2011–2024
3 mo on HNDaniel Henry Holmes Ingalls Jr.: The Live Web. Drag 'n drop in the cloud
JSConf
3 HN recommender · 2016–2026
3 mo on HNNeXT vs Sun
hoffman60613
3 HN recommender · 2015–2026
3 mo on HNJoe Armstrong & Jeremy Ruston - Intertwingling the Tiddlywiki with Erlang | Code Mesh LDN 18
Code Sync
2 HN recommender · 2020–2024
3 mo on HNNeXTSTEP Release 3 Demo
blatherskyte
3 HN recommender · 2007–2016
3 mo on HNLotus Improv for NeXT 1990
Thierry Hubert
1 HN recommend · 2022–2026
3 mo on HNApplied Sciences Group: High Performance Touch
Microsoft Research
3 HN recommender · 2012–2024
2 mo on HNBret Victor Inventing on Principle
Luna Programming Language Tutorials
3 HN recommender · 2020–2022