My post about Flickr URLs gathered some interesting responses (especially on Mastodon, thank you all!), so I thought I’d do what podcasts call a “mailbag episode”!

Some people pointed out other good examples for inspiration. Chris Silverman:

The idea of URLs as user interface elements is such a good take. I’ve seen some people use URLs as design/​communications elements as well, like Jessica Hische:

• www.jessicahische.is/thinkingthoughts
• www.jessicahische.is/working
• jessicahische.is/anoversharer

I love that approach. Modern browsers and preview cards often obscure URLs, but people still see these things; printed materials, links in emails, etc.

Matt Goldman:

I really like letterboxd’s urls these days:

• all the films in my diary in 2024? letterboxd.com/robotmlg/diary/films/for/2024/
• movies I’ve tagged as seeing at Film Forum? letterboxd.com/robotmlg/tag/film-forum/films/
• five star reviews that I wrote in 2021? letterboxd.com/robotmlg/reviews/films/for/2021/rated/5/

Both Erin Sparling and Nelson Miner highlighted how much the craft of Flickr URLs related to the craft of its API:

Literally used to talk about how good this URL scheme was in class, it was so informative. The Flickr API still informs everything I do these days, URLs included.

There was some discussion about the pattern I suggested. Which one should it be?

• flickr.com/mwichary/sets/72177720330077904/alishan-forest-railway
• flickr.com/mwichary/sets/alishan-forest-railway-72177720330077904
• flickr.com/mwichary/sets/alishan-forest-railway/72177720330077904

I will admit: I don’t know. Each has pros and cons – some are better for autocomplete, others better for conveying hierarchy or surviving “removing from the end.”

This note arrived via email:

Hey, www is not redundant. In services like NextDNS it allows blocking only main site, without subdomains. So it gives more control and cost nothing :)

To which my answer is: I don’t think you’ll get to great user experience by prioritizing corner cases like this one.

Jim Nielsen shared some of his favourites, and Søren Birkemeyer suggested more evergreen reading on the subject, with more inspiration inside:

• URL design by Kyle Aster
• URLs are UI by Scott Hanselman
• Four cool URLs by Alex Pounds

The middle one caught my attention because it talks about URLs that are not just user readable, but also user guessable. I think that’s a perfect word for something I tried to capture in my post: if a user successfully guesses a URL from your scheme, then you know you have something good on your hands.

Lastly, a few people mentioned the late 1990s classic written by a relatively unknown dude going by “Tim BL,” called Cool URIs don’t change.

Historical note: At the end of the 20th century when this was written, “cool” was an epithet of approval particularly among young, indicating trendiness, quality, or appropriateness. In the rush to stake [out] DNS territory involved[, ] the choice of domain name and URI path were sometimes directed more toward apparent “coolness” than toward usefulness or longevity. This note is an attempt to redirect the energy behind the quest for coolness.