I liked the old design much better. The new design seems too much like Digg. It lacks the simple minimalism that made Reddit better than Digg. The minimalist niche seems really hard to hold on to. There is always this urge to add something because one can.
Fair enough. I'm curious, what specific changes removed the simple minimalism of ol' reddit?
We were very careful to not add elements superfluously. For instance, the [browse] button had long been a scourge of mine. It was almost never clicked on and hid a great sort option (controversy) that was woefully underused as a result. Adding [controversial] to the horiz nav made a great feature (unique to reddit) more accessible and removed a crappy one (the browse button).
That's just one example, but it's my favorite, because I really hated the browse button :)
I was talking more about how each article link is rendered. The links (in the new reddit) take up too much vertical space. The way HN does it (and the way reddit used to do) was much better. Here is the reason: It makes it easy for me to quickly scan the article. Basically have one-line per link. Instead of multiple lines.
Also I don't need to see the score in a larger font. Usually I don't pay attention to the score. The way I decide whether I want to read the article is: (a) the title, (b) where it is linked from (e.g. nytimes.com, etc). Almost everything else gets in the way.
I like it for the most part. Not crazy about the uncompressed link display, but thats not a big deal. The biggest thing that bothered me is that my subreddits that I am subscribed to have changed.
I'm the opposite, I quite like the uncompressed link display. I thought I disliked it at first, and ticked on the compressed view, but quickly went back to uncompressed.
Fair enough :) that's why we made sure to add the option for our super density-fans.
As for the screwed up reddit subscriptions, we're aware of that problem and trying to hack things back together for affected users. In case someone from team reddit hasn't already told you - sorry about that.
I love it. Uncompressing the stories makes it much easier to read the homepage. The only thing I don't like is the voting system. Why do you have to make the points in the middle of the arrows? This sort of takes away from the simplicity of reddit.
I like the whitespace, font sizes and colours. The header is much clearer. The positioning/typography of the rank number, arrows and vote count sucks. The rank, vote 'spinner' and title/comments seem to occupy three different vertical alignments and the result is very confusing. At the very least aligning the rank number with the title would be an improvement. Potentially you could align the uparrow with the title, vote count with the submitted text and the downarrow with the comments link.
I think you should put the arrows to the left side, use simpler arrow graphics, and indicate the arrows are linked to the points by making them the same color. Then, make the 1, 2, 3 a lighter color that is there, but more in the background, and delineated in function. You also need to center them between the points and the left edge of the screen. They are slightly too far to the right to my eyes. This would meet your informational requirements while clearing the clutter that is harshing my zen. I think you should keep the change in the screenshot too. The balance is just so much better.
The new design feels cumbersome on mobile devices, to the point of being unreadable. This is entirely due to the right-hand sidebar (with the Customize your reddit, Submit a link and Create your own reddit call-out boxes), which appears above the actual page content in mobile layouts. These three boxes are a lot longer than they used to be (especially Customize your reddit), so it takes a lot of scrolling to actually get to the links.
It's great that you can compress the link display, however, without the ability to dispose of the Customize your reddit and other sidebar call-out boxes, reddit is now a pain to read on a mobile device.
For what its worth, that used to be my main means of browsing reddit.
Edit: This is not a threat or anything, but I stopped reading Digg back when their site redesign made it impossible to read on a mobile device. Please don't ignore the mobile device users, though we are a minority to consider when deciding on a layout.
Hey Alexis, I had to kill the "Customize your reddit" frame and the submit/create windows on the right as they are serious real-estate hogs on my 5:4 monitor at work. If you guys could add this to the preferences it would probably help out some users like me who are not willing to play with greasemonkey.
I find it too distracting and too spaced out compared to before. I guess its a good thing as I waste too much time there anyways. I read on some post that it was possible to revert the changes so I might finally make an account. I cant comment about the NSFW section yet as I am still at work....
The new reddit is completely broken in Opera mini. Spacing is messed up. For some reason there is a huge gap between the headline and the first. Even worse, the comments are truncated. So basically, since OM's my main browser, I hate it.
Let me add to the chorus: the density option in preferences saved it for me. I was absolutely dreading the beta.reddit.com because of all the whitespace and when it went live I was sad. Then I found about the compress option and now I'm much much happier. With that option turned on, it's much nicer then before (both before the update, and before enabling the option :P).
So I just used "customize your reddit", unchecked most of the categories, then clicked on a story, and then when I went back to the story list none of my category changes were saved. It changed back to the defaults bombarding be with these stories I just took the time to filter. Granted I wasn't logged in, but this is annoying, and bad design.
I don't read reddit. But I checked out the design, and I think your website has a couple design mistakes.
The arrows should not be above and below each number. That is horrible. Really.
Also, the domain of the link should be right of "submitted by" because there is space and that way, it would be in a consistent space instead of tacked on wherever the headline ends, and would be yield lines of consistent fonts what seem easier to read to me.
That's what stands out. Your website seems well thought out (besides those things that seem too clashing to me).
Can you expound on what's you find horrible about the points and the arrows. My understanding, and I've been helping the Reddit guys with the redesign, is that people we're getting the idea that the arrows were for moderation and so it made sense to add more of a connection between them and the points.
I felt pretty strongly about keeping the domain on the same line as the link (it was originally to be put just where you recommend). From a logical perspective, since it's information about the link and not meta information about the submission (who submitted it and to what 'category') it made sense to keep it on the link line. More importantly I felt that there was a natural tendency to read the link title and then immediately scan the domain as a final check before one clicks on the link. It felt much more natural to have that as one statement [link] [domain] than to involve scanning to another line [link] -scan-> [domain] even if it was consistently placed on that next line.
"Can you expound on what's you find horrible about the points and the arrows."
The way they look. Your assessment of the problem is good. You gotta connect the points with the arrows. BUT, the way you does it looks horrible. I don't know how else to say it. FSJ says "It harshes my zen" and that's about the best I can do. Like, in just this one little corner, I'm flashing back to AOL in 1995 or any of a million badly designed games from windows 95. You have a good grasp of your problem, you just need a cleaner looking solution.
I actually think having up and down arrows is too much, but I doubt that's the kind of feedback you are looking for.
If you keep the domain where it is you should make the fonts clash less. Make that look the same as the other stuff on the line. Then it flows nice. It doesn't flow nice when the font is the same as the metadata but you aren't treating it like metadata (I think).
It's obvious you've thought through the redesign. Is nice to see signs of intelligence!
