Reddit's redesign increases power usage of user's devices • Hacker News Board

Re: Reddit's redesign increases power usage of user's devices

#111

Post by atwebb » Thu, May 17, 2018, 2:07 AM UTC

darkstar999 wrote: post #47

nilkn wrote: post #42

Between... * feeling completely overrun with sensationalized politics; * the new design feeling sluggish and painful even on my maxed out late-2016 MBP; * the general community feeling more hostile and downvote-heavy than ever before; * and the content being increasingly image-, video-, and meme-focused... reddit has really lost a lot of its magic and appeal to me. I do still use it, but I find it almost intolerable…

Most of your criticisms are solved by unsubscribing from those bad subreddits like politics, funny, and all the picture/meme ones.

Your point about the content is true and always tips the hand to Reddit's other issue.

The content moves so quick, and the user base switches so much, many subs wind up with the same post/style of posts over and over.

The search has at least gotten better and sidebars help somewhat, though the new redesign kills both of those items.

Re: Reddit's redesign increases power usage of user's devices

#112

Post by dkasper » Thu, May 17, 2018, 2:08 AM UTC

frfl wrote: post #22

Anyone from reddit's dev team reading this? Or youtube's dev team, because my question applies to both. The previous design was great. The new version of both sites is slow, sluggish and provides me with no benefit. Why was the change implemented? The previous design wasn't broken! How's the user feedback? A/B testing really indicated to you this was a good choice?! If you have any insight -- I'm sure this was a deci…

I work at Reddit but not on the redesign. I would hardly call our old design great. Functional to those who know Reddit for sure, but for new redditors the learning curve is very steep. Heck, I’ve been on reddit for 12 years and couldn’t figure out how some features worked until I started working at the company. It was time the site didn’t look like a “dystopian craigslist” and looked like a website that was made in 2018.

We’ve been through well over a year of development and feedback (both internal and external) and most of it has been positive or constructive criticism that we are working on. Definitely agree the performance could be better, but we’re working on it and it’s still early days.

Re: Reddit's redesign increases power usage of user's devices

#113

Post by robbomacrae » Thu, May 17, 2018, 2:09 AM UTC

frfl wrote: post #22

Anyone from reddit's dev team reading this? Or youtube's dev team, because my question applies to both. The previous design was great. The new version of both sites is slow, sluggish and provides me with no benefit. Why was the change implemented? The previous design wasn't broken! How's the user feedback? A/B testing really indicated to you this was a good choice?! If you have any insight -- I'm sure this was a deci…

I'm reading!

First off the linked post wasn't a very fair analysis and redditors pointed that out in the comments.

But to answer your questions: The previous design wasn't broken per se but it wasn't particularly user friendly. Whilst there are plenty of redditors who are used to the layout, a lot of potential users (first time visitors) never came back and became redditors - including many people I tried to introduce to reddit. The redesign is doing much better in that regard. Remember starterupers out there - you don't hear from the satisfied customers so much on the internet but you do get usage metrics :) So take the negative comments with a pinch of salt.

Re: Reddit's redesign increases power usage of user's devices

#114

Post by stcredzero » Thu, May 17, 2018, 2:09 AM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #92

vokep wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of that justifies it. They wasted their time, so now everyone has to pay? I don't think so. If the old design wasn't easy to go back to, I'd only view reddit through API based things (app) at this point.

> They wasted their time, They didn't waste their time. They got promotions and padded their resumes with "designed and implemented" sections. In the process they also justified their salaries. Imagine they are well paid designers getting nice 6 figure salaries. During review they say something like "we didn't do anything, all the stuff actually worked pretty well" vs "yeah, we identified these million things wrong t…

This highlights I think why it is very important to get impartial test users, who perhaps are paid to be brutally honest and just give their opinions whatever they are.

Better yet, link bonuses to actual feedback from real users. However, the best thing to do, is to implement a policy of strict continuity. Even radical architectural changes can be implemented under such a regime. Strict Continuity means being accountable to users. Relaxation of strict continuity generally means management/devs have their own agendas, and those stupid users be damned!

Re: Reddit's redesign increases power usage of user's devices

#115

Post by atwebb » Thu, May 17, 2018, 2:10 AM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #37

Reddit's Digg moment!

I keep thinking that can't happen, right now it seems to be because there's not a good competitor. That's a scenario we've seen play out enough in the past, I'm personally waiting for something and have been on reddit since 05/06 time.

Re: Reddit's redesign increases power usage of user's devices

#116

Post by atwebb » Thu, May 17, 2018, 2:10 AM UTC

wil421 wrote: post #78

softrock wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit getting bigger is the whole reason started going bad.

I created my HN accout 7 years ago after lurking for a couple years. People have been saying the same thing about HN the whole time I’ve been around.

It's a bit different though with the moderation and lack of revenue focus.

Re: Reddit's redesign increases power usage of user's devices

#117

Post by trumped » Thu, May 17, 2018, 2:10 AM UTC

I use the Redirector Firefox addon to make sure that I always visit https://ns.reddit.com because I hate the new design.

Re: Reddit's redesign increases power usage of user's devices

#118

Post by robbomacrae » Thu, May 17, 2018, 2:11 AM UTC

dkasper wrote: post #112

frfl wrote: post #22

Anyone from reddit's dev team reading this? Or youtube's dev team, because my question applies to both. The previous design was great. The new version of both sites is slow, sluggish and provides me with no benefit. Why was the change implemented? The previous design wasn't broken! How's the user feedback? A/B testing really indicated to you this was a good choice?! If you have any insight -- I'm sure this was a deci…

I work at Reddit but not on the redesign. I would hardly call our old design great. Functional to those who know Reddit for sure, but for new redditors the learning curve is very steep. Heck, I’ve been on reddit for 12 years and couldn’t figure out how some features worked until I started working at the company. It was time the site didn’t look like a “dystopian craigslist” and looked like a website that was made in…

oh hey Dave!

Re: Reddit's redesign increases power usage of user's devices

#119

Post by stcredzero » Thu, May 17, 2018, 2:12 AM UTC

stephengillie wrote: post #79

meesterdude wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why was the change implemented? There's no easy back peddling from a year of development. It may be crap, but they put so much time & effort into it they can't turn back now - even if a lot of users hate it. They're also working more on becoming an Advertising platform, and this redesign allows for more flexibility there, like linkedin's auto-play videos when scrolling into view.

> There's no easy back peddling from a year of development. It may be crap, but they put so much time & effort into it they can't turn back now - even if a lot of users hate it. They're also working more on becoming an Advertising platform, and this redesign allows for more flexibility there, like linkedin's auto-play videos when scrolling into view. Yes there is - you call it what it is, a failed Epic. Pivot and see…

We must endure constant change to allow new generations space to fail and grow.

I call BS. I know for a fact that policies of strict continuity can be maintained, because I've done it -- that you can implement radical architectural change without rocking the boat and without throwing the users/UX under the bus. The fact that we, as a field, aren't aware of this just goes to show how "half a field" programming still is.

Re: Reddit's redesign increases power usage of user's devices

#120

Post by atwebb » Thu, May 17, 2018, 2:13 AM UTC

frfl wrote: post #22

Anyone from reddit's dev team reading this? Or youtube's dev team, because my question applies to both. The previous design was great. The new version of both sites is slow, sluggish and provides me with no benefit. Why was the change implemented? The previous design wasn't broken! How's the user feedback? A/B testing really indicated to you this was a good choice?! If you have any insight -- I'm sure this was a deci…

No direct insight but I do look forward to reading a blog post or two in a few years detailing the internal politics and reasoning behind this push. Hopefully I find it on Reddit, most likely I'll see it on HN.