I like that GitHub is one of the few websites that kept roughly the same design for years. Design is something that gets familiar, and I believe it helps your brain when it is not changing all the time. I would like to see an explanation from GitHub's side as to why this change was needed.
Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?
231–240 of 590 posts
Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?
#232Ugh, that's not good. Latest commit message and date will not display under Code without Javascript enabled, but if I click around in the repository and go back to Code or keep refreshing the page, they suddenly show up, still with Javascript disabled. Can anyone explain this? However, I do like the visual part of the new layout.
I don't see commit messages inside the "Code" menu item anywhere, with or without javascript or reloading. You have to click a commit hash to see its message. I think this is an improvement.
Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?
#233Like with every redesign everyone will eventually get used to it and completely forget how the old one looked. When the next redesign happens everyone will rage the same way and say they want the "old" design back.
Wrong, this redesign is awkward. If it was a good design, then people wouldn't complain about it. However, it really is a step backwards.
> If it was a good design, then people wouldn't complain about it.
In that case, I submit that good design doesn't exist. I've never seen a major redesign that wasn't widely complained about.
Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?
#234This is the MacOS 11 thread all over again. Apparently no one on HN has been through a redesign...
For those of you complaining, congratulations, you've discovered ~ nostalgia ~
In two weeks you'll inevitably find the old design ugly, and forget GitHub ever looked any other way.
In 5 years, each will get another round of improved designs, and there will be a thread on HN full of people complaining about how the new design sucks and how 5 years ago was "the good old days."
The new GitHub design is objectively better. The new MacOS 11 design is objectively better.
"Low information density" means less clutter. You find the information that matters quicker. Changes to padding/visual separation/sizing/etc. all provide similar context to which information is important, and how items relate. "Flat design" isn't some trend, flat icons are just easier to quickly recognize, and look far more crisp.
In both threads the degree of negativity is disappointing. Can we not have one or two positive comments on how crisp the new commit graph colors look, how nice the transparent pin dragging interface is, or how the action buttons are more prominent? Not to mention the entire code/README page. The flat rounded corner borders are very clean!
If you really don't like the rounded borders, use wget
Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?
#235Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?
#236The worst part for me is the rounded avatars (the other rounded stuff is okay). So many pictures on github weren't built for rounding. My own avatar is cut off as well. I hope they revert it, but if it sticks around for a while I guess I'll have to update my avatar.
Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hah. I think we can all agree that the UI has been improved since then.
I....... have to disagree, though I'm not sure why, but that old one looks much better to me. Like it's simpler and more clear.
The sidebar it had seems to waste too much space, though. It's just 5 links meant for navigation. They'd be better arranged horizontally. I can agree that it's clearer than what we had a few days ago, having only 1 navbar instead of 2, but that's also because it has a lot less features than GitHub has now.
Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I expect soon it will reach GitLab "quality": unable to view source code without JavaScript enabled. I also hate GitLab for this, but I learned today that they are actually working on fixing this, by shifting some components to server side rendering. Awkward for me if GitLab suddenly will become the better choice.
The way it looks now, a self-hosted gogs with a nojs patch may be the way forward. The application-specific part (gogs.js) is <2kloc and it's already rendering stuff on the server. I'm giving it a few weeks before I've had enough...
I selfhost gogs and like it. And the releases link is at the top like many ppl wish here :)
Only thing I really miss vs. github is there's no code review built-in.
Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?
#239I think it will open a lot of work to many people that are scraping Github :)
Why would people do this? https://repo.git and shallow clone...
Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?
#240The old Github was honestly a terrible UI. Not responsive at all, making it awful on big and small screens. The information density feels the same to me; it was low before and it’s low now, but at least diffs fill my screen (though improved responsiveness is something they added within the last year tbf). Unlike Jira, shit loads without a horrible amount of pop-in, and I don’t really realize I’m using a SPA. They didn’t rearrange the core UI much, and I don’t feel like I’m having to relearn anything. So overall, some ambiguous buttons are my only complaint. Feels like a big improvement that was long overdue.