Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 590 posts

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?

#271

Post by fxtentacle »

ljm wrote: post #126

I submitted feedback over it but, aside from the over-reliance on rounded corners, and making pills and buttons hard to separate, the single worst change is that you can't see the latest commit status from the repo screen. Instead, you get the commit hash, and have to click a tiny ellipsis button to get the commit message and the status indicator. When I'm browsing on github and not using git directly, the commit sho…

I find it much more difficult now to line up filename and last modified time in the file browser.

And I agree on the low density. Plus it now looks like a children's toy, not like a work tool. A while ago, there was an article on HN about kawaii cuteness culture sneaking into everything. It appears that has happened here.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?

#272

Post by simonw »

treve wrote: post #139
jolmg wrote: post #134

Lots of hate here. I probably don't use GitHub as much as others here, so I can understand that any change adds friction and people are going to hate that. Having said that, I'm comparing using the Wayback Machine: new: https://github.com/torvalds/linux old: https://web.archive.org/web/20200619163555/https://github.co... and I can't find it in me to dislike the changes they've made. They've removed the double repo na…

Also fun to go back to a much earlier version: https://web.archive.org/web/20130807124247/https://github.co...

And even earlier: https://web.archive.org/web/20090927132251/http://github.com...

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?

#273

Post by giancarlostoro »

AOsborn wrote: post #128
Hedja wrote: post #117

I have a single major problem with all of their new layouts. They place content at extreme ends of the screen, completely stretched out like a rubber band with No Man's Land in the middle. In this case, the top half is stretched and the bottom half is centred. Completely inconsistent and tiring for your eyes darting around corners of the screen. Example: https://twitter.com/JahedDEV/status/1275532988772683776 I don't…

Agree completely. Feels like a huge step backwards. Maybe usage metrics show most users are using a much smaller window size, but the layout is all over the place on my 27" monitor (2560x1440).

> Maybe usage metrics show most users are using a much smaller window size, but the layout is all over the place on my 27" monitor (2560x1440).

Some of us like to code with git / bitbucket / gitlab side by side with our IDE so we can reference existing issues more directly while writing code. Which reminds me I need a better screen resolution... 1080p is so 2016.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?

#274

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

the-pigeon wrote: post #255
spenczar5 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want UI designers to be unoriginal. I wish they were less original. I don't like learning new visual languages every 5 years; I want intuitive interfaces, which mostly means familiar interfaces.

JUST STOP CHANGING THE UI FOR NO REASON! You wouldn't re-write a whole app without a very solid engineering reason. But site after site re-does their UI without any stated reason. For companies I've worked for we did new UI designs because they thought it would increase sales, even though it threw out all the sales optimizations we made in the last design. So, it was always a negative for sales. It's just a big waste…

My theory is that, at these big companies with large, established products, they're just looking for stuff for designers to do.

I mean, you do need designers for whenever you add new features, and you want really great ones for that. But those really great designers want to do something, and there just aren't enough new features to keep them busy.

I mean, I don't dislike the aesthetics of the change, but yeah, I just wonder, "Why?" I agree with the few (what I think are relatively minor) specific issues that have been pointed out where utility has decreased, and I'm finding it difficult to point to any particular change and say, "Yes, this is better than before."

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?

#276

Post by stock_toaster »

7ewis wrote: post #159

I know obviously files are important in GitHub, but for the opening page of a random repo I think I would actually prefer to see the README first. I just went to the Explore page and picked the first repo: https://github.com/johannesboyne/gofakes3 You have to scroll so far down to find out what the project _actually is_. I know there's an about message on the right, but it's not great. The new UI does look more moder…

I agree this sucks. If it helps someone else avoid scrolling, I discovered that the "readme" text on the right side (right under the "about" block) is a link to the top of the readme at the bottom.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?

#277

Post by granzymes »

nfoz wrote: post #217
granzymes wrote: post #148

Earlier 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 2013 version by comparison wastes horizontal space while surfacing less information. The contrast is worse and there isn't enough to visually distinguish the four (!) rows of headers. Personally, I also find the navigation box on the right to be weirdly sunken into the page and I think the color scheme has been greatly improved.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?

#278

Post by ddevault »

Disclaimer: Founder of a GitHub competitor here

I use GitHub very little these days, and have mostly removed it from my daily workflow. But, on the whole, I mostly like the new design. It's more pleasing to look at, and doesn't really interfere with the things I still come to GitHub to do.

I still feel that the notifications redesign was poorly done, however, and that's where I spend most of my time. I ended up completely disabling almost all of my GitHub notifications as a result. The notifications redesign drove me from visiting GitHub a a few times per day to a couple of times per week. But to be honest, my usage was already on the wane by then, it may have just accellerated it.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?

#279

Post by foresto »

Ugh. Yet another design by someone who keeps their browser window maximized (or has the luxury of an enormous display) and expects everyone else to do the same. A few things that leap out at me:

- Large margins everywhere

- Sidebar gobbling up 20-30% of my browser window's horizontal space, no matter how far down I scroll.

- Hamburger menu hiding the dashboard and other frequently used links.

- Latest commit timestamp hidden by mostly useless stuff like tag and branch count.

This layout wastes a ton of space. Information density feels too low, which might be appropriate for a product landing page, but is counterproductive in a development tool. It also makes things needlessly difficult for people who multitask with side-by-side windows or have small screens.

On the positive side, at least this layout is less annoying than Gitlab's "bury everything within javascript menus" approach?

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on new GitHub layout?

#280

Post by Deimorz »

mixologic wrote: post #245
bconnorwhite wrote: post #234

This 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 d…

Low information density means "less clutter" for somebody new to the interface, but it means "many more steps" to provide all the information that a dense design allows for. So much design fails to take into account human expertise, and our ability to learn complex interfaces. They get the A/B treatment which optimizes for beginners, which always leans towards the simpler, easier design. This is why we'll never get a…

This is also linked to the obsession with constant, never-ending growth.

Bringing in new users is more important than making existing users happier - you just need to keep them happy enough that they won't actually leave. It results in targeting the design towards people that don't use the product (yet) instead of the ones that already do.

Post reply on HN