New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing • Hacker News Board

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#11

Post by rryan » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 9:51 PM UTC

oldstrangers wrote: post #9

ambirex wrote: post #5

One early criticism (aside from the sharing bugaboo) is the header is larger making the allowable reading area much smaller. the topmost the feed content can be read is ~193px from the top of the browser. And you can't scroll down because of the way the page it built. Here is what firebug told me: 29px - account bar 59px - search bar 73px - feed toolbar 32px - feed title bar (in the reading pane)

My biggest complaint is they tampered with the scroll bar. It's way too small now and only functions as an aesthetic touch... The regular scroll bar works perfectly fine.

One of the greatest parts about Reader is that you don't need a mouse at all. Try using the keyboard shortcuts. (Hit Shift-? for a helpful overview)

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#12

Post by phillmv » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 9:51 PM UTC

GBKS wrote: post #10

The new design is definitely cleaner and consistent with other Google products, but it is not a design focused on providing a great reading experience (as the product name "Reader" suggests). It is basically the Gmail layout and interaction model, just different content. I wish Google had taken an approach that deeply focused on the content first (as Flipboard does).

KEEPING IN MIND that I generally hate people who whine every time every thing changes,

as someone who is fairly invested in Google Reader, it pains me that this has been a UI step backwards.

It's lot less usable; defaulting every link to black, like the rest of the interface, makes scanning for links really painful, and there's still a good 130px of useless interface chrome that is taking up space for no good reason.

Blargh! Looks like I'm going to be loading some custom stylesheets very soon.

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#13

Post by notatoad » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 9:53 PM UTC

ambirex wrote: post #5

One early criticism (aside from the sharing bugaboo) is the header is larger making the allowable reading area much smaller. the topmost the feed content can be read is ~193px from the top of the browser. And you can't scroll down because of the way the page it built. Here is what firebug told me: 29px - account bar 59px - search bar 73px - feed toolbar 32px - feed title bar (in the reading pane)

press the f key.

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#14

Post by edderly » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 9:54 PM UTC

ambirex wrote: post #5

One early criticism (aside from the sharing bugaboo) is the header is larger making the allowable reading area much smaller. the topmost the feed content can be read is ~193px from the top of the browser. And you can't scroll down because of the way the page it built. Here is what firebug told me: 29px - account bar 59px - search bar 73px - feed toolbar 32px - feed title bar (in the reading pane)

More bars than Dublin...I agree, the waste of space is annoying. I can't even think of the last time I wanted to search my RSS feeds and it's taking up a chunk of space.

On a 13inch Macbook add the Mac App bar, Chrome (tabs + search-url + bookmarks toolbar) a third of the readable area is covered with "bars".

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#15

Post by oldstrangers » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 9:54 PM UTC

rryan wrote: post #11

oldstrangers wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My biggest complaint is they tampered with the scroll bar. It's way too small now and only functions as an aesthetic touch... The regular scroll bar works perfectly fine.

One of the greatest parts about Reader is that you don't need a mouse at all. Try using the keyboard shortcuts. (Hit Shift-? for a helpful overview)

I'm strangely addicted to my mouse. Must be all the years of gaming. The range of movement is minuscule compared to using the keyboard.

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#16

Post by levesque » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 10:05 PM UTC

notatoad wrote: post #13

ambirex wrote: post #5

One early criticism (aside from the sharing bugaboo) is the header is larger making the allowable reading area much smaller. the topmost the feed content can be read is ~193px from the top of the browser. And you can't scroll down because of the way the page it built. Here is what firebug told me: 29px - account bar 59px - search bar 73px - feed toolbar 32px - feed title bar (in the reading pane)

press the f key.

I'm impressed by how clean this functionality is. Definitely less annoyed by the waste of space now!

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#17

Post by levesque » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 10:06 PM UTC

hosh wrote: post #8

squealingrat wrote: post #4

Sigh. I like the redesign (it's about time!) but I hate that they're turning off sharing. I use that to run my link blog, and now I'll have to figure out another workaround.

Sharing works. Sharing just does not work without publicly +1 the reader item. (This is a big -1 for me).

Yeah, I am quite annoyed by that as well. What's the point?

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#18

Post by wvl » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 10:07 PM UTC

ambirex wrote: post #5

One early criticism (aside from the sharing bugaboo) is the header is larger making the allowable reading area much smaller. the topmost the feed content can be read is ~193px from the top of the browser. And you can't scroll down because of the way the page it built. Here is what firebug told me: 29px - account bar 59px - search bar 73px - feed toolbar 32px - feed title bar (in the reading pane)

That was my exact reaction -- barely usable on my 1280x800 screen. Until there's a better user style out there, this css makes the theme much better for me, by hiding the search bar and the feed toolbar:

    #top-bar { display: none; }
    #viewer-header { display: none; }

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#19

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 10:08 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: New in Reader: a fresh design, and Google+ sharing

#20

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Oct 31, 2011, 10:08 PM UTC

ambirex wrote: post #5

One early criticism (aside from the sharing bugaboo) is the header is larger making the allowable reading area much smaller. the topmost the feed content can be read is ~193px from the top of the browser. And you can't scroll down because of the way the page it built. Here is what firebug told me: 29px - account bar 59px - search bar 73px - feed toolbar 32px - feed title bar (in the reading pane)

[deleted]