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Ask HN: Since when does Craigslist's front page have emojis?

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Re: Ask HN: Since when does Craigslist's front page have emojis?

#11

Post by argee »

Grombobulous wrote: post #7
argee wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't find it remarkable anywhere else, but Craigslist has built a reputation on not doing this kind of thing.

I wouldn't say so. I would say it's actually exactly the kind of thing they would do - stick with plain text over things that load slower like images. Emojis are great for that, they're plain unicode text!

So, why now? Emojis have existed for a while, haven't they? Whereas Craigslist has been using images up until now (at least for the top nav items).

Re: Ask HN: Since when does Craigslist's front page have emojis?

#12

Post by OkayPhysicist »

argee wrote: post #10
xnx wrote: post #5

I like it. Good user experience isn't about dogmatically sticking to "text only", but about making a useful, understandable, navigable site. Emojis seem to help section the dozens of links on the homepage without adding unnecessary visual distraction or page payload.

> unnecessary visual distraction I think I personally see emojis used in this manner as unnecessary visual distraction, because it detracts from whatever self-consistent design system you had going on (when used for high visibility items like front page headings). Emojis don't even render the same on every platform, so its a move that dilutes your design language. Even if it's a useful visual guide, I would wager nin…

The page uses 'font-family: sans-serif'. They've already given up on any control over what the page looks like. They leave it up to the browser, which, IMO, more sites should do.

Re: Ask HN: Since when does Craigslist's front page have emojis?

#13

Post by xnx »

argee wrote: post #10
xnx wrote: post #5

I like it. Good user experience isn't about dogmatically sticking to "text only", but about making a useful, understandable, navigable site. Emojis seem to help section the dozens of links on the homepage without adding unnecessary visual distraction or page payload.

> unnecessary visual distraction I think I personally see emojis used in this manner as unnecessary visual distraction, because it detracts from whatever self-consistent design system you had going on (when used for high visibility items like front page headings). Emojis don't even render the same on every platform, so its a move that dilutes your design language. Even if it's a useful visual guide, I would wager nin…

Sites having individual "design language" is part of the problem that got us to the current balkanized web.

Re: Ask HN: Since when does Craigslist's front page have emojis?

#14

Post by Grombobulous »

argee wrote: post #11
Grombobulous wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say so. I would say it's actually exactly the kind of thing they would do - stick with plain text over things that load slower like images. Emojis are great for that, they're plain unicode text!

So, why now? Emojis have existed for a while, haven't they? Whereas Craigslist has been using images up until now (at least for the top nav items).

Craigslist has stayed very small in employee count, so I imagine someone was playing around with it and the team just agreed that they liked it.

Re: Ask HN: Since when does Craigslist's front page have emojis?

#16

Post by jey »

argee wrote: post #10
xnx wrote: post #5

I like it. Good user experience isn't about dogmatically sticking to "text only", but about making a useful, understandable, navigable site. Emojis seem to help section the dozens of links on the homepage without adding unnecessary visual distraction or page payload.

> unnecessary visual distraction I think I personally see emojis used in this manner as unnecessary visual distraction, because it detracts from whatever self-consistent design system you had going on (when used for high visibility items like front page headings). Emojis don't even render the same on every platform, so its a move that dilutes your design language. Even if it's a useful visual guide, I would wager nin…

> Emojis don't even render the same on every platform

This is a feature, not a bug. That it's using your platform-specific emojis makes it easier to scan, since it's the ideograms you are already accustomed to. Much faster to scan familiar symbols than to read each section heading serially.

Re: Ask HN: Since when does Craigslist's front page have emojis?

#18

Post by hk__2 »

As long as emojis are used as an _addition_ to text labels I think this is a good thing. The problem arises when they are used _instead_ of labels, although that’s a problem that predates emojis, it’s common with normal icons.

If you design an interface when some actions are only behind icons/emojis (no text, no hover title), expect users like me to click on them just to see what they do.

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