Codecademy - how not to do a redesign • Hacker News Board

Re: Codecademy - how not to do a redesign

#11

Post by zds » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 4:05 AM UTC

tomcreighton wrote: post #5

Karunamon wrote: post #3

FTA> "You could say it isn't such a big deal. But if they don't care about this what else they don't care about? Quality of the courses? User experience?" This entire line of thinking really bugs the ever-loving crap out of me. Slamming the entire service based on a few misaligned elements? Pedantic much? Edit* I'd almost argue that the alignment was by design. Having the "start here" lined up with the middle bar imp…

He's not slamming the entire service, he's slamming the redesign, and rightly so. The entire purpose of the site is to teach - and the changes to the design have obfuscated what course you're supposed to take next. The design is objectively not working as well as it could.

We've heard comments from both sides of the table and we're working as fast as possible to create something that's easy to use for all of our users. Thanks for bearing with us.

Re: Codecademy - how not to do a redesign

#12

Post by zds » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 4:05 AM UTC

wyck wrote: post #7

It is kinda confusing. Agree with bad alignments but more importantly there are just to many options that basically do the same thing. I find this type of page 1000x more useful ( the profile page as well), http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/javascript Several nice pages makes the cluttered http://www.codecademy.com/courses even more strange, which fails this first metric of UI, KISS.

Thanks for pointing out what you do like - we're working on placing more emphasis on tracks.

Re: Codecademy - how not to do a redesign

#13

Post by zds » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 4:07 AM UTC

jsavimbi wrote: post #2

You're right, the redesign looks shoddy and inconsistent with modern layout conventions. Truth be told, they probably didn't hire a designer to do the work.

We have a designer on staff (as another commenter mentions, the excellent Allison House - http://allisonhou.se). Design is a very big priority for us and this redesign is the first of many we'll make - it's an incremental process and we're focused on improving our designs until they're just right.

I hope you'll bear with us as we fix this one.

Re: Codecademy - how not to do a redesign

#14

Post by zds » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 4:07 AM UTC

twog wrote: post #4

jsavimbi wrote: post #2

You're right, the redesign looks shoddy and inconsistent with modern layout conventions. Truth be told, they probably didn't hire a designer to do the work.

They actually have a really awesome designer, http://allisonhou.se/ , who is the lead designer there. I personally love the redesign.

Thanks for your support, twog.

Re: Codecademy - how not to do a redesign

#15

Post by zds » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 4:08 AM UTC

ramatgan wrote: post #8

I absolutely agree, new design is absolutely terrible. Hard to use and understand where the last lesson I left off at.

Thanks for your feedback, ramatgan. I'm the co-founder of Codecademy. I'd love your feedback - can you email us?

Re: Codecademy - how not to do a redesign

#16

Post by zds » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 4:08 AM UTC

jsavimbi wrote: post #6

twog wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They actually have a really awesome designer, http://allisonhou.se/ , who is the lead designer there. I personally love the redesign.

No, they actually do not. The visual design is poor enough, not to mention the actual code implementation but the interface itself is even more disjointed and incoherent, using a varied mix of metaphorical elements on the view that have no implied structure, hierarchy or continuity. It's as if each part of the view was designed in isolation without regard for the others. That turkey wasn't ready to come out of the ov…

I'd love to hear your feedback a bit more in-depth, jsavimbi - as mentioned, we do indeed have an in-house designer and design is a big priority for us. We'd love to hear what you think we can do better. Feel free to email us - contact (at) codecademy (dot) com. I'll read every email.

Re: Codecademy - how not to do a redesign

#17

Post by malectro » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 4:10 AM UTC

The grammar of this post really detracts from the arguments.

Re: Codecademy - how not to do a redesign

#18

Post by calydon » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 4:10 AM UTC

Taking a stand on something publicly takes courage so I don't want to be too dismissive, but respectfully, Michal, I disagree.

I'm taking the Javascript courses and I barely noticed the page had been redesigned. (That's good design!) I had no trouble finding and walking right into what I wanted. The layout is clear, logical and looks good. The 'start here' tag is probably superfluous because it isn't needed. It's obvious where you should start, depending on what you're after. I immediately got that the HTML course material had been added, but really it seemed like not much more had changed.

I think overall, your article was bad advice.

The slight misalignment of a few elements should be corrected, but actually, why bother - NO ONE but someone with a bone to pick would notice something so trivial. Build, measure, learn - don't obsess over UI pedantry.

Michal - I looked at your proposed redesign and found it cluttered, hard to read, and confusing. Codecademy - here's a good example of when to ignore your vocal users.

Re: Codecademy - how not to do a redesign

#19

Post by calydon » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 4:13 AM UTC

jsavimbi wrote: post #6

twog wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They actually have a really awesome designer, http://allisonhou.se/ , who is the lead designer there. I personally love the redesign.

No, they actually do not. The visual design is poor enough, not to mention the actual code implementation but the interface itself is even more disjointed and incoherent, using a varied mix of metaphorical elements on the view that have no implied structure, hierarchy or continuity. It's as if each part of the view was designed in isolation without regard for the others. That turkey wasn't ready to come out of the ov…

Jsavimbi - without specific examples of what you're talking about, I call trolling.

Re: Codecademy - how not to do a redesign

#20

Post by jsavimbi » Tue, Apr 17, 2012, 4:16 AM UTC

zds wrote: post #16

jsavimbi wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they actually do not. The visual design is poor enough, not to mention the actual code implementation but the interface itself is even more disjointed and incoherent, using a varied mix of metaphorical elements on the view that have no implied structure, hierarchy or continuity. It's as if each part of the view was designed in isolation without regard for the others. That turkey wasn't ready to come out of the ov…

I'd love to hear your feedback a bit more in-depth, jsavimbi - as mentioned, we do indeed have an in-house designer and design is a big priority for us. We'd love to hear what you think we can do better. Feel free to email us - contact (at) codecademy (dot) com. I'll read every email.

> That turkey wasn't ready to come out of the oven.

Like development, design works best by iteration. The overall concept isn't bad per se, the implementation looks to be haphazard and needs style, tone, ease of use and continuity.

> what you think we can do better

Iterate, iterate, iterate.