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Hacker News Redesign

taiyab.co.uk

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Re: Hacker News Redesign

#151

Post by redthrowaway »

eru wrote: post #150
redthrowaway wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of these things may be true, but the biggest usability issue facing HN right now is load times. HN has undergone exponential growth even in the short time I've been here, and the site hasn't kept up with it. Given that we're all programmers, perhaps we should take it upon ourselves to dig through the source and see what we can speed up.

> HN has undergone exponential growth even in the short time I've been here, [...] Nitpick: Observing exponential growth doesn't depend on the time span.

You're correct; that was sloppily written of me.

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#152

Post by taiyab »

Been reading the feedback here and on my blog over the last few hours, and I have to say I agree with most of it. This was intended to be an initial concept that was going to be iterated on again and again, so I guess I have plenty to do to make this better!

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#153

Post by blahedo »

chevas wrote: post #45
twelvechairs wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whilst I don't want to pick on the OP, this is such an important point. Its all too often that 'design' gets confused for 'eye candy'. This doesn't just happen on websites, but in all design based professions. And this is a bit of a case in point. The HN audience tends to want high-information-density, not necessarily visual joy (or for that matter extra sugar for clarity of new users). Its a very different thing to…

"As is" is still lacking. Reading these comments across almost the entire width of my monitor is not good design. You do get information density, but my belief is that in the case of reading paragraphs, information density is secondary to readability.

The solution to this is not making a design that is too wide to fit in my window, however.

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#154

Post by mkramlich »

One of my observations about software and websites has two parts and is seemingly paradoxical: design matters; and design just does not fucking matter. For every one beautiful polished friendly UI you can cite that made it's owners wealthy I can also point you at another app/site which is ugly/painful and yet it also made it's owners wealthy. I love design, I do -- but fuck design. You're right and you're wrong about it. Make something people need, that does something that matters for them, and get them to pay for it, whatever it takes, and you're gold. Plus I increasingly suspect that "design" matters most precisely when what you're providing is ephemeral or not really needed. I don't know about you but I sleep better at night thinking I'm providing something people need or that materially improves their lives, and not just hawking a commodity pig with lipstick. There are hipsters but also housewives. There are artists but also managers. There are problem spaces with dozens of pre-existing software solutions which are all friendly, effective and pretty -- and you want to stand out from them, so that's hard. And then there are other problem spaces with no software solution, or no affordable one, or nothing that runs on the particular platform a certain segment of customers wants, etc. You're free to pick which of these opportunities to take a whack at addressing.

Design sometimes matters a lot; but often design just does not matter much.

Automate someone's pain away and get them to pay you for it. There are lots of opportunities out there with this quality. Don't worry too much about design.

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#155

Post by tedmiston »

I'm oddly attracted to the existing design of Hacker News. It suits the community and purpose of the site well. It's aesthetically spartan, yet functional.

SIMPLE COLOR SCHEME: it's very simple with just one prominent color and the rest black, white, and shades of gray (I count the cream background in this).

INTUITIVE: The front page is a list of links sorted by some measurement of popularity or quality. While you may not notice this upon first glance, it's something you appreciate, and you at least take away "better stuff gets pushed up".

EFFICIENT: You can immediately see the number of comments a story has before you click through. I tend to migrate more towards stories with lively discussion, rather than the highest stories in the sort.

FAST: The whole front page is 29 KB, and I can do an uncached load in 1 second. There are only 3 images which collectively amount to less than half a KB.

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#157

Post by marekmroz »

iamjonlee wrote: post #110
SeoxyS wrote: post #12

I'm sorry, but this is a perfect example of the difference between design and eye candy. Often, people wonder why I spend $50,000 a year going to design school, when I can learn how to make things that are just as shiny by reading psdtuts.com. The difference is that style is only skin-deep. It's superficial. It's an added bonus on top of design . Design, on the other hand, is the core of the product: how it functions…

Here's what I think should have been done: LINK http://www.grooovy.me/HN.jpg Here are some thoughts on why I made mine this way: 1) Hacker news is read by hundred of thousands of people every month- to adapt to a completely new design would wreck the user experience the users have come to expect. 2) Your patterns and icons, while I appreciate the gesture takes focus away from the headlines. The most important thing s…

RE: 6) The orange, in-your-face footer is very distracting. My eyes are attracted to it constantly, and away from the articles (which as noted by the other commenter are too low contrast). My $0.02

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#158

Post by agilebyte »

iamjonlee wrote: post #111
nwienert wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tried out a more semantic redesign inspired by original submission, OP comment, and the attached screen: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3870982

I've tried one too that I think should really be how HN redesign should look like. http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2tjm5GuRF1rtfgd6o1_1280.j...

better than one by @nwienert, less busy

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#159

Post by agilebyte »

cpeterso wrote: post #63
SeoxyS wrote: post #12

I'm sorry, but this is a perfect example of the difference between design and eye candy. Often, people wonder why I spend $50,000 a year going to design school, when I can learn how to make things that are just as shiny by reading psdtuts.com. The difference is that style is only skin-deep. It's superficial. It's an added bonus on top of design . Design, on the other hand, is the core of the product: how it functions…

If you were to redesign HN's home page, what would you recommend?

Target your audience. This is what made HN successful instead of trying to accommodate a large(r) segment of a population.

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#160

Post by SkyMarshal »

reledi wrote: post #105
SkyMarshal wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Note: Check out this redesign, which I think is quite effective, and is installable as a extra stylesheet on the current HN code: http://akhun.com/seo/skitch/Hacker_News-20120420-180413.png That's really nice. It's not clear where the stylesheet is though. I'd love to use it, where might it be?

https://github.com/Primigenus/Cleaner-Hacker-News edit: waxjar already posted it further below.

Thanks man, this soooo much better than the default.
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