Khan Academy Redesign

#1

Post by woan » Sat, Apr 16, 2011, 8:27 PM UTC

Re: Khan Academy Redesign

#2

Post by barmstrong » Sat, Apr 16, 2011, 9:31 PM UTC

JQuery mobile seems like an awesome way to get both iPhone and Android support in one fell swoop.

It's still not quite as good as a native app, but it seems like you're getting 90% of the benefit with about 10% of the work. For a dev team strapped for resources it seems like a good option.

Re: Khan Academy Redesign

#3

Post by rubergly » Sat, Apr 16, 2011, 9:39 PM UTC

The design looks very slick, and I'm very impressed.

My one complaint is that it seems wrong to have a pseudo-hover state for the entries in the lists. I don't know what standard practice is in mobile web interfaces, but it seems strange that scrolling causes elements to look selected because you have to hit a point in order to start scrolling.

Re: Khan Academy Redesign

#4

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Apr 16, 2011, 9:52 PM UTC

barmstrong wrote: post #2

JQuery mobile seems like an awesome way to get both iPhone and Android support in one fell swoop. It's still not quite as good as a native app, but it seems like you're getting 90% of the benefit with about 10% of the work. For a dev team strapped for resources it seems like a good option.

[deleted]

Re: Khan Academy Redesign

#5

Post by marcomonteiro » Sat, Apr 16, 2011, 10:24 PM UTC

rubergly wrote: post #3

The design looks very slick, and I'm very impressed. My one complaint is that it seems wrong to have a pseudo-hover state for the entries in the lists. I don't know what standard practice is in mobile web interfaces, but it seems strange that scrolling causes elements to look selected because you have to hit a point in order to start scrolling.

I noticed that too and wondered if it was by design or a bug in the implementation. I haven looked at the source though so can't answer knowledgeably.

Re: Khan Academy Redesign

#6

Post by duopixel » Sat, Apr 16, 2011, 10:43 PM UTC

While the new design is better visually, it follows a trend that I've seen the past few years and that I don't particularly like: it dedicates almost all of the real estate trying to convince you that the Khan Academy is great, while downplaying the videos which are the actual content of the site.

This is fine for an app or content that is behind a "registerwall", because you must convince the user that registering is worthwhile. But in the Khan Academy the courses a freely available. Instead of presenting me a video of Sal chatting with Bill G on the stage of TED, I'd prefer a video that is likely to expand my understanding of the universe.

Re: Khan Academy Redesign

#7

Post by tybris » Sat, Apr 16, 2011, 11:25 PM UTC

You can never have enough pictures of Bill Gates.

Re: Khan Academy Redesign

#8

Post by roryokane » Sun, Apr 17, 2011, 12:40 AM UTC

Clickable link: http://www.khanacademy.org/

I had expected that the image of the redesign would link to the main page, but annoyingly, it does not, nor is there a link anywhere else in the article.

Re: Khan Academy Redesign

#9

Post by jasonrr » Sun, Apr 17, 2011, 12:41 AM UTC

duopixel wrote: post #6

While the new design is better visually, it follows a trend that I've seen the past few years and that I don't particularly like: it dedicates almost all of the real estate trying to convince you that the Khan Academy is great, while downplaying the videos which are the actual content of the site. This is fine for an app or content that is behind a "registerwall", because you must convince the user that registering i…

Totally fair criticism. Like any design effort, it represents a careful priority balancing act. The Khan Academy is trying to do a lot of things, and communicating that effectively is a challenge. For example, not everyone is as knowledgeable as you are about what the Khan Academy offers and why they should care. The good news is that people don't have any trouble finding the videos, so I don't think the design is causing too much damage from the perspective of getting to the content you want.

That said, the sketches/mockups that led us to the current iteration of the design also included both the idea of featured content in the main video carousel and different homepage content for users who are signed in. They didn't make the cut yet, but we haven't forgotten about them.

Ultimately, I agree that we want to make it as efficient as possible to get to the content you want quickly, and I don't think we're there yet.

Re: Khan Academy Redesign

#10

Post by jasonrr » Sun, Apr 17, 2011, 12:44 AM UTC

roryokane wrote: post #8

Clickable link: http://www.khanacademy.org/ I had expected that the image of the redesign would link to the main page, but annoyingly, it does not, nor is there a link anywhere else in the article.

Good point! Fixed it in the main article too. Thanks.