Hacker News Redesign

#1

Post by taiyab » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 12:01 AM UTC

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#2

Post by jstabbac » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 12:36 AM UTC

I think one of the reasons Hacker News has stayed this simple is that it helps filter out some of the users that don't look past design.

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#3

Post by biiiju » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 12:38 AM UTC

I think that it looks good, but I think that you could change how you display the number of points each post has accumulated. The design of the site does not seem to fit the culture of hacker news. Look at the current website, it looks like it was hacked together by a programmer not a designer. I think that a redesign of hacker news would include a bit of the old site's spirit. just my opinion please excuse my grammar

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#4

Post by zachallia » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 12:51 AM UTC

Those vertical lines in the header are dizzying

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#5

Post by astral303 » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 12:52 AM UTC

Sorry, but I don't like it. I do like the top header and the color scheme in general. The texture in the header looks snazzy, in a good way.

The space wasted by the listing of stories is very excessive. That's the meat and potatoes of the site, yet I see 10 stories in the first screenfold vs 24 now. Why dedicate so much space to the wide "XX points" label? Is it even clickable (why would it be?) Arguably upvoting a story is more important and is actually actionable, yet the up vote "caret" looks way less clickable. The comment count balloons are jarring in their size and contrast and their random placement on the right side is distracting. When I glance at the page, I notice this jagged curve of gray dots, yet it delivers no useful information (other than how long the headline is, which is not useful).

So I think it's all about the spacing. When I look at that page, is the headline list easily perusable end parsable? I don't think it is. It is more spaced out than the current design, but it is surrounded and squeezed by these loud new elements. Think about the negative space created by the three new columns before the headline--I think clutters up the headline list.

Compared to the current design, this is a worse design. While the current HN design could use improvement (IMO text is too tiny), it does have a striking simplicity and focus on headlines that I love.

I apologize if I come off sounding harsh, and I certainly don't have design chops myself to pull off something like that (though I'd like to at some point in the future...)

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#6

Post by kijin » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 12:59 AM UTC

It looks good, although I also like the current, simpler design. One thing I really like about your mock-up is that the link to the comments page has a much bigger click target. I lost count of the times I wanted to open the comments page but missed the target by a couple of pixels because it's so darn small (only 7pt).

If I were you, I'd drop the leftmost number (1, 2, 3 ... 20) which looks totally useless to me. I'd also move the points number right below the upvote button so that everyone can immediately tell what it is. No need to repeat "Points" 20 times in every page.

Also, screenshots like this should be in PNG, not JPG.

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#7

Post by bmelton » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 1:00 AM UTC

All fairness, this is perhaps my favorite HN redesign that I've seen. I'm a fan of the white space, and the far more readable text.

I don't know why we're numbering the posts on HN, so I won't critique it on the redesign, but I think you could safely drop that as an artifact and then, perhaps, the 'points' section wouldn't look so large.

The only thing I flat out dislike is the number of comments floating out to the right. It's a ragged-right design, and it bugs the crap out of me (though it might just be me).

On the whole, I'd much rather be using that site than this one though, and that's gotta be the benchmark for success. I don't think it's perfect, but I definitely agree that it's a big improvement.

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#8

Post by bicknergseng » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 1:01 AM UTC

I like it, but it feels like the gmail redesign with too much space. Some people like that, I'd prefer to see a maximum number of articles on one page.

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#9

Post by cenuij » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 1:05 AM UTC

I'd settle for a hacker news hardware upgrade instead, I keep wondering if someone plugged me into an analogue modem with these 30 second page load times. I guess that's the price of popularity.

Re: Hacker News Redesign

#10

Post by septerr » Sat, Apr 21, 2012, 1:05 AM UTC

I feel HN does need a face lift. What with it showcasing the designs of tomorrow everyday and all!

I agree with kijin, the numbers besides the posts seem of no use. We need to use the space so as to get as many posts as possible in the view without scrolling, so I wouldn't mind narrowing the distance between the posts either. Maybe a hover can magnify the post a little. Posts that link to URL could have some distinct style or something.