Reddit : Redesign 0.02

4 Responses

1. Free Reyes

   Added a few missing pieces from my other shot

   6 months ago

2. Pro Tait Brown

   This is less a re-design and more a total re-brand of Reddit. Which is not a good thing. I guess this looks good for a Windows 8 app, but in the mean time you've completely abandoned what makes the Reddit website, well, the Reddit website. The cleanliness. The simplicity. The focus on content.

   Content is key.

   It's drawing the eyes' focus away from the headlines (thumbnails are sometimes nothing more than visual noise). The login link looks disabled. "Search reddit" is really kind of a mystery. There's lots of uppercase text (bad for readability and shape recognition/scannability). Contrast issues galore.

   I think one of the key things it's missing as well is the way that :visited links on Reddit normally look so greyed out so it's easy to determine what links you have already been to. People use Reddit A LOT and endlessly refresh looking for new content. In this mock it's tough to tell what's down voted and what's just visited.

   I don't know why I've come down on this so harshly, but, well, it just strikes me as superfluous design without any consideration of the underlying motivations. Please don't take any of what I've said personally. It's easy to criticise and hard to create.

   2likes

   6 months ago

3. Free Reyes

   Thanks Tait for being so vocal, design should be polarizing otherwise its safe, and in my opinion boring.

   A lot of your issues with type and contrast levels are full intentional. Your attention should be focused on 2 things thumbnail and title (aka the content). As I type this 70% of the links on the home page have thumbnails. I'm using the thumbnails as visual anchors with the vote controls, title, and comment count nearby. I hear you on the visual noise of current Reddit thumbnails. I think it's because of how badly Reddit currently handles thumbnails.

   The low contrast on sidebar elements, source site, time posted, posted by, and sub-reddits are so you are not focusing on them. And type that is all-caps is not intended to be scanned but mostly deemphasize them. Titles are easy to read and because the title areas are thinner it's quicker to read.

   If something is :visited it's grey. Voting has nothing to do with it. Fresh unvisted content is blue.

   Down votes are not emphasized in the vote controls. Social communities that are positive have greater adoption rates. Thats why Facebook will never have a dislike button. I wouldn't want to change Reddit... so i just accentuated the positive.

   Login and Register - those do need more work.

   Search on the current Reddit is kinda buried, grey box lines with grey text. I've got an orange bar with an icon (which i should make bigger).

   Your comfortable with the current Reddit, and I'm guessing my redesign is like a pair of unbroken shoes. I've put a lot of thought into the layout, colors, contrast, letter case, and function. Hopefully you can see that.

   These are other shots I've done around the same redesign.

   Vote Control States:
   http://dribbble.com/shots/335790-Reddit-Redesign-Vote-Control-States

   Submit A Link (Pop-up):
   http://dribbble.com/shots/337277-Reddit-Redesign-Submit-A-Link-Pop-up-

   6 months ago

4. Free Reyes

   Taking @taitems pain points and iterated some new styling to the design.

   http://dribbble.com/shots/339439-Reddit-Redesign-0-03/attachments/15786

   6 months ago