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Say Hello to Designer News 2.0

over 8 years ago from , Publisher of Designer News

Just over a month ago, I wrote about becoming the proud new publisher of Designer News. Since then, I’ve hired an awesome team and we’ve been working through a redesign that we think you’re going to love. It’s a first step, there’s a lot of stuff on our list, but we wanted to share our process and get the community's feedback as we go.

Some of the great new improvements we’ve made:

  • An all new look and feel. Retina optimized, fully responsive for any screen-size, and completely rebuilt from the ground up.
  • Beautiful new weekly digest and registration emails.
  • Stories now have a slick, more obvious Upvote button. Try clicking it ;-)
  • The ability to add your company logo to job listings.
  • Hovering over a user’s name or avatar now displays details about their account (Karma, activity, where they work, etc).
  • The avatar designer has been rebuilt and has some fun additional functionality (right-click to reverse and CMD-click to erase).
  • Viewing the markdown cheatsheet is now much easier on story pages.
  • Hundreds of other small tweaks :-)

There are still a couple rough edges here and there, but we’re really excited about where Designer News is headed. We’ve still got a long way to go, and we’ve got a big list of features we want to add, but we’re feeling really good about where things are at.

We’re all really excited, and look forward to hearing from everyone and continuing to grow the Designer News community. Also keen to hear your feedback and suggestions, so please leave them below and we’ll reply ASAP.

-Andrew (+ Jody, Max, and Farzad)

199 comments

  • Daniel FoscoDaniel Fosco, over 8 years ago

    Love the refresh and I'm pretty confident with the direction DN is headed, but you guys should re-think line-height and the content width. This is how I feel reading this new thread layout.

    Just saying... a little breathing room would be nice :)

    98 points
    • Max LindMax Lind, over 8 years ago

      Thanks! Biggest issue we're feeling right now is alignment + contrast issues. Working through them 1-by-1.

      16 points
    • Fri RasyidiFri Rasyidi, over 8 years ago

      Agree with Daniel.

      Also, I think you should add more padding to the article to improve readability. Making it around 60-80 characters per line would not only make it easier to read but less tiring too.

      I also think it would be best to make the text slightly darker.

      9 points
    • Sam MularczykSam Mularczyk, over 8 years ago

      Agreed on the line-height! My eyes are going a bit crazy. But technical updates are awesome.

      4 points
    • Jonathan ShariatJonathan Shariat, over 8 years ago

      Agreed. Overall Im a big fan, great job!

      Noticed a few bugs too with things getting cut off but im sure that will all get resolved.

      Keep up the good work!

      6 points
  • wim roegelswim roegels, over 8 years ago

    DN is its Content, not the vote-hype-reddit-bingo. So why is the vote count more important than the headline? Unfortunatly I do not like the redesign at all ... so far. Sorry for pointing this out, looking forward to the upcoming changes.

    designer news meh

    64 points
    • Martin LeBlancMartin LeBlanc, over 8 years ago

      The featured articles should just be aligned with the rest - agreed.

      6 points
    • John PJohn P, over 8 years ago

      So why is the vote count more important than the headline?

      So people actually click the damn things so content doesn't reach No.1 spot on the front page after 4 measly votes.

      The barely visible vote link was the poorest design choice of LV ran DN

      8 points
    • Cihad TurhanCihad Turhan, over 8 years ago

      +1 for this.

      0 points
    • Willem ShepherdWillem Shepherd, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

      Playing around in chrome dev tools:

      Concept

      *Update for anyone who likes this I shared this on Stylebot

      Designer News Stylebot

      68 points
      • Dustin CartwrightDustin Cartwright, over 8 years ago

        This looks great in my opinion. It follows a better IA. The sidebar to the right could still appear, and the measly (but important) 3 links in the left sidebar could simply be moved above the main content column.

        4 points
      • Kushtrim XhaferiKushtrim Xhaferi, over 8 years ago

        this +1000.

        6 points
      • Nick Perich, over 8 years ago

        +1 I like the redesign overall and these are great tweaks! At the very least, the upvote button needs to be moved to the right, since it's not more important to see at a glance than the story title. FWIW I'd personally also shrink the story type icon since it feels to me like it just adds noise. I know getting that right would be tricky though!

        0 points
      • Spencer HoltawaySpencer Holtaway, over 8 years ago

        I agree - I'd love to see this arrangement.

        0 points
      • Sean RavenwoodSean Ravenwood, over 8 years ago

        This, this is a much better layout that doesn't confuse my eyes about what i'm trying to look at. Please, this.

        Having two icons in a row then the text that I want to read makes my brain hurt. I think its particularly bad when you have two bright non complementing colored icons next to a subdued heading.

        Also does the number even matter, shouldn't i be "liking" it based on merit rather following the numbers, assuming that articles with more interest appear further up the page.

        Any how good luck :)

        0 points
      • Todd SielingTodd Sieling, over 8 years ago

        Bingo. Nice refinement, this just feels nice.

        0 points
    • Andrew Wilkinson, over 8 years ago

      Yeah this is driving me fucking nuts. Working on it ;-)

      5 points
  • Simon GoetzSimon Goetz, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Why is the up-vote count box so big. The site reads very poorly now. Also why can't you undo an up-vote.

    34 points
    • Andrew Wilkinson, over 8 years ago

      Working on it :-)

      Suggestions for improving readability? We're tweaking colors/contrast right now.

      3 points
      • Simon GoetzSimon Goetz, over 8 years ago

        I would say the most important information on the screen is the title of the article. At the moment all i see are upvote boxes. I think a huge fix would be moving them or changing their style.

        You may also want to take a look at your meta data on each article. It has great prominence even though it is not that important.

        3 points
    • Andrew Lilja, over 8 years ago

      I actually really dig the size of the upvotes. First thing I see and it immediately directs my attention to the popular posts first.

      4 points
    • Matthias Hoyer, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

      I would move the upvote box to the right side. The natural flow would be: Read the headline > Sounds good > Upvote And the reading flow is way better, now it's really broken because some posts don't have the box and some have. Additionally I get a 500 on https://www.designernews.co/new when I am logged out

      8 points
  • n keylen keyle, over 8 years ago

    I liked the minimalism in the previous version. It was HN inspired but had its own vibe. Worse is the score box, it is huge and distracting. Reminds of Digg. I am not anti evolution though. Thanks for putting a lot of hard work. Keep it unique.

    24 points
  • Jon MyersJon Myers, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    I could wax and gush about this design because I really love your work, and perhaps I’m off, but hopefully as business people with an insane passion for the design community, you will appreciate some brutally honest feedback that is without emotional attachment to the previous design.

    I don’t mind change, it’s just...

    As a user, the change must have value, utility and be appropriate for the psychological context it exists in. I do not feel any of these changes have accomplished any of those measures.

    In fact, the reverse has happened.

    I really enjoyed the easy readability and scanability of the previous design and layout.

    As a visitor hitting the homepage, the element of a news/ community site I am most concerned about in this case is the title. That's it.

    If a title catches my attention, I will click. That's about it.

    I assume most others initially consume news and participate in communities in a similar fashion. You love Sketch, you may click on a title containing the word Sketch.

    Thus, most sites designed for consuming news or participating in a community prioritize the readability of headlines. Even Reddit or HN upvote controls are more muted.

    Perhaps another signal would be comment count.

    We are human. We are drawn to crowds as they grow.

    “What’s everyone saying”

    We are human. I believe we are more drawn to enticing headlines than a chorus of loud numbers broadcasting over the headlines.

    While the chorus of icons in the previous design did add a little value, their repetitious use dulls my eyes, coupled with the loud priority and visual style of the upvote count blocking my scan path, it is frankly, a disincentive to even bother scanning to read the headline at all.

    Scanning headlines and having to stumble over that vote count on every line feels like work.

    This much priority and visual volume being broadcast by the icons and the upvote counts is surprising to me. It's difficult to block out and focus on the headlines.

    Upvote is useful. Perhaps it’s one of the best signals we have to collectively mine for quality, but then again - - it feels like a signal in a state of atrophy that is gamed and exploited.

    In the case of commenting, quality doesn’t always win over the “witty” “snarky” snipes that vacuum up the votes and create shallow communities.

    Maybe I missed it, but I don’t recall ever seeing “Best” “Worst” “First” “Last” sorting for comments in the previous design?

    If they did exist before, thankfully I never noticed them.

    Worst comment - wow, just seems - - negative and unnecessary.

    It feels counter-community to me. It feels counter-quality. It feels like a disincentive to contribute. It feels like troll fuel to gain up on others and punch with the same old shallow snark.

    As others have said, the actual readability of the content itself is in serious jeopardy.

    Everything is unnecessarily crowded. Line height is not to standard, and so on.

    I really appreciate you all picking up the torch for DesignerNews and carrying on the community. Thank you.

    I hope you will take some of this feedback for your consideration and look forward to more from you all.

    Cheers.

    16 points
    • Stefan Rauch, over 8 years ago

      Agree with “Best” “Worst” “First” “Last” being strange.

      Readability has gone backwards.

      0 points
      • Ian GoodeIan Goode, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

        I like most of the improvements and some were sorely needed. Totally agree about the readability, finding it a lot harder to read comment threads now. The forced anti-aliasing makes the comment text extremely hard to read (I'm not on a retina display) and the commenter name, title, comment text, meta info all seem to blend together too well, not enough contrast between those elements, imo. I wonder whether this a conscious decision to nudge people towards writing longer responses?

        [edit] Just saw that quotes are 12px!

        So yeah definite round of polish needed on readability, but looks like things are in good hands going forward :)

        0 points
    • Daniel GoldenDaniel Golden, over 8 years ago

      These comment filters/sorting options did exist in the last version of DN. The language was even the same. It was just less prominent and most of the options were hidden until you hovered over the default choice.

      0 points
  • Kirill ZakharovKirill Zakharov, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    First of all, congrats on the redesign Andrew and the team. A few things that I spotted on my end:

    • I'd bring back the faded a:visited state – it's a bit too subtle right now.

    • I find myself focusing more on the upvote box than the actual title of the article. Might be cuz of the border.

    • The auto-expanding comment box was a nice touch.

    Other than that, I agree with most of the things that were mentioned. Best of luck moving forward!

    Messing around with a:visited via dev tools: Dev tools tweaks

    15 points
  • Daniel De LaneyDaniel De Laney, over 8 years ago

    This is a long comment thread, so I’ve taken the liberty of summarizing:

    I DO NOT APPROVE OF THINGS WHICH ARE DIFFERENT FROM THE WAY THEY PREVIOUSLY WERE

    ALSO HERE IS A LIST OF OPINIONS:

    • MOVE THE THING FROM THE PLACE TO THE OTHER PLACE
    • CHANGE THE THING
    • NEVER DO STUFF
    10 points
    • Sean LesterSean Lester, over 8 years ago

      Firstly, I think DN was fine as it was. There was really no need to redesign. In fact, what worse way to establish the idea that DN will remain true to itself despite changing hands than to do a redesign? The criticisms I've seen are much more educated and well articulated than you would find elsewhere on the internet, as well, and there are several people who quite like it. I have a a few opinions on things I do and do not like, but issues like thread readability are hardly something you would want to reduce to "opinions" unless you're fine with the idea that design has no objective qualities and can't be judged by any objective metric - making our careers all essentially nonsensical.

      2 points
    • Todd SielingTodd Sieling, over 8 years ago

      I can add to this: * Never give feedback * Never care about a place you hang out * Confuse critique with criticism * Assume everyone expects every suggestion to be implemented * Use all caps to over-simplify

      I'm poking fun, even as I recognize I'm doing it with snark. That people give enough of a damn to offer feedback, propose changes with visual work they put into it, and actually react is - wait for it - a good thing! The worst - the kiss of death - is when there is no reaction at all. And if we're surprised at a flood of opinions from a room full of designers, well, meet designers :)

      0 points
    • Deryck HensonDeryck Henson, over 8 years ago

      funniest thing I read all day. thanks for that.

      2 points
  • Kushtrim XhaferiKushtrim Xhaferi, over 8 years ago

    Dear DN developer

    PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE put that damn up-vote count box on the END of the TItle. UP-VOTES are not relevant, the TITLE is.

    THANK YOU .

    10 points
  • Jason CalleiroJason Calleiro, over 8 years ago

    Love it! Great job and can't wait to see the direction you take Designer News in.

    8 points
  • Martin LeBlancMartin LeBlanc, over 8 years ago

    I would prefer a bit more minimal look and feel - like this:

    Good job guys! Keep it up.

    7 points
  • Andrew-David JahchanAndrew-David Jahchan, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    I'm not sure I like this change. I'm really not the type of person that hates change, in fact, I usually welcome it and laugh at people that whine about Facebook's layout changes, but I honestly don't know if I like this new look at all.

    It kind of feels bulky and all over the place. Like everything takes up too much space or there isn't enough space for things? I'm not sure how to explain it.

    The buttons/links all feel different. Some have shadows, some are green, some are blue, some are just text that underline one hover, some are just text that change colour on hover, it's really inconsistent.

    Also: Long shadow logo? D:

    7 points
  • Dustin CartwrightDustin Cartwright, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    I've been reading DN since it's inception as that awkward side project from Layervault. It's growth to popularity, and the rise of quality content really set it apart from other sites. Designer News is it's content. so it's great to see the majority of tweaks are centered around that aspect as opposed to fleshing out other areas. I think the note that wasn't heard though is that DN is a news site first, and community second. Many users skim the homepage headlines and drill down on topics of interest. Slimming down the IA hierarchy has really destroyed that user flow sadly.

    A merge of old DN and new DN

    Having the headlines really stand out makes a world of difference in reading pleasure. If you're unsure, check out this shot of a cached version of DN earlier this month and compare it to today's homepage.

    Regardless of opinion, congrats on 2.0 and the (hopefully) many versions to come!

    5 points
    • Martin LeeMartin Lee, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

      Maybe I just got used to the old design, but my thoughts exactly... The first thing I did was to modify it with Stylish for Chrome. Two lines of css cleaned it up nicely for me:

      .story-list a.story-vote { float: right; margin: 0 -20px 0 0; } .story-meta { opacity: 0.4; }

      2 points
      • Dustin CartwrightDustin Cartwright, over 8 years ago

        Exactly what I did. I'm keeping an eye on the comments here and adding tidbits in for bugs like the word-length thing below. The links are gone in the screenshot I posted, but I ended up repositioning the "top/recent" etc links over the white column just below the logo/nav.

        0 points
      • Matthew R. MillerMatthew R. Miller, over 8 years ago

        Along with your suggestion, I added this to mine

        .story-link:visited, .listing-link:visited { color: #5f656e; }

        0 points
  • Account deleted over 8 years ago

    A bit late to the conversation, but would it make sense to open source the site design?

    It would really make designing the site feel like a community effort. Features could even be voted on via the existing posting framework so that we can decide what new features or improvements to implement...

    Also, it wouldn't hurt to have the community help fix bugs as well. =)

    5 points
  • Valtteri KarestoValtteri Karesto, over 8 years ago

    Hey!

    What about the API? Old links to API documentation doesn't work anymore. Is there a way to get API keys and where can I read the documentation?

    5 points
  • Sean LesterSean Lester, over 8 years ago

    I have to agree with every other criticism I've seen almost entirely, and would like to add that I realllllllly dislike the new long shadow logo thing and miss the lil face guy. The long shadow letters thing is so lazy - I would really expect DN to be better than to copy+paste trend, as I view DN as a home for excellence as its inhabitants are serious design professionals - many of whom have very impressive backgrounds. You don't find talent like this in other communities, so you should represent the community as such.

    4 points
  • ポール ウェッブポール ウェッブ, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    I love two things about this redesign. First, I can log in by pressing Enter after putting in my password. Second, the site asked to remember my password. I'm sure I'll see more I love.

    EDIT: I like the edit page, the upvote button look, and the error pages! https://www.designernews.co/500

    4 points
  • Mike HeitzkeMike Heitzke, over 8 years ago

    I was going to complain about not being able to upvote responses, but then I realized I wasn't logged in. So, there's that.

    Generally I like the updates. The article icon and the upvote block feel heavy next to one another, but I like the clarity around the upvote count and the thread interactions.

    4 points
    • Andrew Wilkinson, over 8 years ago

      Glad to hear that, Mike. We're making a lot of little tweaks as we speak, so appreciate everyone pointing out anything that feels off :-)

      2 points
  • Willem ShepherdWillem Shepherd, over 8 years ago

    IMHO I feel like this new design is leaning towards a 'reddit' structure with the focus on upvoting and downvoting, status etc. I guess it's important but some things that weren't addressed I feel were put sideline to making the site more 'upvotable'. Primarily the ability to have multi-level replies.

    What is the use of the hash at the end of a comment? Why hide so much in menus?

    I felt that there is some ambiguity in the menu content language: - Gallery - traditionally means images - 'Avatar Gallery' would make more sense? - Things - sort of makes sense? - Hall of Fame - shouldn't this show highest rated posts? - this is just a list of memorable quotes - I guess it makes sense.

    Random but I've never really understood the difference between stories and discussions. Isn't everything on this site 'open for discussion'?

    At the end of the day - my takeaway is that there is less focus on the actual stories, more focus on money generating design job links, and more focus on the social flagellation involved with up and downvoting.

    p.s. I agree with Andrew... Long shadow?? I guess as an homage to the original or early version?

    p.p.s. Take this with a grain of salt - markdown is nice but a simple WYSIWYG is better.

    3 points
    • Andrew Wilkinson, over 8 years ago

      I felt that there is some ambiguity in the menu content language: - Gallery - traditionally means images - 'Avatar Gallery' would make more sense? - Things - sort of makes sense? - Hall of Fame - shouldn't this show highest rated posts? - this is just a list of memorable quotes - I guess it makes sense.

      I agree with you re: wording, something we can change. Those actually didn't change though—same as the old design.

      Random but I've never really understood the difference between stories and discussions. Isn't everything on this site 'open for discussion'?

      Discussions are non-link stories. For instance, like this one, where they are focused on commenting/sharing with the community/giving feedback instead of linking to an external site.

      p.p.s. Take this with a grain of salt - markdown is nice but a simple WYSIWYG is better.

      100% agree! Want to do WYSIWYG as soon as we can.

      p.s. I agree with Andrew... Long shadow?? I guess as an homage to the original or early version?

      Bummer. See if it grows on you. We really like it :-)

      1 point
      • Willem ShepherdWillem Shepherd, over 8 years ago

        p.s. I just noticed the increase in 'levels' with comments (or maybe didn't see it before)

        Thanks for the clarification with discussion vs stories!

        The long Shadow – It's almost a knee-jerk reaction at this point – to be honest I don't really have an issue and find it is oddly appropriate and nice in the top header logo. I feel like in the footer you lose me in the circle, maybe dropping it there would be worth taking a look at?

        p.s. any by WYSIWYG editor I don't mean anything fancy - I like the approach google inbox uses (if it was visible all the time instead of being hidden in a hover/click button) - just the essentials:

        • bold
        • italic
        • (NOT UNDERLINE)
        • lists
        • links
        • maybe code

        I wouldn't even include headings.

        p.p.s. footer logo

        4 points
      • Andrew Lilja, over 8 years ago

        WYSIWYG is the worst. If you do implement it.. please leave Markdown support enabled.

        0 points
    • Daniel GoldenDaniel Golden, over 8 years ago

      Strongly disagree. Markdown is better than a wysiwyg.

      0 points
  • Joe Blau, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    I thought the site was broken, then I saw the first post.

    3 points
    • Andrew Wilkinson, over 8 years ago

      Good news: It's not!

      6 points
      • Joe Blau, over 8 years ago

        The changes look really good. You know what we need next right? Another classic iOS/Android designer news App design challenge. Gets people working on something cool, it's exciting to see peoples creative design ideas, and I haven't heard anyone mention spec work in a few months.

        3 points
  • Wassim BWassim B, over 8 years ago

    :(

    3 points
  • Pasquale D'SilvaPasquale D'Silva, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    I don't think there was really a benefit in rolling out a DESIGNER NEWS 2.0 as a monster release, vs rolling out small, steady improvements.

    There's no need to bundle everything.

    Releasing something with an explosive number of feature changes, inevitably becomes a very tough thing for existing users to accept.

    2 points
  • Whitney Helpert, over 8 years ago

    application-down This is happening to me a lot.

    2 points
  • Sean LesterSean Lester, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    This is going to be a weird point / a bit abstract, but: I feel like this redesign misses the personality of the way blues have been used. It's always given me this feeling:

    Image alt

    It most certainly doesn't now - and that makes me sad.

    Edit: How do I have -1 points on a site that has no downvotes?

    2 points
  • Mark FinnMark Finn, over 8 years ago

    Hello Designer News 2.0, nice to meet you!

    2 points
  • Josh RubenoffJosh Rubenoff, over 8 years ago

    Awesome to see some updates.

    I check Designer News every day. I've never checked other "public voting" sites (Digg, Reddit, etc.) with the same frequency. I think it's largely because, as a reader, DN doesn't read like a popularity contest (even though it is). You can skim through the first page of links without noticing the upvote count.

    This redesign has such an obvious Upvote button that it kind of ruins that vibe. I'll probably still read every day, but I'm definitely going to feel gross about it now.

    2 points
  • Dana (dmxt)Dana (dmxt), over 8 years ago

    Text is too light.

    2 points
  • Caleb Wong, over 8 years ago

    Nice work Andrew & team. Love all the little improvements and tweaks. My only feedback is a better contrast between new links and visited links, it's almost too hard to differentiate between new links and visited ones when I scroll and read.

    1 point
  • Christian EhrhardtChristian Ehrhardt, over 8 years ago

    I think the new site looks great... but after skimming the comments I feel like I should complain about something so I just wanted to express how annoyed I was when the burger I got today had onions after I clearly said no onions.

    1 point
  • Nick van der WildtNick van der Wildt, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Some people need to learn to give feedback, holy cow.

    I love the redesign, thanks for the hard work guys!

    EDIT: sure there are things to polish, but that doesn't spoil the good stuff for me!

    1 point
  • JC .JC ., over 8 years ago

    Only major issue I have is that the icons are visually competing with the new score box. One of them needs to be a lot visually intense, whether in size and/or color. Personally I would get ride of the icon all together, I never know what the hell each icon stands for anyways.

    1 point
  • Kyle GillenKyle Gillen, over 8 years ago

    Great new look Andrew (Jody, Max & Farzad). Retina optimised is a big plus for me. Thanks!

    completely rebuilt from the ground up.

    I assume you're talking code here? Any chance of you going into detail on the changes / decisions made, if so.

    1 point
  • Jono HerringtonJono Herrington, over 8 years ago

    Call me old fashioned but I will have to say that when I click on navigation links like recent stories, I would prefer to actually get a page instead of a 500 message.

    1 point
  • David YeiserDavid Yeiser, over 8 years ago

    Overall this looks great. Wonderful job! I'm very optimistic about where you're taking Designer News.

    1 point
  • Robin RaszkaRobin Raszka, over 8 years ago

    Oh wow, I don't like this.

    1 point
    • Daniel GoldenDaniel Golden, over 8 years ago

      Break it down, man. What would you do differently?

      0 points
      • Robin RaszkaRobin Raszka, over 8 years ago

        Well, I wouldn't do anything. When dealing with such a delicate crowd like the one here you can't do dramatic changes like this.

        Visually, there's much more noise and it's harder to consume.

        1 point
  • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, over 8 years ago

    Looks good.

    1 point
  • Bevan StephensBevan Stephens, over 8 years ago

    Firstly love your work and know how hard it is to get products into production. Well done all!

    Secondly as many have mentioned, I'm afraid that the key distinguishing feature of Designer News over other news sites has been lost in the update.

    The readability of the content.

    The interface is now more cluttered and has less whitespace and too much emphasis has been put on the interface controls rather than the content.

    I hope you re-consider this in the next phase of your work.

    1 point
  • adrian ioadrian io, over 8 years ago

    Did you do any user testing to see whether things are actually better or rolled out changes to a smaller user base first?

    I find readability is worse than before and why is the content width narrower?

    Introducing fundamental changes to a site with thousands of users is always tricky.

    1 point
  • John PJohn P, over 8 years ago

    Glad the upvote is way more visible and a giant button now.

    Having it as a tiny low contrast link is one of the major reasons the content has been so one tone over the years. Just the same 5 or so people actually clicking the almost hidden button

    1 point
  • Oz LozanoOz Lozano, over 8 years ago

    Digging it! Though having a 'WORST' sort category doesn't really make much sense given there's no downvoting mechanism (admins aside).

    Look forward to future tweaks and improvements! Great first step!

    1 point
    • Daniel GoldenDaniel Golden, over 8 years ago

      That's been around for a while, dude. It was just less prominent and most of the options were hidden until you hovered over the default choice.

      0 points
  • Mathias AdamMathias Adam, over 8 years ago

    Good to see our community evolve!

    1 point
  • Tom WoodTom Wood, over 8 years ago

    Ok, so time for the flurry of European feedback..

    If I could have 1 thing change it would be the column width.

    Far too tight to read any of the headlines on the home page.

    1 point
  • Ernest Ojeh, over 8 years ago

    Oh wow. This caught me by surprise. Nicely done.

    1 point
  • Mathieu MayerMathieu Mayer, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    My only question is:

    Why did you kill the QOTD? :cry:

    EDIT: just saw it down the list on the frontpage.... AAAAH, wish it was still on top :p

    Apart from that, good job. Keep going!

    1 point
  • louie solomonlouie solomon, over 8 years ago

    Any plans to bring comment collapsing / minimizing back?

    I used to be able to click on the avatar next to someone's name to collapse that comment, but that feature seems to have been removed.

    1 point
  • Rober GonzálezRober González, over 8 years ago

    :-(

    1 point
  • Mitch De CastroMitch De Castro, over 8 years ago

    To be honest, I'm really not feeling this update, but I can see that this is a major overhaul. In any case, I'd like to see more tweaks to the typography in terms of size and color. I miss the attention being given to user comments as opposed to other info (user name, upvoting, etc.) because I'm looking at everything and hierarchy's losing it for me.

    1 point
  • Dan CoatesDan Coates, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Holy Moly, site is completely borked in firefox on mac. Did you guys test this before releasing? I can't even hit the submit button for this post without using dev tools to edit the page.

    edit: If I was you guys I'd roll this back and fix it before releasing again.

    1 point
  • John LeschinskiJohn Leschinski, over 8 years ago

    Can't remove an upvote.

    1 point
  • Will C, over 8 years ago

    This refresh looks great! Thank you so much for the hard work and dedication for this release!!

    1 point
  • Neruthes (a.k.a. J.N.)Neruthes (a.k.a. J.N.), over 8 years ago

    Whitney is way better than Gotham in terms of web readability. A great move forward.

    1 point
  • Nic TrentNic Trent, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    • On mobile it seems the best and worst comment filters are flip flopped?

    • Is there no way to view all the articles a person has posted?

    • Links run off page & a weird border on right. Image alt

    1 point
  • Alex M.Alex M., over 8 years ago

    Hello!

    1 point
  • Callil CapuozzoCallil Capuozzo, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    I like it so far, definitely starting to feel more complete. I'm looking forward to the evolution over time.

    two pieces of critique - it is designer news after all!

    • I hope contrast can be increased a bit more over all, looots of grey.
    • I think the upvote buttons need to be more balanced compare to the topic icons, the hierarchy of the two is not quite right. because it's repeated many times on the page it should be more subdued because once you learn it, you may not want it in your face all the time. here is a small change to the style sheet that deemphasizes the buttons a tiny bit: balanced upvotes

    • The type in posts feels a bit cramped right now. I think a bit more padding would help the page not feel compressed and claustrophobic and make for a better reading experience: another small change to the style sheet that spaces out comments a bit: spacing in the comments

    feature requests:

    • comment previews

    • inline image uploading

    edit: I'm a fan of the long shadow: simple with character. Would be so cool to animate on hover

    1 point
    • Andrew Wilkinson, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

      Biggest issue we're feeling right now is alignment + contrast issues. Working through them 1-by-1.

      I think the upvote buttons need to be more balanced compare to the topic icons, the hierarchy of the two is not quite right. because it's repeated many times on the page it should be more subdued because once you learn it, you may not want it in your face all the time.

      Yeah, would love any suggestions you have to counter balance.

      2 points
      • Daniel FoscoDaniel Fosco, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

        Is this... a meta joke playing with the comment preview feature request? Because if that's the case, it's a brilliant one.

        EDIT: Formatting on Andrew's comment seemed crazy broken a few moments ago, but now I look like a lunatic, haha.

        3 points
      • Callil CapuozzoCallil Capuozzo, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

        To go deeper into this. I think the paradigm of an upvote button is pretty well established and might not need a button representation for this audience. I understand the goal of making it more obvious, but I wonder if lack of understanding was a barrier preventing people from participating in the voting. It could be cool to run an A/B test to see which design gets more engagement! I'd love to be proven wrong.

        Here's two quick ideas did in the CSS:

        0 points
  • Jonathan YapJonathan Yap, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Awesome stuff! Pretty cool redesign. Found some pretty cool stuff, you can now see individual comments on it's own page. I can see this being super useful when the discussion goes on it's own track like this

    My feedback I think the main story contrast can be a little bit better seeing that the links and the right hand jobs list have a stronger contrast. Kinda takes the eye away a little. It's in the right direction though, more pleasant to read.

    Here's a bug for you. Btw, is the site loading really slow for anyone else?

    1 point
  • Ian WilliamsIan Williams, over 8 years ago

    Hovering over the avatars is a bit buggy, fyi.

    1 point
  • alena 512, over 1 year ago

    Tamildhool is one of the best online websites to download or watch all Tamil Tv shows and serials. vijaytv.me

    0 points
  • Galya Iliev, 8 years ago (edited 8 years ago )

    Hey Designer News team. I can't view or edit my profile. Can you please help me? When I try to access Profile, I get a page with 500 on it and red background.

    0 points
  • Daniel ArcherDaniel Archer, over 8 years ago

    It would be great to see a status board of upcoming features being implemented or in progress! Search sucks, and I'm seeing some links posted multiple times (shouldn't it prevent duplicates within a certain time period?).

    0 points
  • Diego LafuenteDiego Lafuente, over 8 years ago

    I find out that the site is too stretch. I preffer to adjust the length of the line to my preference with the browser window. That's why I love sites like Reddit or Hacker news, mostly because of the fluid layout.

    0 points
  • Mitchell AkomolafeMitchell Akomolafe, over 8 years ago

    Loving the redesign, it feels new but still the same. Congratulations, I can tell you guys put in a lot of work and are continuing to do so.

    I only have one issue.

    I visit design news quite frequently on my iPhone and there seems to a bug with the menu when swiping left and tapping a few of the menu links. Happens on both Safari and Chrome.

    Furthermore, I can't access account information or logout on both the browsers

    Apart from that, it's awesome.

    0 points
  • Michael RurkaMichael Rurka, over 8 years ago

    What I miss the most is seeing the job title of the poster, on the main feed. Seeing a post by "John Smith" gives me no context at all. Makes the name itself (not the user) relatively unimportant, imo. I hope I'm not the only one who feels this way :(

    0 points
  • Kenneth T, over 8 years ago

    2 remarks: - scan lines on the article list: please align your article titles as Wim Roegels below already mentioned. - increase contrast: If you strive for an optimal reading experience, please make sure text and background colors provide enough contrast -http://snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html#fg=33FF33,bg=333333 On a positive note: I'm a long time fan of the content this platform provides. :) Cheers.

    0 points
  • Antonio PratasAntonio Pratas, over 8 years ago

    I wouldn't want to be the guy redesigning a website for designers, lots of critique coming your way. On the other hand, lot's of amazing feedback.

    0 points
  • Fen O.Fen O., over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Is it just me or is the search not working at all?

    0 points
  • Deryck HensonDeryck Henson, over 8 years ago

    The majority of the hate mail here seems to float toward the voting button placement, because titles are more important, blah...blah...blah. Everyone is repeating the textbook crap, and yes, a detour for your eyes may put strain on them at times during, but I know damn well I'm not the only one who uses those votes to keep my ADHD in check.

    If someone can make it so I don't have to read a title to know I should read the article then good golly Miss Molly, please do not stand in the way. That there is what we like to call a good user experience.

    In fact, I would argue that the vote count is a more valuable piece of content than the title itself and, aside from the misalignment noted above, should not be changed at all.

    0 points
  • Some DesignerSome Designer, over 8 years ago

    Hi Andrew,

    I got two feedbacks.

    1) Markdown reference guide should not overlay the whole comment section. Instead it should collapse un click/touch like reddit. Instead of copy/pasting I mostly type the lines.

    2) I there any way to take back my upvote on front page? Not that I want to but I wanted to repeat the animation by taking back my upvote and giving back but the button won't work again if you upvoted.

    0 points
  • Miguel Solorio, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    I'm probably late to this thread, but overall I am glad that change is happening on DN. The old site was nice but it wasn't maintained and needed help with a lot of functionality. However, this new site has several visual changes that make it harder to read and focus on the content (which is why we come here).

    I did a quick Stylish theme to help with readability and feel a little more natural for me:

    DN News

    I'll try and summarize the issues I have:

    • The upvote buttons are really distracting. I get that you want to make them emphasized, but all my eye focuses on is those big boxes. It feels like you're wanting me to focus on upvoting rather than the reading the content
    • The reading pane is too small. Why is this 600px wide? I feel a lot of tension as I read threads with the narrow pane (and small margins/paddings).
    • The trendy logo and icons feel commercial. Though the original DN had these elements (before it was a trend), I don't see the need for it. It doesn't feel like it properly represents DN, which is a community of designers. There is no character in that. The outlined icons are also very hard to read and guess what they mean.
    • The "..." submenu is mobile pattern. I don't know why a mobile pattern is being used in a desktop environment, especially in the main navigation. In mobile, these are used due to limited screen space. You don't have that issue here and feels like an easy cop out.
    • The mobile version site doesn't feel intuitive. There were a lot of strange interaction on mobile (... menu, design jobs panel, navigation). You also have no way to logout or view your profile.
    0 points
  • Martin KMartin K, over 8 years ago

    I would like to see more contrast on what links I've been reading/visiting.

    0 points
  • Gwen BrinsmeadGwen Brinsmead, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Excited to see small changes on the site. Couple tweaks and comparisons for fun/readability/scanability's sake:

    old

    mod

    new

    0 points
  • Aaron Godin, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Fix ur static assets, fool :P

    Nice work on the redesign!

    0 points
  • Al HaighAl Haigh, over 8 years ago

    I want to follow this thread and see the latest comments.

    Toggling 'LAST' just keeps the 'BEST' comment at the top.

    0 points
  • David DarnesDavid Darnes, over 8 years ago

    The only issue I'm personally having trouble with is the main bac toggle on mobile. The responsive time is a bit slow and the side scrolling is buggy.

    Other than that it's all very fresh and exciting look, thanks for refreshing the design but keeping the well known DN look!

    0 points
  • Surjith S MSurjith S M, over 8 years ago

    Excited about the new design.. But Please do make some changes to make it perfect.

    • Remove border of Upvote button and reduce left and right padding. so that our eye can actually scan the Title first not button.Once upvoted, make the color light grey or something.
    • Move MOTD to Top. Maan.. no reason to move it to down.
    • Remove zig zag effect caused of "Sponsor" => Why not add upvote feature for Sponsors also? Also change the Sponsor icon. it feels like Ask DN
    • Change the :visited color to a light grey, so when re-checking DN, we can easily know which one we already clicked.
    • Sidebar Ads? we use adblocker :P Sponsor is not enough?
    • Please reduce the comment box height on post page.Let it be auto height when adding content. because We can't see the comments first.

    Please consider the above things, and Make DN a better place, Andrew.

    0 points
    • Andrew Wilkinson, over 8 years ago

      Hey Surjith,

      Thanks for all the tweaks. Definitely stuff we're looking at—making shitloads of tweaks today.

      Re: The ads: Not sure if you know the story, but I bought Designer News from Layervault, which went bankrupt. At the time I bought it, it was losing thousands of dollars a month. In order to support continued work on the site, we need to have sponsorships, advertisers, and more activity on the job board. DN needs to turn into a proper business, just like Dribbble and other sites that stand on their own independently. That said, we're focused on only working with companies that are design-focused and that the community will be interested in. Hope that sheds some light :-)

      1 point
      • Surjith S MSurjith S M, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

        Thanks for the reply.

        I also noticed a bug in email notification, where instead of your comment, its shows mine.

        Good Luck :)

        0 points
  • Surjith S MSurjith S M, over 8 years ago

    Excited about the new design.. But Please do make some changes to make it perfect.

    • Remove border of Upvote button and reduce left and right padding. so that our eye can actually scan the Title first not button.Once upvoted, make the color light grey or something.
    • Move MOTD to Top. Maan.. no reason to move it to down.
    • Remove zig zag effect caused of "Sponsor" => Why not add upvote feature for Sponsors also? Also change the Sponsor icon. it feels like Ask DN
    • Change the :visited color to a light grey, so when re-checking DN, we can easily know which one we already clicked.
    • Sidebar Ads? we use adblocker :P Sponsor is not enough?

    Please consider the above things, and Make DN a better place, Andrew.

    0 points
  • James Caruso, over 8 years ago

    Jumping on the feedback bandwagon, my two cents: what are votes for, really? Are they indicators of the quality of the content, relevance, or discussion? Instead of votes, why not translate the number into something that adds context to the story, like 'heavily debated', 'topically relevant','mixed sentiment', etc. Seems to me votes have the same problem as star ratings: above or below a certain threshold of votes and we'll either engage with it or disregard it. Just my thoughts.

    0 points
  • Marcus ZanonaMarcus Zanona, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Looking really good in all senses guys! Congrats! The only thing I am noticing is the speed? — It seems to be taking longer to load than usual?

    0 points
  • Beth RBeth R, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    3 Suggestions:

    1. In the Latest Design Jobs sidebar (which I really love btw), to add the city that the job is being offered.

    2. To make it easier to see a reply to my comment (especially in such a long one like this with hundreds of comments to search through.)

    3. To have a preview button before posting (in case you make a Markdown mistake). Github does a really nice job with that.

    0 points
  • Dimitrie Hoekstra, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    good luck on the new design. Love a lot, other things could be improved from the few comments I read below. Tiny little thing: when logging in, it says very vaguely (low contrast) litterally: "I need Help". Just MHO, but I do not need professional help haha!

    Maybe improved upon by saying: "help needed?" or "In need of help?" or even just "help me"/"assist me"

    GL, I like this community alot!

    consistency in this matter could be created by having a design persona behind designer news. A character that would say these things "in character" so to say (like mailchimp). But you will know these things just as well as I do.

    0 points
  • Beth RBeth R, over 8 years ago

    I like the new look. My only issue is with the double focal point on the left of each post. The Points count box feels too large and stark to be right next to the Post type icon.

    0 points
  • Willem ShepherdWillem Shepherd, over 8 years ago

    I don't know if this is a direct result of the redesign or just the amount of traffic on this particular post - I believe the overall page load speed has taken a fairly dramatic hit.

    I never did any speed checks before, but I would be curious to see if there is actually a difference? I feel as though Stories take longer to load and occasionally don't at all, Here is a screenshot of the error I have received a couple of times.

    Keep up the great work!

    0 points
  • Chris ColemanChris Coleman, over 8 years ago

    Disallowing zoom on mobile devices is downright user-hostile. This is literally a one-line fix. Seriously.

    0 points
  • Gijs van de NieuwegiessenGijs van de Nieuwegiessen, over 8 years ago

    The main menu acts strangely when I press an item to the right on mobile portrait (iPhone 6) the menu items sort of scroll away.

    I agree mostly with the other comments regarding the vote buttons.

    Besides that, great work!

    0 points
  • Rıza Selçuk SaydamRıza Selçuk Saydam, over 8 years ago

    .story-link:visited, .listing-link:visited should be much more passive.

    0 points
  • William BoutWilliam Bout, over 8 years ago

    Please : https://twitter.com/aprilzero/status/506840102853935105

    Thanks

    0 points
  • Diego LafuenteDiego Lafuente, over 8 years ago

    I would love a bigger width container. I think I'm reading a 2001 website. Why don't you make it fluid and let us to set the browser width?

    0 points
  • Daniel AdamsDaniel Adams, over 8 years ago

    Great job! Before, I liked the contrast for :visited a lot, now it's too low and hard to recognize. You might tweak this a bit.

    0 points
  • Benjamin Berger, over 8 years ago

    Interesting new design!

    I spotted a bug on the responsive menu (on mobile). Once the burger icon clicked, the menu opens, but the vertical scroll is not working, very strange behavior. Hope you guys will be able to correct that.

    PS : would love to have hover states on links and buttons

    0 points
  • Alexander CollinAlexander Collin, over 8 years ago

    Menu on safari iOS is broken. How do I log out on safari iOS?

    Clicking markdown supported forces me to scroll to the top of the page to actually read the markdown guide.

    Incredibly confusing.

    0 points
  • Luc PestilleLuc Pestille, over 8 years ago

    I like it - a nice evolution of what came before, with some modernisation and hints at where it could go. Like everyone else, there are a couple of things that bug me;

    • The vote button/box is too prominent - perhaps it doesn't need to be square? ~30px wide seems to make more sense.
    • The extra padding on the main column means that the content is pretty squished. Maybe, if you moved the left hand nav (which doesn't have much in it, ever) to above the main column, you could reclaim some space?
    • All the links/buttons could do with a hover state! Maybe the blue from the DN logo shadow, an underline, a row background change - something at least...

    Just my 2c.

    0 points
  • Philip AmourPhilip Amour, over 8 years ago

    Loving the design. Please add the pinned vector icon for Safari on OS X El Capitan. :)

    0 points
  • Mitch WarrenMitch Warren, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Why is the content section so so narrow?? I've got a really high resolution so it everything looks very cramped, it hurts my eyes.

    I like the new colours though. Nice work.

    0 points
  • Ollie BarkerOllie Barker, over 8 years ago

    I've been a member for a good few weeks now, and I still haven't figured out how to actually post an article/discussion. I thought after a week I'd be able to. Any help?

    0 points
  • Denis P.Denis P., over 8 years ago

    Hey guys, thanks for the update.

    Just one thing, please mark stories as read after they were opened.

    0 points
  • Ollie BarkerOllie Barker, over 8 years ago

    I might be a noob here, but I've been a member for a good few weeks and still can't figure out how to actually post a topic :/

    0 points
  • Josh RubenoffJosh Rubenoff, over 8 years ago

    Awesome to see some updates. Navbar looks awesome.

    I check Designer News every day. I've never checked other "public voting" sites (Digg, Reddit, etc.) with the same frequency. I think it's largely because, as a reader, DN doesn't read like a popularity contest (even though it is). You can skim through the first page of links without noticing the upvote count.

    This redesign has such an obvious Upvote button that it kind of ruins that vibe. I'll probably still read every day, but I'm definitely going to feel gross about it now.

    0 points
  • Afnizar Nur Ghifari, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Please make upvote button on the right

    Image of New DN

    0 points
  • Diego LafuenteDiego Lafuente, over 8 years ago

    Looks fresh!

    One comment, you could put the SVG logo embebed to the header instead calling it as a resource. It will be faster. The rest, I love most of the changes!

    0 points
  • Moeed MohammadMoeed Mohammad, over 8 years ago

    Looks awesome. The only two things that aren't feeling great are:

    Tight padding/line-height on this page and the overly large, square vote box on the front page.

    0 points
  • Stefan Rauch, over 8 years ago

    Big performance issues for the site, even on a desktop. 8s to load a page. Load time has jumped up.

    0 points
  • Simon KoelewijnSimon Koelewijn, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Stays true to the original but feels more modern. I was just thinking yesterday some elements seemed outdated. Had some issues with the login bar in Safari, but now it works. Clearing cache didn't fix it at first, but now it started working all of a sudden.. So I guess all is well?

    0 points
  • Randy HRandy H, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Overall, this is looking good, but I have a few criticisms:

    • The upvote boxes seem to be fighting with the icons to their left, since they are both close in size and proximity. Together they just pull too much visual weight and feel a bit cluttered, making it harder to scan the story titles.

    • The article pages could use a wider line length, more padding/margin, and more leading/line-height.

    • We could use a little more vertical space between a comment reply and the parent comment.

    • The thin font in the header bar is rendering fine on Firefox, but very thin and pixelated in Opera and Chrome.

    0 points
  • Dirk HCM van BoxtelDirk HCM van Boxtel, over 8 years ago

    Site seems a bit confused as to whether it likes lines or shapes. #DECIDE!

    0 points
  • Ale FracazoAle Fracazo, over 8 years ago

    Great job! I'm still having some problems with the hovers states. I don't know how much research you guys did, but I think a great start should be observing how many time designers spend here, I read a lot of things here and try to access at least 2 or 3 times per day. I have some issues with readability and to create comments, it's not so easy/friendly. I love the way medium solve this problem, maybe it's a good case to study.

    0 points
  • Jonathan ShariatJonathan Shariat, over 8 years ago

    Great job guys! Love the new design.

    My suggestion: Can you add the location to the job listings?

    0 points
  • Joel Sinnott, over 8 years ago

    Hell yeah, long shaddow

    0 points
  • Laurens SpangenbergLaurens Spangenberg, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

    Two issues on Firefox.

    • The left side of link badges are cut off.
    • Any comment pages with images causes the main (white) container to double in size and the whole layout to basically mess up.

    The site could use a bit more contrast. I can't tell the difference between the text in the comment text box and the rest of text on the page.

    The long shadow logo is also quite hypocritical since we introduced the "long shadow poop" badge a while back.

    EDIT: Firefox issues fixed. Many thanks!

    0 points
  • Dirk HCM van BoxtelDirk HCM van Boxtel, over 8 years ago

    Would love to be able to read posts, but there's and issue where the text overflows and makes it unreadable.

    Windows, Firefox. Sent you a screenshot on Twitter.

    0 points
  • Febril CuevasFebril Cuevas, over 8 years ago

    Little thing but the text is overflowing ever so slightly http://i.imgur.com/VQ6pbRx.png

    Other than the few bugs that were already mentioned, I'm liking this new design. It's new, but not foreign. Interested in seeing what the future holds!

    0 points
  • Ian WilliamsIan Williams, over 8 years ago

    Also womp.

    womp

    0 points
    • Ryan LeFevreRyan LeFevre, over 8 years ago

      Currently reprocessing avatars and pixel headers because they have slightly new dimensions. It should be fixed soon!

      1 point
      • Daniel GoldenDaniel Golden, over 8 years ago (edited over 8 years ago )

        Will the time and effort you and the old team dedicated to this site. Y'all did an ace job. #NeverForget

        2 points
  • Aaron GrandoAaron Grando, over 8 years ago

    Don't mind it overall. But what's with the lighter border on the right side of the ad sidebar? Is that a scrollbar?

    0 points