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I work at Reddit but not on the redesign. I would hardly call our old design great. Functional to those who know Reddit for sure, but for new redditors the lear

I work at Reddit but not on the redesign. I would hardly call our old design great. Functional to those who know Reddit for sure, but for new redditors the learning curve is very steep. Heck, I’ve been on reddit for 12 years and couldn’t figure out how some features worked until I started working at the company. It was time the site didn’t look like a “dystopian craigslist” and looked like a website that was made in 2018. We’ve been through well over a year of development and feedback (both internal and external) and most of it has been positive or constructive criticism that we are working on. Definitely agree the performance could be better, but we’re working on it and it’s still early days.

robbomacrae 8y ago
oh hey Dave!
sorenjan 8y ago
I guess it's a good sign that a website with such a steep learning curve was able to become the world's 26th most trafficked site. Maybe the average internet user is smarter than many give them credit for. https://www.similarweb.com/website/reddit.com https://www.similarweb.com/website/reddit.com
stcredzero 8y ago
It was time the site didn’t look like a “dystopian craigslist” and looked like a website that was made in 2018. This is true. However, the transaction needs to seem equitable to the users. Will the improvement in looks and better feature discoverability seem to users like a fair trade-off for performance? Performance of a UI is pretty much the most valued quality to a user. Given that the developers/company have almost all of the power in the transaction, this feeling of equity is all the more important. The devs/company need to be careful about appearing to foist a new UI on users. Success should be measured against the consensuality of the transaction. To what extent are people switching because they want to, because it's a better deal to them? (Vs, the company can force it on users, because they have all the power.) The more consensual the transaction is to users, the more value is preserved or created by the company.
- robbomacrae 8y ago
  There is an opt out of the redesign option in your preferences. There is also old.reddit.com where the old design is preserved. What other comparable network/website goes to that extent to not force a redesign on their users?
  - stcredzero 8y ago
    What other comparable network/website goes to that extent to not force a redesign on their users? Ok, let's be fair. Given the dismal record of websites with regard to user continuity, you're doing relatively great! However, I'd also say that this is the wrong pool to measure against if you're looking for the limits of excellence. You're doing better than the peer group -- that can be fairly said to be a positive. But what if your peer group are the delinquents? So good on you for what you've done! Perhaps I'm a bit delinquent in giving you some deserved praise and credit. It's a good start. However, there's a lot further you could go if you wanted to. EDIT: What is it with the redesign opt-out form? It feels a bit heavy handed. How about I just get to have the old site by default, and I get to check out the new design when I feel like it, without the inquisition?
    - robbomacrae 8y ago
      Sorry for the late reply - was out. Sorry if the opt-outs a lengthy process. I guess the redesign team want to extract as much info from you as possible. I would just go to old.reddit.com if I were you ;)
      - stcredzero 8y ago
        I would just go to old.reddit.com if I were you ;) That comes across as condescending and smarmy. Again, I'm not against evolution. This whole things is yet another example of what happens in asymmetrical power situations. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17092795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17092795
  - gshrikant 8y ago
morrbo 8y ago
Are there any plans to make reddit video better? It's by far the worst video experience i've ever had on, well, anything really. On FF mobile it freezes regularly, audio and/or video, seems to take an eternity to load (and i'm presented with a black screen all the while). You're also unable to link to the videos directly. I get why this was done, but could you not just use some form of interstitial site and check referer headers like every other website out there? On Vivaldi, it just outright (used to) crash the browser. I get that the Vivaldi issue was an issue with the browser itself, which has just been fixed, but this was only within Reddit, and not the billions of other sites on the internet. What the hell is going on? With regards to the redesign, i'm actually in awe of how badly it was done. I literally knocked up a browser extension in a weekend a few years ago which performs far better than the current design. I feel really bad having a go like this but i am genuinely curious as to how this massive, relatively simple (i use the term lightly, i know it is complicated) front end has suffered like this. You have a huge amount of money from conde naste, and - from reading the backend/performance blogs - some seriously shit hot engineers; what went wrong? Is there a large amount of politics halting progress? Did you try some new frameworks/technologies which just failed/didn't work as expected? Genuinely curious (and again sorry if it seems like i'm having a go).
JustSomeNobody 8y ago
> ... but for new redditors the learning curve is very steep. But the old redditors learned it just fine.

robbomacrae 8y ago

oh hey Dave!

sorenjan 8y ago

I guess it's a good sign that a website with such a steep learning curve was able to become the world's 26th most trafficked site. Maybe the average internet user is smarter than many give them credit for. https://www.similarweb.com/website/reddit.com https://www.similarweb.com/website/reddit.com

stcredzero 8y ago

It was time the site didn’t look like a “dystopian craigslist” and looked like a website that was made in 2018. This is true. However, the transaction needs to seem equitable to the users. Will the improvement in looks and better feature discoverability seem to users like a fair trade-off for performance? Performance of a UI is pretty much the most valued quality to a user. Given that the developers/company have almost all of the power in the transaction, this feeling of equity is all the more important. The devs/company need to be careful about appearing to foist a new UI on users. Success should be measured against the consensuality of the transaction. To what extent are people switching because they want to, because it's a better deal to them? (Vs, the company can force it on users, because they have all the power.) The more consensual the transaction is to users, the more value is preserved or created by the company.

robbomacrae 8y ago
There is an opt out of the redesign option in your preferences. There is also old.reddit.com where the old design is preserved. What other comparable network/website goes to that extent to not force a redesign on their users?
- stcredzero 8y ago
  What other comparable network/website goes to that extent to not force a redesign on their users? Ok, let's be fair. Given the dismal record of websites with regard to user continuity, you're doing relatively great! However, I'd also say that this is the wrong pool to measure against if you're looking for the limits of excellence. You're doing better than the peer group -- that can be fairly said to be a positive. But what if your peer group are the delinquents? So good on you for what you've done! Perhaps I'm a bit delinquent in giving you some deserved praise and credit. It's a good start. However, there's a lot further you could go if you wanted to. EDIT: What is it with the redesign opt-out form? It feels a bit heavy handed. How about I just get to have the old site by default, and I get to check out the new design when I feel like it, without the inquisition?
  - robbomacrae 8y ago
    Sorry for the late reply - was out. Sorry if the opt-outs a lengthy process. I guess the redesign team want to extract as much info from you as possible. I would just go to old.reddit.com if I were you ;)
    - stcredzero 8y ago
      I would just go to old.reddit.com if I were you ;) That comes across as condescending and smarmy. Again, I'm not against evolution. This whole things is yet another example of what happens in asymmetrical power situations. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17092795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17092795
- gshrikant 8y ago

morrbo 8y ago

Are there any plans to make reddit video better? It's by far the worst video experience i've ever had on, well, anything really. On FF mobile it freezes regularly, audio and/or video, seems to take an eternity to load (and i'm presented with a black screen all the while). You're also unable to link to the videos directly. I get why this was done, but could you not just use some form of interstitial site and check referer headers like every other website out there? On Vivaldi, it just outright (used to) crash the browser. I get that the Vivaldi issue was an issue with the browser itself, which has just been fixed, but this was only within Reddit, and not the billions of other sites on the internet. What the hell is going on? With regards to the redesign, i'm actually in awe of how badly it was done. I literally knocked up a browser extension in a weekend a few years ago which performs far better than the current design. I feel really bad having a go like this but i am genuinely curious as to how this massive, relatively simple (i use the term lightly, i know it is complicated) front end has suffered like this. You have a huge amount of money from conde naste, and - from reading the backend/performance blogs - some seriously shit hot engineers; what went wrong? Is there a large amount of politics halting progress? Did you try some new frameworks/technologies which just failed/didn't work as expected? Genuinely curious (and again sorry if it seems like i'm having a go).

JustSomeNobody 8y ago

> ... but for new redditors the learning curve is very steep. But the old redditors learned it just fine.