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We usually see many downfalls when companies redesign. To remember one that really took off of their products: Dropbox. I couldn't stare at such destruction. An

We usually see many downfalls when companies redesign. To remember one that really took off of their products: Dropbox. I couldn't stare at such destruction. Another company that I liked and had hopes was Typeform. Another example of horrible hipter design from a team who was quite bored and possible, a clueless head product.

praptak 5y ago
If you're old enough you remember the crappy Slashdot redesign after which you couldn't follow threads anymore.
- meerita 5y ago
  I remember that one too! Damn it was long time ago, but another example of "let's redesign maybe things gets better".
randycupertino 5y ago
> We usually see many downfalls when companies redesign. Exactly! I'm still salty about "new reddit." We care about your redesign because we don't want to have to get used to a whole new less functional UX.
- meerita 5y ago
  Just imagine a HN redesign, lot of bored designers tried it long time ago and for sure if it goes like this it will perish.
- mtrovo 5y ago
  "But where are we going to put all these new features to mimic competitor X that nobody cares about that we promised to our investors we would add before next investment round to pump the valuation?" /s
- feupan 5y ago
  Old Reddit was awful and I always used alternative UIs for it. New Reddit’s design was a great improvement if it weren't for the fact that its developers were and still are absolutely clueless. That paired with a user-hostile management made Reddit even worse. But the redesign itself was not the issue, it was the implementation.
  - Trasmatta 5y ago
    I disagree, new Reddit is fundamentally flawed, and worse than old Reddit in almost every way. I will stop using Reddit the day old.reddit.com stops working.
    - smrtinsert 5y ago
      I won't only because my mobile reddit client is fantastic, but agreed I will stop using web reddit once old.reddit is removed.
  - Graffur 5y ago
    Was there anything in particular you disliked about reddits 'old' design? How would you compare it to HNs design?
    - feupan 5y ago
      The main issue was that looking at the actual content meant visiting a different website, there was no way to see photos and videos in gallery view like you would on Facebook for example. The difference with HN is that HN is not mainly for media. However HN isn’t great either. The button to collapse threads in on top of the thread in a 16x16-pixel touch target. Good luck finding it when you’re 12 comments down. For being a text comment-only website, the HN experience is pretty poor. The only good thing HN has got going on technically is that it’s super fast. Heck it still doesn’t offer dark mode when it would literally be 7 additional lines of CSS.
      - Graffur 5y ago
- Sebb767 5y ago
  Well, Reddit was smart enough to keep the old interface online (and the one before that [0]), so when someone "oldschool" links to Reddit, they'll simply use the old link; slightly salty maybe, but they're still on Reddit. New, less technical users, on the other hand, will get the shiny, streamlined new interface. You can say what you want about them, but they managed to push out a conversion optimized interface for new users while still keeping their core group/addicts at bay, which is not easy. [0] https://i.reddit.com/ https://i.reddit.com/
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    there is a setting in user settings to use the old interface "always", if you didn't already know. Then you don't have to type "old.reddit.com"
    - lp0_on_fire 5y ago
      anecdotal but I have that set and it almost "always" never works.
      - stjohnswarts 5y ago
        You have something wrong with your set up. I've had it set for years and it works fine. Maybe you have some strict cookie settings or tracking blocker interfering with it. Try with an unadorned browser (read no-plugins) and you'll find it works great.
        lp0_on_fire 5y ago
        I've encountered the behavior on three separate devices in two separate browsers, with and without plugins.
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  I don't entirely hate "new reddit" but I prefer the old version and greatly appreciate them keep the old style around. The new version is so badly coded and slow. I think if they would stop "updating" and optimize efficiency of their interface it would be useable again.
- meerita 5y ago
  I use the old reddit. I'm glad they give that option because the new one it sucks. Just the fuck it doesn't profit the entire width of the screen bogged me.
tsm 5y ago
Dropbox is the only SaaS I have ever used that fucked up its redesign badly enough to make me—a previously-thrilled customer—jump ship to a technically-inferior and more-expensive product. I don't regret it whatsoever.
- ihateolives 5y ago
  For me Dropbox is still better than the competition (don't know about iCloud, never used it) and I don't even remember what redesign you're talking about. I've always used it as set and forget sync, I rarely see the interface or the web page.
  - wingerlang 5y ago
    I switched to iCloud and apart from not seeing the sync status in the menu bar (and the folder location being .. worse) it's as good as Dropbox. Set and forget.
    - meerita 5y ago
      Totally! iCloud is quite transparent and well integrated. It works like a charm on macs. No need to use horrible Google's Drive or Dropbox anymore.
- wingerlang 5y ago
  I disliked the Dropbox redesign as well, then I went back to using it exactly the same way I've done for the previous 10 years -- not seeing any UI whatsoever.
  - tsm 5y ago
    I was on the free plan (which I'd worked up to 10.5GB of storage through various incentive programs they ran) and specifically objected to 1. Limiting me to three clients at once. (Work computer, personal computer (Linux), personal computer (Windows), phone—oops! 2. Bombarding me with "your storage is almost full!" notifications either by email or when I visited dropbox.com to, e.g., get a share link for someone. Usually I had over a gigabyte of storage left. The webapp was at times unusable due to the volume of notifications. 3. Prohibiting me from keeping offline copies of entire directories on my phone. Now I'm spending $20/month on a VPS running Nextcloud and am much happier.
pier25 5y ago
Gumroad's recent redesign is also quite ugly. For now I won't stop using the service, but it disgusts me every time I see it.

praptak 5y ago

If you're old enough you remember the crappy Slashdot redesign after which you couldn't follow threads anymore.

meerita 5y ago
I remember that one too! Damn it was long time ago, but another example of "let's redesign maybe things gets better".

randycupertino 5y ago

> We usually see many downfalls when companies redesign. Exactly! I'm still salty about "new reddit." We care about your redesign because we don't want to have to get used to a whole new less functional UX.

meerita 5y ago
Just imagine a HN redesign, lot of bored designers tried it long time ago and for sure if it goes like this it will perish.
mtrovo 5y ago
"But where are we going to put all these new features to mimic competitor X that nobody cares about that we promised to our investors we would add before next investment round to pump the valuation?" /s
feupan 5y ago
Old Reddit was awful and I always used alternative UIs for it. New Reddit’s design was a great improvement if it weren't for the fact that its developers were and still are absolutely clueless. That paired with a user-hostile management made Reddit even worse. But the redesign itself was not the issue, it was the implementation.
- Trasmatta 5y ago
  I disagree, new Reddit is fundamentally flawed, and worse than old Reddit in almost every way. I will stop using Reddit the day old.reddit.com stops working.
  - smrtinsert 5y ago
    I won't only because my mobile reddit client is fantastic, but agreed I will stop using web reddit once old.reddit is removed.
- Graffur 5y ago
  Was there anything in particular you disliked about reddits 'old' design? How would you compare it to HNs design?
  - feupan 5y ago
    The main issue was that looking at the actual content meant visiting a different website, there was no way to see photos and videos in gallery view like you would on Facebook for example. The difference with HN is that HN is not mainly for media. However HN isn’t great either. The button to collapse threads in on top of the thread in a 16x16-pixel touch target. Good luck finding it when you’re 12 comments down. For being a text comment-only website, the HN experience is pretty poor. The only good thing HN has got going on technically is that it’s super fast. Heck it still doesn’t offer dark mode when it would literally be 7 additional lines of CSS.
    - Graffur 5y ago
Sebb767 5y ago
Well, Reddit was smart enough to keep the old interface online (and the one before that [0]), so when someone "oldschool" links to Reddit, they'll simply use the old link; slightly salty maybe, but they're still on Reddit. New, less technical users, on the other hand, will get the shiny, streamlined new interface. You can say what you want about them, but they managed to push out a conversion optimized interface for new users while still keeping their core group/addicts at bay, which is not easy. [0] https://i.reddit.com/ https://i.reddit.com/
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  there is a setting in user settings to use the old interface "always", if you didn't already know. Then you don't have to type "old.reddit.com"
  - lp0_on_fire 5y ago
    anecdotal but I have that set and it almost "always" never works.
    - stjohnswarts 5y ago
      You have something wrong with your set up. I've had it set for years and it works fine. Maybe you have some strict cookie settings or tracking blocker interfering with it. Try with an unadorned browser (read no-plugins) and you'll find it works great.
      - lp0_on_fire 5y ago
        I've encountered the behavior on three separate devices in two separate browsers, with and without plugins.
stjohnswarts 5y ago
I don't entirely hate "new reddit" but I prefer the old version and greatly appreciate them keep the old style around. The new version is so badly coded and slow. I think if they would stop "updating" and optimize efficiency of their interface it would be useable again.
meerita 5y ago
I use the old reddit. I'm glad they give that option because the new one it sucks. Just the fuck it doesn't profit the entire width of the screen bogged me.

tsm 5y ago

Dropbox is the only SaaS I have ever used that fucked up its redesign badly enough to make me—a previously-thrilled customer—jump ship to a technically-inferior and more-expensive product. I don't regret it whatsoever.

ihateolives 5y ago
For me Dropbox is still better than the competition (don't know about iCloud, never used it) and I don't even remember what redesign you're talking about. I've always used it as set and forget sync, I rarely see the interface or the web page.
- wingerlang 5y ago
  I switched to iCloud and apart from not seeing the sync status in the menu bar (and the folder location being .. worse) it's as good as Dropbox. Set and forget.
  - meerita 5y ago
    Totally! iCloud is quite transparent and well integrated. It works like a charm on macs. No need to use horrible Google's Drive or Dropbox anymore.
wingerlang 5y ago
I disliked the Dropbox redesign as well, then I went back to using it exactly the same way I've done for the previous 10 years -- not seeing any UI whatsoever.
- tsm 5y ago
  I was on the free plan (which I'd worked up to 10.5GB of storage through various incentive programs they ran) and specifically objected to 1. Limiting me to three clients at once. (Work computer, personal computer (Linux), personal computer (Windows), phone—oops! 2. Bombarding me with "your storage is almost full!" notifications either by email or when I visited dropbox.com to, e.g., get a share link for someone. Usually I had over a gigabyte of storage left. The webapp was at times unusable due to the volume of notifications. 3. Prohibiting me from keeping offline copies of entire directories on my phone. Now I'm spending $20/month on a VPS running Nextcloud and am much happier.

pier25 5y ago

Gumroad's recent redesign is also quite ugly. For now I won't stop using the service, but it disgusts me every time I see it.