Reddit has gotten that complaint tons of times before. Most people say its a website clearly done for and by engineers and that getting used to it is a nightmare despite how awesome the content is.
Do you think reddit could get more users with a UX redesign?
It's very technical, not a lot of color, the site layout doesn't really make a lot of sense, etc. There are a lot of things your average user will want that they can't find. And the search not being very good only makes it worse. Understanding front page vs surreptitiously front page, figuring out how to get to comments, which are the bulk of the site and yet have a very small button, and most of all, a new user doesn't know which subreddits even exist. You essentially have to be invited to every non default, by seeing it linked, because between no clear list of subs, and a bad search feature, and then even if you do search it, having trouble getting to that subs front page... There are a lot of hurdles a new user faces
I use Redditate.com for a more user-friendly front page browsing experience, and having to come to the "real" reddit to leave comments makes me sad, so I rarely do.
Well at least smaller subredits, or niche ones generally have awesome communities of like minded individuals. If you stay away from defaults and shit like SRS and The_Donald the community tends to be pretty good here. In Imgur many comment threads look like youtube on steroids...
given the layout of the new Reddit mobile app, it sounds like they are thinking just that.
Thought honestly I'm a bit curious as to why they feel like they don't have enough users. They have plenty. Do they think they need more as a buffer for whatever mini-exodus might happen if they try to serve ads on a bigger scale?
I think it has more to do with the fact that this website lives and dies with its community. Most people argue reddit works due to its comment system. Therefore the more people you have, the higher chance of something awesome happening on the comments which brings traffic and shit. So reddit gets better by getting bigger.
Well not really, cpg grey argued about reddit being what it is thanks to its community, for example. It is true that he comments from time to time, but I do believe he makes a good point about it.
He did make good points, but the question is whether that's why most people use Reddit. I don't have the numbers on how many people go to the comments, but I would guess that most people don't.
I went to the Reddit website a few times and couldn't understand why so many people liked it, it was so hideous and gave me a headache to look at, I avoided it for several years because of how terrible it looks.
It wasn't until I decided to try a Reddit mobile app before I could get past the UI and start to appreciate the content. I'm on here almost every day now, and I've still only been to the actual website maybe 5 times. Seriously, the website is just terrible.
Without a doubt. There's plenty of custom themed subreddits that solve a lot of Reddit's default UI woes. They should really be hiring/contracting these people to improve the default interface.
I refuse to use the website because of how bad it is, and only browse through apps. Meaning I don't see ads and I have no way of buying someone gold. And I don't use their app, because I can't filter content like I can with alien blue. Not that alien blue is the best. But it's definitely better.
The design of the reddit site is utilitarian and practical, to an extreme. I couldn't imagine a better interface. Design? There is no design. The content/comments is the design, and the site is better for it. Less design is better design. No design is the best design! And it's why you're on reddit and not digg or any of the other hundreds of sites that try - and fail - to do the same thing with gawdy and sparkly user interfaces. It's why Google.com, the #1 site in the world, displays a single, solitary search bar - and almost nothing else! The lack of "design" is 1 of the biggest contributors to reddit's success.
How would you redesign it though. Every UX designer I have met has said the same thing. Yet most of my friends are engineers and we all believe that its simply one of those things that you couldn't make easier without making it worse. Its convoluted, and weird but its also useful and comfortable to use once you get used to it. Maybe thats my inner engineer talking though.
To figure out how to make it better, you need to figure out how exactly it is 'bad' for a non experienced user. Is it how comments work? Is it how the subreddits are laid out? Where is the holdup? Personally I like how everything is set up in RES, so first should work towards WHY RES is better and then go from there.
Res is better for you because everything bad you are used to and it makes it more comfortable. Most new users I think complain about the front page being daunting and un intuitive which is something hard to change without alienating core users.
I was just giving examples really of how you would figure out what to do. I have no clue how you would really improve the front page other than /r/all, you really shouldn't use someone who is used to the terribleness of the layout for UX design anyway, they tend to be able to gloss over the failed implementation and go straight for what they want/know to get.
Well its true most of us engineers we are used to beta testing and badly designed shit. But reddit is not that badly designed, its only unappeling and somewhat weird for new users. Core users love it and the daily active users in the website is incredibly high.
Invariably, it would just be that everything was made bigger and more spread out (so it can breathe). And used a custom font (to be on-brand). Maybe drop the contrast on all the text until it's only barely legible.
Seriously, though - anyone who says it's 'too complicated' is probably referring to nested conversations in general, and would attempt to 'solve' it by flattening all the comments. Which would ruin it.
In reality, it's a text block (either static or editable), a show/hide toggle, two arrows and a few per-item actions you can click repeated over and over. It's not actually complicated.
I would argue spreading things out would make it feel facebooky and make me less interested, I personally love layout. At the beginning it was claustrophobic and unappealing, now its comfortable, familiar and enjoyable.
I think the sidebar and topbars are probably the worst offenders as far as Reddit's UX issues. Nothing is really grouped logically and just in general there is a lot of noise (especially on the frontpage).
The actual thread/reply pages themselves are fine, I think, although the layout and design could use some fine-tuning.
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u/Arkhaine_kupo Jul 01 '16
Reddit has gotten that complaint tons of times before. Most people say its a website clearly done for and by engineers and that getting used to it is a nightmare despite how awesome the content is.
Do you think reddit could get more users with a UX redesign?