"The front page of the internet" Reddit, has one of the most diverse community on the web.
It has well-publicized subreddits covering a very wide range of topics. From the odds to the weirds, there are people that talk politely and those that talk harshly. Some places are cold and quiet, while some are active with heated debates. The only thing Reddit lacks, is design.
From the appearance that looked decades old, even its CEO Steve Huffman calls Reddit a "dystopian craigslist."
But things are changing as it is launching a major redesign with multiple view options, infinite scrolling capability, upgraded posts editor and more.
The company has been planning for this update for more than a year, and on April 2nd 2018, it's launching the redesign to 1 percent of its some 330 million users.
It all started out when two people from Reddit formed a team to survey random people at San Francisco's Union Square. The two asked whether they understand how the Reddit website works and found that while most people "get" the concept behind Reddit, they can't figure out how to use it or what to use it for.
Ben Rush, the redesign team's user interface design lead, said that the team is "making [Reddit] simpler and more efficient, making it more accessible, but not altering the scaffolding." But since the company knows that redesigns could be poorly received, the company started out with three new designs users can choose.
"Classic view" which looks very similar to the old Reddit but with some design tweaks:
"Compact view" which squashes the view to allow users to scroll through bulks of contents quickly:
And the "Card view" which is a more modern design mimicking mainstream interface with pre-expands contents:
Users can switch between them at will using the buttons underneath the menu near the top of the page.
The designs also introduce new fonts, clearer distinction between external links and links to other Reddit posts, and a more prominent button for creating new posts. Reddit also redesigned its mascot called "Snoo", and made the little alien to appear in more places.
At first look, the fully redesigned Reddit still keeps its old character, which is simplicity. The designs showcase more modern interface that makes users to squint their eyes no more.
The idea of the redesign was to make the site more usable and friendly to new users. And also, the code base is altered so the team can add more features in the future in ways faster than previously possible. Reddit explained that its code base has remained largely unchanged since its first inception. Some of the codes were outdated and difficult to maintain.
In other words, with the change, Reddit is evolving. It doesn't want to look like a message board from the 90's anymore.