If you redesign Reddit…you’re inherently changing the internet.~ Diego Perez, Reddit’s Head of Design, speaking to Wired From a design perspective, it’s always difficult to critique a design without being party to the brief, without sitting in on the feedback meetings, without a detailed understanding of what the challenge is for Reddit. Like a game of Jeopardy! we have the answer, what matters is whether it matches the question. Reddit’s design challenge is more complex than most because as a site, it had been left to seed. A wild west of different communities, each with their own ideas, the new site design has to unify them all, without threatening the independent spirit that makes them what they are. Wired have published the inside story of the redesign, which is a fascinating read, but certainly glosses over the more challenging parts of the process. Reddit we’re told, employed just two UX researchers to assess the onboarding experience; their research process was to wander around outside Reddit HQ approaching different people with their laptops. With a decade of neglect, an opinionated user base, and fewer resources than many startups, it’s a minor miracle that Reddit’s design team delivered anything at all. [pullquote]it’s a minor miracle that Reddit’s design team delivered anything at all[/pullquote] As of today, 1% of users will see the new design. Over the coming months the new design will be rolled out globally. There are three design options for users to choose from: Classic view (basically old Reddit with the new features added), Card view (how most users will use the site), and Compact view (for scanning content quickly). In any other context I’d take the view that three different ‘designs’ indicate a difference of opinion in the design process that hadn’t been properly resolved. In Reddit’s case it feels like an acknowledgement of the different needs of different groups.

Ben Moss
Ben Moss is Senior Editor at WebdesignerDepot. He’s designed and coded work for award-winning startups, and global names including IBM, UBS, and the FBI. One of these days he’ll run a sub-4hr marathon. Say hi on Twitter.
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