Redesign study | responsive site | UX - UI
Context
In 2018, the social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website, Reddit, had a platform redesign that improved its usability. However, before that change, Reddit was really messy, for new users mostly. This study was developed when the previous layout was online. My solution had to be responsive and bring out clear usability for new users without it becoming strange to veteran ones.
I am not a Reddit user, so, my perception about the platform is: Reddit is an information universe and it is organized in different planets called subreddits.
Each subreddit has individual behavior. It has its own personality, laws, culture, and civilization. These social characteristics and the infinite amount of information make Reddit really attractive and loved by users.
Process
Research
As my first step, I needed to learn how the platform works. After some hours of visiting different pages, I noticed that it is really versatile and has a lot of information. Each subreddit can customize almost everything like menu behavior, colors, different tags, distinctive components, particular background… As I said before, a diversity of planets inside a universe.
However, there is a thin line that connects everything, some elements repeating in every subreddit, like the threads list and karma points system, are telling us that we are still inside the Reddit platform. So after my visit, I list 5 important characteristics:
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Reddit's home is the host, the central point of all information;
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Versatile and customizable platform;
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All types of information (text, video, photos, gifs, everything);
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Each subreddit has its own civilization and attends different niches;
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Karma points system in every subreddit page
The first Idea and users opinion
My first idea organize and clean up Reddit's home. It was developed for new users to easily understand the fundamental actions.
However, I asked 4 veteran users to give their opinions about my idea and it was not very welcomed. They said that Reddit is chaos and my solution was so clean that was killing that outstanding characteristic. Two of them told me that they started to use Reddit because new information about games they love comes quickly and after a bunch of years using Reddit, the platform has a special meaning for them. So, killing that characteristic was disappointing.
They also commented about the karma point system and how relevant it is to them. My first solution put this important system in the second plan and it also made them feel disappointed.
Lastly, they talked about a community aspect. It is not important to know who created posts and people's anonymity is perfectly acceptable. My first idea identifies and highlights authors' names and photos but after those conversations with veteran users, I understood that it is not important information to show.
Possible solution: organized chaos
After all that feedback, I had to change some things. Chaos has to come back but in an organized way, and the karma points system has to be highlighted. Check out my new idea:
Thoughts
As you can see, talking to users is important to define our solutions and this study just proved it to me. If I talk to new and veteran users, I know that new insights will pop up and new changes have to be made.
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