The new design seems to be influenced by the idea that spreading UI elements across greater distances (reducing their local density) makes the interface less cluttered. I think it’s a little bit the other way around, shorter distances with everything in one place make it easier to chunk and navigate, but overall the effect is small either way. And the design of spreading the UI elements this way is sufficiently unusual that it will be slightly confusing to many people.
I don’t really think that’s the primary thing going on. I think one of the key issues with the previous design was the irregularity of the layout. Everything under the header would wrap and basically be in one big jumble, with the number and length of the author names changing where the info on the number of comments is, and where the tags section starts.
It also didn’t communicate a good hierarchy on which information is important. Ultimately, all you need to start reading a post is the title and the content. The current design communicates the optionality of things like karma and tags better, whereas the previous design communicates that those pieces of information might need to be understood before you start reading.
The new design seems to be influenced by the idea that spreading UI elements across greater distances (reducing their local density) makes the interface less cluttered. I think it’s a little bit the other way around, shorter distances with everything in one place make it easier to chunk and navigate, but overall the effect is small either way. And the design of spreading the UI elements this way is sufficiently unusual that it will be slightly confusing to many people.
I don’t really think that’s the primary thing going on. I think one of the key issues with the previous design was the irregularity of the layout. Everything under the header would wrap and basically be in one big jumble, with the number and length of the author names changing where the info on the number of comments is, and where the tags section starts.
It also didn’t communicate a good hierarchy on which information is important. Ultimately, all you need to start reading a post is the title and the content. The current design communicates the optionality of things like karma and tags better, whereas the previous design communicates that those pieces of information might need to be understood before you start reading.