A tale of two redesigns

Newsvine launched a redesign, or possibly a “realign”, today, adding a number of useful features while staying true to what has, overall, been an attractive and successful layout. Criticisms in the discussion thread are met with haiku and promises to work on it. Result: pats on the back all round.

Fark launched a total redesign today, and the number of design sins not committed is perhaps the easiest thing to enumerate:

  1. It doesn’t have any glossy Web-2.0 reflections.

And, well, that’s about it. Criticisms in the discussion thread are met with a “get over it” attitude. Result: formerly paying subscribers posting copies of their cancellation statements in the discussion thread to emphasize their displeasure.

One of these redesigns could learn a lot from the other.

Comments

Jay Parlar
April 26, 2007
#

I’m in PhD-comprehensive-study-mode, so I haven’t let myself visit Fark in over a month, meaning this is the first I’ve heard of the design.

I broke my rule to check it out, and I honestly don’t see what the major gripe is. It looks different, yes, but it doesn’t seem like they got rid of anything that makes Fark feel like Fark. I was worried for a second that they were going to do threaded comments. Only real difference (in my two minutes of looking) is that everything is left justified instead of centre.

Farkers do love to complain though.

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