What is wrong with the design of "Vkontakte"
The first suspicions that something was wrong, crept in half an hour ago, when I hung up messages in the browser version of VK. Everything fell into place when a message came to the person: “I would appreciate it if they wrote the article“ what’s wrong with the alpha version of vkontakte redesign ”. I'm not lying, though such a message arrived. The first reaction was: yes, what is there to write about, everything seems to be normal. But then I looked closer.
The truth is removed
At first glance, everything seems to be quite good. That is, of course, shock and surprise - but on the other hand, who did not know about it? And who did not know - well, who did not understand that the VC interface is already morally and practically obsolete? To what all goes, it became clear, even when they (a month ago or a little more) updated the mobile application.
From the new redesign, it’s straightforward to repeat the “Kinopoisk” history: the outdated, but convenient, familiar and functional interface was decided to be “cross-platform”, “light” and “modern”. Fortunately, the VC has stopped attacking the rakes of its eminent and not so good colleagues - having learned from the experience of Yandex and Freelance , they no longer roll out the changes totally and ultimatumly, but present them in the form of beta, to which curious users can go - and they can come back from it themselves. A great way to reconcile users with changes, and give yourself time to finish the jambs. So now you can open the same page in two versions, and switch between them, realizing the scale of thecatastrophe of change.
')
Indication of unread messages. The fattest minus, the inconvenience of which I fully appreciated even on the updated mobile application: it is obvious that the unread messages highlighted by the background are much clearer than any point there. At the same time, one more point serves as an indicator of the user's online presence.
Here, the designers of Vkontakte, unconditionally cool and well-paid, make a typical, in fact, a mistake: they try to cram the new one, endowing the same element with completely different functions. See: the point in the avatar means that the user is online. Those. communication can take place. The point at the message means that it is not read. Those. communication did not happen. Let's put it this way: indicate with a dot (for example, red) that the user is absent: then it will be clear - the dot is always “break off”. Or the point will appear in the read messages - then the point will always symbolize positive feedback: online, read. Otherwise, by this point you send mixed feedback to users, which for a licked interface is worse than a spot on the toga of the Roman senator.
Unhealthy mobilization. This has already become a general trend of successful and not very redesigns of recent years, starting, by the way, from Habr : general mobilization of the population causes designers to drag it to the web techniques and styles from a completely, in fact, alien environment. Like once in the “thematic media”, they could not resist on Vkontakte, and for some reason, they also hid the link from a prominent place in the drop-down menu. Public administrators will recognize this element:
From the point of view of ordinary users, everything is not so critical - only the link “add to bookmarks” and the new function “subscribe to notifications” were hidden under the open box. But to the question: why? What are the benefits of this radical space saving? - it does not respond.
By the way, in the course of this optimization, it seems that one link was even lost: I don’t know if the skis aren’t going, or if I’m not hung up , but I’m not going to find out where the community messages are in the new interface. They were not enough in the mobile application before, and now, in a rush of enthusiasm for general mobilization, they were also thrown from the desktop version. It would be better to do the opposite.
You see the message? And it is!
In the support wrote, we'll see.
Colors. This is, of course, taste, I don’t even ask why it was necessary to change the color of the interface - the question is, WHY IS IT SUCH. If you wanted to lighten and make it visually easier, then you missed: the new color of VKontakte looks slightly faded, as if someone painted a new VK design on paper, and then forgot for a month under the dim St. Petersburg sun - we just got the sun finally appearing.
For example, if they made a new corporate color blue - it would be bright and fresh. Maybe even too bright - here "Twitter" has recently muted its colors. Ie, apparently - well, I hope, at least - the VC somehow analyzed the question, psychologists there and colorists were summoned to Singer’s interrogation tower for interrogation - and this dim blue one was chosen for some very clever and weighty reasons. I would like to hear how, but for now it looks as if the paint in your Photoshop is over. A good, by the way, would be an idea for Adobe how to punish pirates.
I very much hope that this is not all in vain, and I will get used to these new colors, I will see life “as before” in nightmares — but so far the overall impression of the picture is as if they were flashed into my eyes, and I was slightly blind — nothing I do not see, only some outlines.
Messages In principle, lichku became more pleasant. But now the geographical center of the screen occupies the list of dialogs instead of the actual dialogue - in order to read what is actually being discussed, one has to turn one eye to the right. If in the coming years, the work of oculists in Russia will greatly increase the work, they will have to thank the Vkontakte office for that.
And a little worried that the chances of a glitch, when you seem to have clicked / tapped on the user to the left, but in fact, no, but you already scribbling a message that your previous interlocutor woodpecker will increase. In the old interface, the transition between messages was a little clearer. Certainly only tech support operators working via VC will appreciate the function: now you can open a new dialog with one click, not two. But from the usual user, who does not need to conduct 11 conversations at the same time, this design may require more than usual concentration.
New menu. I will miss the horizontal top menu, perhaps. For example, one of the frequent ways of using VC for me was in two clicks: Home → Comments - go to the new comments of my posts. These two clicks have been preserved, but now they are not located at the top, but on opposite sides of the text column:
It was
It became
What's the point? This cannot be explained by general mobilization: in the mobile version there is, of course, no upper horizontal menu. But the right side is also not - somehow everything is in one left main fits. By the way, I always liked how notifications about likes and comments were implemented in the application: there are two tabs in the “Notifications” menu item - fortunately, this was also preserved in the new version of the app. The division into answers / comments, scrutinized in different corners of the interface of the web version of the VC, was completely incomprehensible to me, but I put up with it, considering it an atavism of past times. But the radical nature of the current reform has not changed the essence: there are still comments in one place - in the remote menu item on the right, and notifications about likes and other things are still in another: now they have moved under the bell in the cap. WHAT FOR? Why not make them close? Why can not recognize the importance of these activities for people, and make notifications and comments in the left main menu? Yes, it will destroy the internal logic - they say, the left menu for sections of the site is YES AND PFIG. In the application, this is exactly what has been done - and nothing more convenient, you probably will not think of anything.
By tradition - a spoon of honey.
Login notifications. Directly very pleased:
Security is the eternal problem of the VC and this is not the fault of the VC, but a consequence of its mass character. And the fact that the site is beginning to actively encourage users to follow who is sitting on their pages and where is right and necessary.
New column width. It was, of course, the most insane moment of the old VK - that when scrolling on the user / community page, the width of the text column changed.
New fonts. About Vkontakte texts you no longer need to break your eyes, hallelujah! By the way, Vkontakte remains the most convenient in terms of the possibility of compiling complex content posts among all VC, Facebook and LJ, if you remember what it is. LJ is more powerful, but less convenient, the FB has absolutely little functionality, and the VC is great for maintaining a thematic blog without the cost of the blog itself. The only drawback was the fact that on the sheets of the text in VK, you could break your eyes before.
For the preservation of the old. Keeping in mind the epic redesign of “Kinopoisk” , I can not but rejoice that the VC team did not chase after the fashion, retaining the unique VC interface chips like the logic of deleting objects. I still don’t understand why it didn’t become commonplace, because the possibility of canceling the operation after it is performed is much more convenient for the obligatory confirmations “Do you really want to do this?” Come from the shaggy 90s, if not earlier. This is one of the brand Vkontakte pieces, with which it runs counter to the generally accepted, and which distinguishes it for the better. Good thing it survived. It is a pity that for the rest of the fashion pressure, the Vkontakte team resists worse.
Here I will have changes that are still in doubt, but I am not ready to write them down sharply into flaws.
Comments to the right of the photos. Here you can giggle on the topic of complex relationships between the VC and Instagram, whose recent competitor has not yet entered - and now they have cut it, it turns out heavy artillery. In general, the decision to bring comments to the first screen looks reasonable - it's the web version, anyway, everyone has widescreen displays, let them, for once, an empty space on the left / right will work and bring benefits. But here's the oddity: in Facebook, for example, both ways of output are implemented: by default - a la Insta ... excuse me, Vkontakte, but if you click on the recording date, the old-style mode will open with comments below. And I usually click on a date, because for some reason it’s more convenient for me. The text column is wider, comments are easier to read - and in the narrow right column nothing is longer than “Yyy”, “Lol”, “What are you beautiful!” And “First na” plainly and does not fit as if. But maybe I'm the only one so strange? Yyyy, lol. In general, to the limb.
Actually, I love everything new. And the first impression from the VC redesign was not repulsive. There is this pleasant feeling of rearrangement of furniture in the apartment - it seems, everything is the same, but it seems like a new thing in the house has appeared. The disadvantages described in this article are noncritical, and the fact that the changes did not begin to roll out in the ultimatum form to everyone at once is a big plus.
It remains to wait for answers to the questions asked, and, I hope, corrections of the inconveniences described.
But while I still sit on the old design, thank you.
UPD Double lol:
The obscene comment on VC.ru under a collection of accolades from industry captains : vc.ru/p/vk-opinions#comment257970
Absolutely obscene, but fun and accurate analysis of the stocks of the new redesign: readymag.com/uxnoname/VK
The truth is removed
At first glance, everything seems to be quite good. That is, of course, shock and surprise - but on the other hand, who did not know about it? And who did not know - well, who did not understand that the VC interface is already morally and practically obsolete? To what all goes, it became clear, even when they (a month ago or a little more) updated the mobile application.
From the new redesign, it’s straightforward to repeat the “Kinopoisk” history: the outdated, but convenient, familiar and functional interface was decided to be “cross-platform”, “light” and “modern”. Fortunately, the VC has stopped attacking the rakes of its eminent and not so good colleagues - having learned from the experience of Yandex and Freelance , they no longer roll out the changes totally and ultimatumly, but present them in the form of beta, to which curious users can go - and they can come back from it themselves. A great way to reconcile users with changes, and give yourself time to finish the jambs. So now you can open the same page in two versions, and switch between them, realizing the scale of the
')
About bad
Indication of unread messages. The fattest minus, the inconvenience of which I fully appreciated even on the updated mobile application: it is obvious that the unread messages highlighted by the background are much clearer than any point there. At the same time, one more point serves as an indicator of the user's online presence.
Here, the designers of Vkontakte, unconditionally cool and well-paid, make a typical, in fact, a mistake: they try to cram the new one, endowing the same element with completely different functions. See: the point in the avatar means that the user is online. Those. communication can take place. The point at the message means that it is not read. Those. communication did not happen. Let's put it this way: indicate with a dot (for example, red) that the user is absent: then it will be clear - the dot is always “break off”. Or the point will appear in the read messages - then the point will always symbolize positive feedback: online, read. Otherwise, by this point you send mixed feedback to users, which for a licked interface is worse than a spot on the toga of the Roman senator.
Unhealthy mobilization. This has already become a general trend of successful and not very redesigns of recent years, starting, by the way, from Habr : general mobilization of the population causes designers to drag it to the web techniques and styles from a completely, in fact, alien environment. Like once in the “thematic media”, they could not resist on Vkontakte, and for some reason, they also hid the link from a prominent place in the drop-down menu. Public administrators will recognize this element:
From the point of view of ordinary users, everything is not so critical - only the link “add to bookmarks” and the new function “subscribe to notifications” were hidden under the open box. But to the question: why? What are the benefits of this radical space saving? - it does not respond.
By the way, in the course of this optimization, it seems that one link was even lost: I don’t know if the skis aren’t going, or if I’m not hung up , but I’m not going to find out where the community messages are in the new interface. They were not enough in the mobile application before, and now, in a rush of enthusiasm for general mobilization, they were also thrown from the desktop version. It would be better to do the opposite.
You see the message? And it is!
In the support wrote, we'll see.
Colors. This is, of course, taste, I don’t even ask why it was necessary to change the color of the interface - the question is, WHY IS IT SUCH. If you wanted to lighten and make it visually easier, then you missed: the new color of VKontakte looks slightly faded, as if someone painted a new VK design on paper, and then forgot for a month under the dim St. Petersburg sun - we just got the sun finally appearing.
For example, if they made a new corporate color blue - it would be bright and fresh. Maybe even too bright - here "Twitter" has recently muted its colors. Ie, apparently - well, I hope, at least - the VC somehow analyzed the question, psychologists there and colorists were summoned to Singer’s interrogation tower for interrogation - and this dim blue one was chosen for some very clever and weighty reasons. I would like to hear how, but for now it looks as if the paint in your Photoshop is over. A good, by the way, would be an idea for Adobe how to punish pirates.
I very much hope that this is not all in vain, and I will get used to these new colors, I will see life “as before” in nightmares — but so far the overall impression of the picture is as if they were flashed into my eyes, and I was slightly blind — nothing I do not see, only some outlines.
Messages In principle, lichku became more pleasant. But now the geographical center of the screen occupies the list of dialogs instead of the actual dialogue - in order to read what is actually being discussed, one has to turn one eye to the right. If in the coming years, the work of oculists in Russia will greatly increase the work, they will have to thank the Vkontakte office for that.
And a little worried that the chances of a glitch, when you seem to have clicked / tapped on the user to the left, but in fact, no, but you already scribbling a message that your previous interlocutor woodpecker will increase. In the old interface, the transition between messages was a little clearer. Certainly only tech support operators working via VC will appreciate the function: now you can open a new dialog with one click, not two. But from the usual user, who does not need to conduct 11 conversations at the same time, this design may require more than usual concentration.
New menu. I will miss the horizontal top menu, perhaps. For example, one of the frequent ways of using VC for me was in two clicks: Home → Comments - go to the new comments of my posts. These two clicks have been preserved, but now they are not located at the top, but on opposite sides of the text column:
It was
It became
What's the point? This cannot be explained by general mobilization: in the mobile version there is, of course, no upper horizontal menu. But the right side is also not - somehow everything is in one left main fits. By the way, I always liked how notifications about likes and comments were implemented in the application: there are two tabs in the “Notifications” menu item - fortunately, this was also preserved in the new version of the app. The division into answers / comments, scrutinized in different corners of the interface of the web version of the VC, was completely incomprehensible to me, but I put up with it, considering it an atavism of past times. But the radical nature of the current reform has not changed the essence: there are still comments in one place - in the remote menu item on the right, and notifications about likes and other things are still in another: now they have moved under the bell in the cap. WHAT FOR? Why not make them close? Why can not recognize the importance of these activities for people, and make notifications and comments in the left main menu? Yes, it will destroy the internal logic - they say, the left menu for sections of the site is YES AND PFIG. In the application, this is exactly what has been done - and nothing more convenient, you probably will not think of anything.
Oh good
By tradition - a spoon of honey.
Login notifications. Directly very pleased:
Security is the eternal problem of the VC and this is not the fault of the VC, but a consequence of its mass character. And the fact that the site is beginning to actively encourage users to follow who is sitting on their pages and where is right and necessary.
New column width. It was, of course, the most insane moment of the old VK - that when scrolling on the user / community page, the width of the text column changed.
New fonts. About Vkontakte texts you no longer need to break your eyes, hallelujah! By the way, Vkontakte remains the most convenient in terms of the possibility of compiling complex content posts among all VC, Facebook and LJ, if you remember what it is. LJ is more powerful, but less convenient, the FB has absolutely little functionality, and the VC is great for maintaining a thematic blog without the cost of the blog itself. The only drawback was the fact that on the sheets of the text in VK, you could break your eyes before.
For the preservation of the old. Keeping in mind the epic redesign of “Kinopoisk” , I can not but rejoice that the VC team did not chase after the fashion, retaining the unique VC interface chips like the logic of deleting objects. I still don’t understand why it didn’t become commonplace, because the possibility of canceling the operation after it is performed is much more convenient for the obligatory confirmations “Do you really want to do this?” Come from the shaggy 90s, if not earlier. This is one of the brand Vkontakte pieces, with which it runs counter to the generally accepted, and which distinguishes it for the better. Good thing it survived. It is a pity that for the rest of the fashion pressure, the Vkontakte team resists worse.
Limbo
Here I will have changes that are still in doubt, but I am not ready to write them down sharply into flaws.
Comments to the right of the photos. Here you can giggle on the topic of complex relationships between the VC and Instagram, whose recent competitor has not yet entered - and now they have cut it, it turns out heavy artillery. In general, the decision to bring comments to the first screen looks reasonable - it's the web version, anyway, everyone has widescreen displays, let them, for once, an empty space on the left / right will work and bring benefits. But here's the oddity: in Facebook, for example, both ways of output are implemented: by default - a la Insta ... excuse me, Vkontakte, but if you click on the recording date, the old-style mode will open with comments below. And I usually click on a date, because for some reason it’s more convenient for me. The text column is wider, comments are easier to read - and in the narrow right column nothing is longer than “Yyy”, “Lol”, “What are you beautiful!” And “First na” plainly and does not fit as if. But maybe I'm the only one so strange? Yyyy, lol. In general, to the limb.
Summary
Actually, I love everything new. And the first impression from the VC redesign was not repulsive. There is this pleasant feeling of rearrangement of furniture in the apartment - it seems, everything is the same, but it seems like a new thing in the house has appeared. The disadvantages described in this article are noncritical, and the fact that the changes did not begin to roll out in the ultimatum form to everyone at once is a big plus.
It remains to wait for answers to the questions asked, and, I hope, corrections of the inconveniences described.
But while I still sit on the old design, thank you.
UPD Double lol:
The obscene comment on VC.ru under a collection of accolades from industry captains : vc.ru/p/vk-opinions#comment257970
And then immediately VC on the sly gathered an expert opinion of the industry, he thinks there will be hot material, everything is in shock. What do they carry? What do these people have to do with design? Why, under the guise of expert opinion, do they stuff some garbage into my ears?
Absolutely obscene, but fun and accurate analysis of the stocks of the new redesign: readymag.com/uxnoname/VK
The biggest fucking point was undoubtedly the reduction of the width of the tape, and without that small as the salary of a Russian. If earlier it was visually wider even due to the fact that the avatar of the poster was to the right, then now this shit has merged into one fucking heap.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/392443/
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