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Comment by devmonk | Hacker News Reader

I'm somewhat new to HN, but I don't like the new look. The existing one is much easier on the eyes.

A good UI should not introduce new colors or visual elements that are unnecessary. Zebra coloring of rows has its place, but not here. Don't need the lines between posts (lines are for grids, and this doesn't need one). Additional box around arrows unnecessary. Text too small. Contrast of white on black at top draws eyes too much to title and menu.

Basically, please leave things as they are or ditch this design. I know you've spent a lot of time on it, but you will not gain users at as high of a rate with the new design.

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Also the text for the homepage is the exact same size as the current HN unless my eyes are deceiving me. My choice would be to bump up the size of course like I did on the single page, but figured the audience was more attuned to the small size so they could scan more links at once.

Whoops, the boxes around arrows wasn't supposed to be there. The colors are arbitrary and could be changed to remain consistent with HN. As for the alternating row colors they help me (obviously we differ) in scanning the site.

I'm having trouble finding a link, but there have been user experience studies involving heat maps, etc. showing that any unnecessary visual elements distract the user.

I'm with you that I like the idea of having a strong visual indicator to differentiate different posts, but studies in UE have proven that the age-old "use zebra coloring to differentiate rows" that was used in accounting notebooks and perforated printer paper in the mid-20th century up until the 80s draws users' eyes away from the content in order to differentiate. Basically it is annoying to our brains and slows us down, but programmers like straight lines and making things neat, so the aesthetic nature of the differentiation in color and its assumed practical purpose makes us erroneously choose it over the visually simpler option.

(In reply to devmonk)

Interesting, I never read that, but now I'll have to see if I can find the study you talk about. Like I mentioned before I would rather increase the font size and then space things out a bit more, but that would offer less links on a page so it becomes a compromise.

Thinking of the type of audience HN attracts one would think people wouldn't have a problem bumping up the size in their browsers although that can be annoying to do.

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