New Dropbox Homepage | Hacker News Reader

New Dropbox Homepage

dropbox.com

43 pointspearkes43 comments

Looks great, absolutely. My concern is why websites like this tend to "hide" or de-value the login link.

I regularly have to access the Dropbox website, but with every change they make the login button seems to get smaller and smaller. I get that they're a business and need new customers, but it feels like existing customers "just aren't that important."

I think in the current iteration the login link is slightly more visible, at least closer to the sign-up button, then it was in the past.

Because that's not the primary access point. You normally log in through the app. For cases where you want to use the website, the app provides you a link to it that automatically logs you in.

It's de-valued because the majority of people that see this page are looking to sign up, learn more about Dropbox, or download the app. This page is optimized for those common use cases.

There's a perfectly valid use case for using the Dropbox site to get to your files. A huge benefit of Dropbox is the ability to access your files anywhere, including a computer that does not or even cannot have the client installed. I'm thinking of a library machine at your university, your grandmother's computer, a friend's computer where you don't want to sign them out of their own desktop client, a work laptop where you're not allowed to install your own software, etc.

yea, and it's pretty clear where to log in.

Certainly is. The problem is that the link seems to get smaller and more hidden with each update.

Even without seeing the numbers I think it's obvious why they're doing it, I'm just wondering: is there a better way to callout the login for existing users without interfering too much with the process for potential customers?

If you like, you can use dropbox.com/login, which is pretty easy to remember.

In my case I would like websites to expose login and password dialog, so, for example, password managers could have easy access to them.

I think too much credit is given here. Another way to view it is that it is more important for Dropbox to have new people signup than already converted people login in.

Of course loging in should not be unfriendly, but pushing slighly out of sight on the home page is fair game. BTW my main use case for login to the website is for accessing my files from someone's computer or a different account, so yhe appis not helping.

> Because that's not the primary access point. You normally log in through the app

I know tons of people who use Dropbox for file sharing with their friends and colleagues, exclusively via the web interface. They don't even know there IS an app, and never install apps on their laptops, they think the web browser is all there is.

(And the dropbox web browser UI is actually quite good.)

It is not obvious to me what is typical for the majority of dropbox users though (and then the majority of paying customers may be different again)

The download button is where the signin button should be. Having login in the upper righthand corner is a long seated UX pattern - there is very little logic to messing with it. Now every time I go to signin, I'm going to accidentally download dropbox.

This is going to confuse the hell out of non-technical people like my dad, a dropbox user, but not a very patient one. I'm sure I'll get a confused call from him in a few days... Plus, I'll have to go into his downloads folder several times a year to remove all the dropbox install files that were inadvertently downloaded.

I don't want to judge your dad, but does he actually read links before clicking them?

That's a good point, a lot of people don't. That's why its prudent to use good UX patterns.

Everybody knows that signin is the upper righthand corner.

Breaking the mold to progress a pattern or for a specific project is fine, but the login? There's 0 reasons for this.

Wait, what?

You have literally three links on that page. Each at MAX two words.

If there's a person who wouldn't even read a total of five words when they see a new interface then I really don't want them to be my customer. They sound like far more trouble than they're worth.

How about instead of looking at the people who take exception to the position of the download link in the right top, we look at why you're so dead set on having it there?

That's the same kind of logic.

People who expect the login link at that spot might as well reverse that attitude on you, and think to themselves: "if there's a person who insists on putting the download link where the login button usually resides, then I really don't want to be their customer. They sound like far more trouble then they're worth."

I guess the both of you will be happy, but also, the both of you will miss out.

Not a great attitude in business or UI design.

Sure, but it's about as confusing as putting a trash can icon on the save button. Consistent UI is a good thing, even across products.

Hopefully if someone knows how to read, they'll be smart enough to know not to click Download if they want to sign on. What makes them able to get away with the placement is that there are 11 words above the fold on the homepage, instead of thousands like on Yahoo, so it should be fine.

http://www.thereisnopagefold.com/

Note for "international" users (including myself): set English from the language chooser. Otherwise, it'll just show the (translated) old version. If you're logged in, you should also open the site in incognito mode (or log out, eh).

Looks great! Considering how the concept of a web + desktop app can confuse some less savvy users of the internet, these animations do a great job of conveying what Dropbox does. They're concise, expressive, and apparently very efficient in terms of performance. (frame data says the animations ran consistently ~60fps)

I haven't got the chance to see how the site looks on mobile, however. Anyone seen this on a phone or tablet?

On my S3 http://dropbox.com redirects to https://www.dropbox.com/login?display=desktop -- https://www.dropbox.com/?display=desktop, however, does display this new lander and it works just fine. Animations and everything. Looks great to me.

Thank you. I was trying to avoid being the who asks what's different. iPhone 4 IOS6 redirects me too (and I couldn't tell as my HN app doesn't display the URL) I see the new and like it now.

I only noticed the animations after reading this comment... thought the screens were just blank.

I'm sometimes a skeptic of flat design, but the flattened Dropbox icon looks awesome on the new site.

Not entirely flat design on the new homepage (the buttons have form), but the new wiki design[0] does seem almost entirely flat without bandwagoning. Confusingly, the old logo is still present in the new wiki.

[0]http://new.dropboxwiki.com/

Instead of a home page I want to see a status page with actual updates that happen when an outage occurs. Dropbox has the worst response time of any host I know, and their reactions are lethargic at best. When my contract is up I'm moving to something else.

I know they're not quick to update it, but they do run a status page: http://status.dropbox.com/

And a twitter: https://twitter.com/DropboxOps

have you considered that maybe when dropbox SREs get paged they get busy fixing the site, not updating the status page?

It takes 10 seconds to tweet "Experiencing and issue" and then another 10 seconds to explain why after they figure it out. It's not rocket science.

Great job! Small nitpick that's bothering me: The 'Sign up' & 'Download' text inside the bottom buttons is not vertically centered. (This is on Chrome 27.0.1453.110)

Interesting. My question is why is this setup like a landing page of a pre-funding startup?

Or am I missing something?

What do you mean by that, exactly? That it looks simple?

It's aimed at displaying value propositions to a new user - something that startups usually focus on. I suppose Dropbox must be looking to expand their market share.

This is nothing special. Just a few animations and sketched graphics.

Edit: curious why the downvotes? Usually we hold ourselves to high standards on this board. We bash all the little guys, but Dropbox doesn't have to be held accountable to inspiring design?

It's probably a coincidence, since they'd have to have started the redesign a while back, but I wonder if we'll start seeing a bunch of "super-sparse" design now that iOS7 is out.

"super-sparse" was a bandwagon joined by apple, not the other way around...

Agreed, but it will arguably be more prominent then ever going forward, largely because of Apple doing it.

A bandwagon joined by Apple, sure, but one that now has considerably more momentum & exposure because of their joining.

I've been seeing it massively for much longer than the past couple of weeks. Think of things like Flat UI for Bootstrap.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com