I’d like Lemmy to attract a wide range of folks who contribute to a diverse range of communities. While the official web UI is very rich in features, I think it might be a bit intimidating for non-IT people.

So I figured: why not try to be the change I want to see in this world? Here’s my attempt, implemented in SvelteKit.

  • Shikadi@lemmy.sdf.org
    611·
    11 months ago

    I really don’t like that style of interface. But what’s cool is, it doesn’t matter what I think, because both can coexist so people who do like it can enjoy it. Looks good, Rock on!

    • American_Jesus@lemm.ee
      39·
      11 months ago

      Like not everyone liked new reddit UI, and not everyone like the old UI.
      Having a choice is always better than force people to use something they don’t like. (this reminds me something!)

      • LCP@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        11 months ago

        I always appreciate choice.

        It’s in fact a Reddit Gold/Premium feature on old.reddit where you can use the CSS from one sub and apply it to all other subs you visit.

  • scytale@lemmy.world
    2·
    11 months ago

    Will there be a compact mode view? One of my favorite things with Alexandrite and mlmym is that they maximize screen real estate, instead of forcing a vertical mobile app type of view on a desktop. Great work and I’m looking forward to testing it out when it’s ready!

    • FrostySpectacles@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      11 months ago

      I’ll take it into consideration! My first focus will be on enabling more basic functionality like upvoting, downvoting and commenting. Right now it’s still read-only.

  • kratoz29@lemmy.worldEnglish
    31·
    11 months ago

    This looks nice, could it be used in any browser? I use Safari and it has a pretty dumb support for extensions.

      • kratoz29@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        I tested it and I think it looks lit, all I want from a Lemmy web UI for desktop is to mimic how good the apps for Android/iOS does, in the meaning of having big ass images without clicking anything else to expand them every single time, I mean, you would think most folks have big ass monitors in use already (I don’t but at least is bigger than my smartphone screen).

        Only feature I have yet to see on this kind of frontends is the ability to mark posts as read while you scroll and hide them as well (like you can with Summit and Voyager).

        Another thing I am not a fan of the dark mode, maybe if you could tweak the interface would be good.

        Overall I think I’m gonna be rocking your frontend when it gets released because I think yours fit more with my taste and needs :)

  • Nix@merv.news
    2·
    11 months ago

    It looks really nice! Only thing I’d change off the bat is to stretch the search bar so itd the width of the middle section. Having search be more accessible would help a lot with duplicate posts so people search before posting (imo search should be integrated in the post section like how discord forums work so while your typing the title for your post it searches so you can see if there is already a thread on it)

    • FrostySpectacles@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      11 months ago

      Not sure I’d make the width cover the full middle section, but I agree that search needs to play a more prominent than in Lemmy’s official web UI. The related post search is an interesting suggestion I hadn’t considered yet!

    • Kresten@feddit.dk
      1·
      11 months ago

      I’m betting that it stretches, whenever you put your cursor in it. I agree on your sentiment about making searching more prominent. Also including search results for current community would be awesome to prevent reposts as you said. The same for URLs would be neat.

      It’s actually pretty powerful as of now, it just needs a fresh look and new placement.

  • Cubes@lemm.eeEnglish
    2·
    11 months ago

    Late to the party here but this is exactly what I’ve been thinking Lemmy needs to attract the less tech-savvy folks who absolutely don’t need/want all the hyper specific info and features! Well done!

    I know I’ll get pushback for this, but I’d like to see something like this become the default so new people don’t get scared away because it’s “too complicated” and then the current one become hosted under a subdomain for all the techie folks who like the control/info.

    • FrostySpectacles@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      11 months ago

      Thank you! There’s obviously still quite a way to go, but I’m hoping I or someone else will get there eventually.

      I agree that defaults matter a lot. You get only one chance to make a first impression, and most people will probably decide within a few seconds whether Lemmy is worth exploring. We need to get those users excited to explore the platform.

      Granted, some people may be scared that it’s going to “dumb down” Lemmy. But Lemmy will always continue to be about freedom of choice: you pick an instance you like, instances can offer any selection of web UIs they want, and you pick from the offered web UIs.

      • Cubes@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        Well said! This was far and away the most common complaint while I’ve been telling folks about Lemmy on Reddit, and I think plopping them right into a familiar, simple design would go a long way. At any rate, it’s good to see more UI people get involved since it feels a little neglected among the 3PAs and front ends, in my opinion.

        My other main complaint was that people don’t get how or where to sign up, and join-lemmy.org is just a bad introduction to the concept of instances. Would love to see that piece of Lemmy improved as well!

        • FrostySpectacles@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          11 months ago

          You’re hitting the nail on the head. Reddit-style websites are familiar to a lot of people, but we need to do a better job of explaining instances and federation. Not with text or technobabble, but with a UI that’s so intuitive it almost speaks for itself.