First off the linked post wasn't a very fair analysis and redditors pointed that out in the comments.
But to answer your questions: The previous design wasn't broken per se but it wasn't particularly user friendly. Whilst there are plenty of redditors who are used to the layout, a lot of potential users (first time visitors) never came back and became redditors - including many people I tried to introduce to reddit. The redesign is doing much better in that regard. Remember starterupers out there - you don't hear from the satisfied customers so much on the internet but you do get usage metrics :) So take the negative comments with a pinch of salt.
I'm curious what the technical reasons for you to choose to re-build it as an SPA rather than just gradually improve the layout and some new features? I don't use Reddit as an application. I have my favorite subreddits in my bookmark bar in my browser, under a folder called "Reddit". Everytime I switch between them I am forced to do a re-render from the ground up now, which takes about 4-5 seconds on my quite beefy hardware and network (overclocked i7, TITAN X, 1Gbit fiber), while the old design only took a second, 600ms of which were TTFB for the main html of the page.
I understand if your reason for a redesign is to keep new users, but what I don't understand is why it had to be a single-page application?
I think the old reddit is one of the most useable sites on the internet. I spend a lot of time there because it's a lot more functional and text oriented than other sites.
Did the design team consider that reddit's core user base likes the old design and may be there because of it?
i.e. The redesign may be more pleasing to non-redditors, but displeasing to the site's actual users. Did you test on regular users or just new users?
>The redesign is doing much better in that regard.
I'm curious what the numbers shows on how much is attributable to making the list of links look more like a social media timeline vs. all the other changes combined. Over the last few years, the writing on the wall is that Reddit sees the path to grow as evolving into Meme City, USA. Did you test that in isolation to other UI changes?
First off the linked post wasn't a very fair analysis and redditors pointed that out in the comments.
But to answer your questions: The previous design wasn't broken per se but it wasn't particularly user friendly. Whilst there are plenty of redditors who are used to the layout, a lot of potential users (first time visitors) never came back and became redditors - including many people I tried to introduce to reddit. The redesign is doing much better in that regard. Remember starterupers out there - you don't hear from the satisfied customers so much on the internet but you do get usage metrics :) So take the negative comments with a pinch of salt.