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.
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!
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!)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.
interchangeable CSS is a thing of the future! and the future is now!
No worries. Here’s to freedom of choice!
Works for me! Let us know when it’s ready to test drive…
Awesome. Read-only browsing is fairly stable at this point, but I think I’ll need to have basic account interactions like upvote, downvote and comment implemented before I have a minimum viable product. In general, I prefer to polish the experience before expanding the feature set.
A readonly prototype is available at https://lemminator.netlify.app/ right now ;)
Ooh, purty… 😎
Will it be open source?
Yes. Maybe GPL, maybe MIT, maybe something else. But some flavor of open source license.
Lemmy is AGPL so you might want to do that.
Thanks, I’ve settled on AGPL as well. I expect to release the source code somewhere in the coming days.
Awesome to hear! can’t wait to try it!
I have a readonly prototype up at https://lemminator.netlify.app/!
Thanks, official lemmy interface is clunked. this looks better tbh
That’s great, I also felt Svelte is a nice framework!
Does it have a name or page so I can follow along/come back in the future? Looks great.
Its working title is Lemminator. You can try a readonly prototype at https://lemminator.netlify.app/ right now.
I loved it, I hope it is implemented as soon as possible. I hate the current interface.
I really dig it
Wow, looks really nice!
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.
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.
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!
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.
This looks great! Nice job
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!
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.
it seems like my comment was deleted. what is the link again?
The link is https://lemminator.netlify.app/. While it’s still very much a work in progress, basic navigation and upvote/downvote are already working.
thanks
Love it !
Awesome stuff! More is better, and webUIs are, I think, a better avenue for UI diversity than mobile apps.
Not to detract from your work, but it seems somewhat similar to
alexandrite(see their community here), both in the general layout and using svelte. I bring this up just in case you weren’t aware and there’s any possibility of the two projects being merged or pooled or at least learn from each other in some way.Otherwise … awesome work! I’m a fan of columnar layouts!
I think this UI looks neat, totally room out there for both of them! :) I think it actually looks a bit closer to Photon. I’m always down for more apps because we all benefit from new ideas.
Prior to starting my own web UI I considered becoming an Alexandrite contributor. I like how colorful it is compared to the regular web UI. My vision is too different from a technical, design and UX perspective though, so I still think it’s worth pursuing a separate effort. I hope it’ll pay off.
Awesome! Best of luck!
