Codecademy redesign

Re:Codecademy redesign by AVTizzle on Friday May 04, 2012 @10:35AM (#3928531)

Huge improvement over the last chromed out pseudo-jukebox guys. This is simpler and more intuitive. It's easier for me to see my progress and where I've left off, which was my biggest concern with the jukebleh.

What's with the color scheme? It kinda seems like Codecademy is looking for an identity and throwing darts at a colorwheel. There's some variance in the theme between the home screen, tracks/courses/lessons, and the lessons themselves (and the jukebox that lives on! reborn on the "non-track courses page!).

Also - When it comes to the changes to the menu screens and such, why the friction? What's wrong with just laying it all out simply on one page? All the courses with their lessons linked out on one page, separated by section, like our friends at Khan Academy? Right now there IS a learning curve to using your interface.

This is an improvement from the jukebox, but when you compare it to Khan Academy's one-page smorgasbord, there IS friction before the good stuff.

(<3 Codecademy. Thanks for doing.)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Codecademy redesign by allisonhouse on Friday May 04, 2012 @11:41AM (#3928868)

<3. Thanks!

> What's with the color scheme?

Haha. I promise there's just one cohesive color scheme I'm working on adding to the whole site, which is what you see on the track index and track pages. The thematic differences are just a side effect of shipping quickly—the visual side will be coming together soon!

> When it comes to the changes to the menu screens and such, why the friction?

I think I have an answer to this question, but I'd really love to hear more of your thoughts on this as far as what you think is causing friction on Codecademy. If you have a chance, feel free to drop me a line at [email protected]!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Codecademy redesign by hsmyers on Friday May 04, 2012 @01:21PM (#3929384)

I'm somewhat oblivious to color schemes, but I was a little annoyed by the editor showing code with semi-colons and then getting the little yellow triangle that complains about unnecessary semi-colons that you put there in the first place. Can't tell if this is an accident or a test? Otherwise enjoyed the hell out of the site! Keep it up!!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Codecademy redesign by bgilroy26 on Friday May 04, 2012 @04:03PM (#3930095)

I'm not a part of Codecademy, but that's part of the Auto-Linting that they run all over the site, you can read more about javascript analysis tools here[1].

I agree that the linter can be over-opinionated at times, and that definitely clashes with the community approach to teaching, where seems every lesson author has his or her own coding style quirks.

I doubt that at this point the decision about whether to have a strict style policy, or to roll their own Codecademy linter, or to leave things the way they are has made it to the top of their priorities list.

Until it does, the linter will be helpful most of the time and annoying some of the time.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSLint

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Codecademy redesign by AVTizzle on Friday May 04, 2012 @05:53PM (#3930499)

Artists ship. Gotta respect that.

Email sent. Hollatchainbox.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Codecademy redesign by huhtenberg on Friday May 04, 2012 @01:43PM (#3929470)

> What's with the color scheme?

Don't mind that - what's with the logo?

Every single app and service these days seem to be using a scripted wordmark for a logo. Not only this is a new branding cliche, it also makes all these logos look the same.

[ Parent | on HN ]