I’m obsessed with Medium. Despite the fact that it has served as a platform to showcase my writing it has also been serving another purpose. Medium is helping me understand design theory. As a UX student at Lambda School, my daily projects consist of analyzing how the concepts I’ve learned during class relate to the real world. This week, I’ve been learning all about design theory (colour theory, typography, visual hierarchy, design principles). Medium has designed an ideal visual hierarchy and also has an interface that is designed to support the human mind.
Here’s a list of all the reasons why Medium fulfils a UX designer’s dream
Everything is easily accessible
On the top right-hand corner of the landing page, you can find everything you need to navigate through Medium. You can search for content, see your saves posts, see your notifications and click on your profile. The header neatly comprises of topics/publications that you follow. Featured stories are presented on the top while stories from your network are situated right in the middle. On the right side post popular on Medium.
The colour palette is great
Nothing bright to hurt the eyes. But most importantly, the colours are neutral which are perfect for reading. Titles of the blog post are black which is probably the only colour on the page that stands out. Everything else is light grey. The pop of colours that you do see are the images.
Organization of posts
I absolutely love how each post on the landing page is organized. The title of the post, followed by a sentence, author/publication, date posted and the reading time. The reading time is a very helpful feature because there are some days I am in a rush and save the longer posts to read for a later time. Moreover, the layout of Medium’s landing page follows an F eye-tracking pattern which is commonly used when displaying blog posts.
Most of the Gestalt Principles are fulfilled
Posts are arranged in a line, one beneath the other. The photos are aligned symmetrically one beneath the other as well. This is not only visually pleasing but also makes it easier to navigate through the page. The symmetry presented simplifies the page and makes interpretation easier. Whenever I open Medium, I know that posts are going to be grouped together which describes the common fate principle. The proximity at which the posts are grouped influences the rest of the layout. The middle of the page presents blog posts that are in close proximity to one another making it reader-friendly. On the right-hand side of the page are titles of posts that are “New From Your Network.” This stands out because it becomes a focus of attention on the page. The title is presented behind a teal background along with an image. This demonstrates the figure-ground principle where “our mind separates the field into the figure (the foreground) and ground (the background). Overall, Medium’s landing page is user-friendly and visually pleasing — every UX designer’s dream!
