I've been seeing a bunch of "redesigns" of HN over the last few days, and none of them seem to acknowledge/realise that HN has pretty much nailed it's core purpose in the current design. Sure it's not "shiny" or "pretty" but the accentuations are on the right thing... the content.

Most of the redesigns try and accentuate the people's profile links, post times, and other metadata, whereas I think HN's biggest design strength is that the front page is an easily-readable list of post titles, with all other metadata small and hidden. Also, when actually reading a post page, the post text itself is the prominent readable part, with metadata once again small and out of the way. We come here to read the articles, and click the links. The when/who of each post is really just a post-script and shouldn't be any more noticeable than it is already.

I haven't seen a single redesign (all of which claim to be "easier to read") that is actually easier to read, or better laid out than the current HN. Then again, that's just my personal opinion on it all.

Short answer: No. It doesn't need changing. If anything, it just needs people to be more focussed on voting up the relevant content, and less of the "fluff".

If HN starts to redesign for aesthetics, it will be a slippery slope before HN starts catering to a much larger populous than it should. HN is about hackers and entrepreneurs, and it delivers news clearly and cleanly.

As for the back end of the site, I'm sure the code that determines what makes it and stays on the front page could be revised though. As to how that should work- my guess may be as good as yours.

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