Here's the thing though - generally speaking, I don't know of many people who are confused by Craigslist. It's an effective design for what it needs to do - browsing is easy and obvious, searching is easy and obvious. It's just "ugly", which is a different thing.
I will say Reddit is a bit of a different beast - there's too many hidden and confusing features, and it's probably fair to say that iterating on the design was necessary.
My biggest concern is that what I've seen from the redesign seems to be focused on making Reddit less ugly than making it more obvious and functional.
We're both posting on what might be one of the "ugliest" discussion forums on the internet - but I've rarely been confused as to how to do something on HN, which I can't say for many, many "modern", "pretty" websites.
HN always felt like a minimalist reddit. Just a better tech subreddit
I like to use the parent/old person test for ui usability(obviously not every old person will do, you know the type tho). I showed my parents reddit and they picked it up right away. Both failed to learn snapchat and struggle through most "modern" websites.
I blew their minds when I showed them if they click the three lines on lpta of websites, really a hamburger menu, they get options and stuff.
Often users are just expected to know these "design paradigms" like symbols(hamburger menu) or which direction to swipe(im still guessing half the time Snapchat). Whatever happened to using words like settings to open the settings menu. When did GUIs' forget to show available commands to users in an understandable format.
Craigslist is one of the most frustrating user experiences I have ever had. Every attempt I have made to use it has ended with me looking elsewhere, and each time I have had vastly better experiences on other sites.
Everyone has a huge bias for what they already know. If you already understand and like Craigslist, I'm sure it's great. As a new user, it's awful.
I will say Reddit is a bit of a different beast - there's too many hidden and confusing features, and it's probably fair to say that iterating on the design was necessary.
My biggest concern is that what I've seen from the redesign seems to be focused on making Reddit less ugly than making it more obvious and functional.
We're both posting on what might be one of the "ugliest" discussion forums on the internet - but I've rarely been confused as to how to do something on HN, which I can't say for many, many "modern", "pretty" websites.