How to choose a new VK design. New VKontakte interface: this is definitely not Facebook?! About why everything is so unusual
The social network VKontakte announced the release of completely updated mobile and iOS devices. Literally everything has changed in them - both new functions for users and a redesigned user interface have appeared. Updated earlier this month.
New for presenters mobile platforms They lost the side navigation menu, which opens by clicking on the hamburger menu. From now on, the so-called tabbar is used - a single panel at the bottom of the screen that combines key functionality social network. Thus, users can now switch between news, messages, notifications and search with literally one touch.
In addition, the largest VKontakte update for Android and iOS also introduces completely new recommendations and search sections. They include recordings, videos, live broadcasts, stories, communities and personal pages, which may be of interest to the user. These will mainly be aspiring musicians, photographers and writers. The recommendations work is based on the new Prometheus algorithm - with the help of it the social network plans to promote high-quality content.
The notifications section with a new design now includes all notifications and friend requests - just like in the web version of VKontakte. Also, likes have become red, and the view counter is shown on each post without the need to open a separate post.
The update will be available for installation in Google Play And App Store within the next 24 hours. Or you can download it on Trashbox.
Popular social network " VKontakte» changed the design. According to the company's operating director Andrey Rogozov, the new appearance social network is the result of the fruitful work of specialists, which has been carried out over the past year and a half.
The design team pursued the main goal - to make the site look recognizable on all devices. It looks like they managed to achieve this, and now users of the web version can easily find the desired section in the mobile application, and vice versa.
Unnecessary elements have disappeared, additional space has appeared for new functions, and the screen width and fonts have increased, making the interface easier to read. The menu on the left has undergone significant changes - the names of items have been shortened and icons have been added, and the most popular sections " News" And " Messages" are now at the top.
IN " News» Each element is displayed in a new way. News lists, search and comments are located in a separate block on the right. If you do not want to view all the news, click on the section " Interesting first", located directly below this block.
Regarding " Messages", then the designers created it completely from scratch. Now dialogues and the current chat are on the same screen, which has greatly simplified the process of switching between conversations. Marked with a blue dot unread messages, and green indicates that the user is currently online.
Chapter " Answers"disappeared completely, and find out who put the mark" I like"of your photo, video or other publication, you can go to " Notifications" All requests for adding friends, mentions and names are also displayed here. If you are afraid of missing something new on the page of a person you are interested in or in a community, you can subscribe to notifications. As soon as a new post is made, a corresponding indicator will appear next to the bell icon at the top of the screen.
Good news for those who like to publish and view photos - now the pictures are displayed in a larger format and in a magazine layout (i.e., without spaces between them). 
Comparing the interfaces of VKontakte and Facebook has long become an analogue of holivars between android-maniacs and “Apple-philes”: on each side you can recruit a whole army that will fiercely defend their point of view. Many people know that the current image of VKontakte is an optimized and cleaned of all unnecessary sample from 2006. And this is precisely what for many was the decisive fact in favor of vk.com, compared to the ever-mutating Facebook: the stability of the interface and its simplicity. Therefore, the April Fool's news was more than unexpected: new VKontakte interface!
And, judging by, the VKontakte designers, after waiting 10 years, went back to Facebook, looked around and decided: “Cool, we need to do the same!”... And, indeed, they did...
When announcing this April Fool's joke, the operations director insisted that new VKontakte interface is the result of more than a year and a half of careful study and elaboration of each element of the site, and the main goal of all these actions is “transition to new level development".
Thanks to the changes, the VKontakte interface will look almost the same on any device (tablet/PC/smartphone, etc.), and there will be no need to get used to managing the social network on each individual gadget.
It is also stated that Vk.com will now be “easier to understand.” Why simplify what is already simple and understandable, although it is not specified. It was announced that the fonts have been changed, the screen width has been increased, and under the “new useful features» additional space has been identified.
The column of the main menu (the one on the left) has also been redesigned: the names of the sections have become shorter and are now accompanied by icons, the “News” and “Messages” sections have generally moved to the top.
A person familiar with the Facebook interface may now be indignant: “Well, it doesn’t look the same!”
Well, how can I say, not a bit. Let's take a closer look at this picture:
Duplicate the most popular sections in the header? No, VKontakte came up with this themselves. Many thanks to the VKontakte designers for not borrowing the left column! You also need to be able to plagiarize “subtly and tastefully.”
It was announced separately. In March they talked about it in the context of “weaving” into the old interface. In the April Fool's review of changes to the social network, it is already reported as an integral part of the new look of vk.com. So what has changed? According to A. Rogozov, that’s all. Each element of the “News” block has been “redesigned”. A part of the right column was allocated under “News”, a division of “News” into categories was added (Photo/Video, Friends, ...), and other elements of “old News” were also placed there (for example, “Recommendations”). But the most important thing that the vk.com developers emphasized even during the presentation of the “New Tape” was the separate switch to the “algorithmic mechanism”. It’s simply impossible not to notice it: here it is, the “Interesting first” toggle switch at the bottom of the right column:
According to the developers, this should simplify transitions between conversations and make signals about new messages more informative. The indication is as follows: unread messages - the dot to the right of the “conversation” is blue; if the interlocutor is online, there will be a green indicator next to the mini-avatar. Aaand... here another, quite fair question arises: when they say that by “rewriting” a section “from scratch” they still get a smoothed-out, sleek look, but Facebook?
Of course, you need to learn from more experienced and successful ones. But who said that you need to imitate everything? “VKontakte members” generally tried to make the new VKontakte interface as “obvious” as possible. And for this purpose, another indicator was added to the “header” - “Notifications”. So that the user does not miss anything important: a friend’s birthday, someone’s “like”, a “friend” request, etc.
If any activity occurs on the site that affects the user, the “bell” will immediately acquire a red mark.
The “Photos” section, also a very popular section of the VKontakte social network, frankly speaking, was not so convenient. And his “office imitation” - almost a carbon copy - is an excellent example of the fact that good imitation can be beneficial:
This is now the photo viewing interface for VKontakte: the photos are larger, the “viewer” is horizontally oriented, the comments are not somewhere in a trail at the bottom of the page, but in a convenient place - to the right of the “object of commenting”. 
Here's Facebook for you. How for what? To play Find 5 Differences! It would be very tedious to analyze all the changes that will soon “fall on the heads” of all VKontakte users - after all, the operating director of the social network assured that “every interface of the site” was affected. In order to “get into” the new interface that VKontakte will be dressed up in, the sections discussed above are enough.
There is one thing: if a dear reader just went to check his VK page and returned here with reasonable bewilderment like: “What kind of nonsense are they talking about here! Everything is as it was.” The explanation for this is not the author’s feverish delirium, but the fact that they decided to test the new vk.com interface on a “limited audience.” And the reader, fortunately (or maybe unfortunately) did not fall into this audience. However, for those who have an irresistible craving for “novelty” and who have a burning question, how to switch to a new VKontakte design at home, the developers reserved the right to voluntarily join in testing the new design. To do this, they posted on the page
For the first time, the new design became available to beta testers on April 1; later, any user of the social network could switch to the new version with the ability to rollback. It’s funny to say, but I did it literally at the beginning of August, and then the final release was already prepared. So, what did VKontakte please us with?
Appearance
I don't have very good eyesight, and even with glasses on my 21.5-inch screen, the fonts on the VKontakte website looked a little small. Of course, it was possible to manually zoom the site or change only the size of the letters, but then the layout would fall off in some places, which didn’t look very nice. I was also very annoyed by the huge fields on the sides. Almost 2/3 of the screen was simply empty!
IN new version the site has become visually wider, the font size has increased, as well as image previews, this is very cool. Of course, there is no arguing about tastes, but, in my opinion, from a design point of view, VK has definitely become better, in any case, for me personally, using it is now much more pleasant.
All avatars and group icons have become round, this may irritate some, but I don’t see anything wrong with such a display.
When opening photos, comments are now displayed on the right rather than below; by the way, I find this display option more informative.
Messages
There are now two display options available for conversations. In the first, classic, you see only the dialogue itself, and in the second - a list of the last contacts with whom you communicated. The second option is reminiscent of the implementation of instant messengers for tablets and, in my opinion, is very practical. To enable the second option, you need to click on the settings gear at the bottom of the screen.
Group administrators will be pleased to be able to quickly access their groups from the left panel and immediately see unread messages from publics.
Music
The music control panel is now always in the top panel, and not just when you are listening to it. This is convenient and allows you to quickly play the current track without having to go to the audio page.
Audio recording icons have also become round.
Notifications
Some people swear that VKontakte copied notifications and the entire top status bar from Facebook, but I don’t see anything wrong with that; after all, the main thing is that it has become more convenient. When you click on the bell, the latest actions with yours account: replies, likes, reposts, etc.
News
Many were afraid that VKontakte would copy Facebook’s content display system, and now it happened, however, unlike FB, VK developers give users a choice whether to use the new sorting or not, I think this is correct. By the way, VKontakte has long needed such filtering, because the news feed has long been filled with reposts of friends from all sorts of groups like “diaries of millionaires” and “the lonely lioness stopped being lazy.”
Optimization
The developers noted that they completely abandoned Flash and switched to HTML5 for audio and video content. It's a sound decision, and as a Safari user I fully support it.
Criticism from Pavel Durov
Pavel Durov on his page criticized new design of VKontakte and gave as many as seven reasons why they could have done better. I don't agree with all of them, for example, I think the display of photos has become better and the right panel with comments is quite appropriate. I also find it more convenient to dock the left and top panels when scrolling. But the width of the news feed really could have been made larger, because now VK still has a decent amount free space on the sides.
Below is a quote from Paul's original post:
Infographics
Below is some infographics from the official VKontakte blog:
Conclusion
When I first saw the new VKontakte design, it reminded me of an enlarged copy mobile application for the iPhone, however, this is not surprising; it was just amusing that the redesign of the application took place earlier than the redesign of the site. But despite the similarity, the site and the VK client do not visually copy each other completely.
In my opinion, the appearance of the site has become nicer and more modern. Some things have been made more convenient, some more beautiful. However, Pavel Durov’s criticism is also fair, primarily for the width of the news feed. What prevented you from making it even wider, given that there is enough space?
What do you say, dear readers? Do you like the new design of VKontakte? If not, why not?
P.S. I take this opportunity to invite you to subscribe to
“Chief editor of the GetGoodRank blog, web analyst, blogger.
The social network VKontakte has updated its user interface. Now faster, simpler, easier. But this is only according to the developers. Users complain about the difficulty of finding familiar options. This clearly proves that habits are strong, and a radical change in the interface is not always good.”
On August 17, 2016, all users of the VKontakte social network were transferred to a new design. According to representatives of the social network, it took more than 1.5 years to create the updated design. As of April 1, 2016, users could optionally switch to the updated design for testing. This made it possible to understand what users like/dislike and correct more than 2,500 minor errors. Thanks to the implemented update, interaction with the system and loading speed have improved, and there is more space for innovation.
What's new in the updated VK?
Speed and stability
The developers have eliminated errors that affected the stability of the platform. All sections have been rewritten and optimized. The abandonment of outdated Flash technology, unsupported by browsers, in favor of HTML5 ensures stable operation of audio and video players on mobile devices.
The updated version of VK has improved accessibility for visually impaired users.
New VK design: user interface
The work area has become wider, the distance between blocks and elements has increased, the font size has increased, thereby providing much more space for navigation. Added a right block for quickly switching between subsections.
Updated Messages service
In the updated version of VK, two options for displaying dialogs are available. In the classic version, the names of the interlocutors are placed in the right block:
The new interface offers the user a list of recent conversations and an active chat window. According to the developers, in this mode it is easier to switch between dialogs and messages.
To change the dialog interface, you need to enter the settings through the gear icon at the bottom of the screen.
Navigation in the top bar of the page
All notifications are now reflected in the top bar of the page, and not as usual next to each menu item. Notifications about new messages, likes, comments, as well as management of audio recordings will now be displayed here. After starting a musical composition, the note icon is replaced by buttons for controlling audio recordings.
According to the developer, in the updated version, every element has been rewritten to speed up loading and the system's response to user actions. Navigation has become simpler, functions are more accessible, and new functions are easier to implement. Thus, users already have access to hints for stickers, graffiti images in dialogues, and an enhanced photo editor.
The developers provide the following results of the effectiveness of innovations:
First user responses to the new VK design
- inability to stay on the old, familiar version
- difficulties in finding familiar options (for example, page settings, which were previously in the left panel, are now moved to the top panel and open by clicking on the profile avatar. The drop-down menu is only available by clicking, and not by hovering the mouse).
- similarity to FB design
- narrow field for displaying content
- failure to add content (photos, audio recordings)
- missing comments
During the transition, users noticed problems with the site; in particular, news, audio recordings, and dialogues periodically became unavailable.
