Dev.to UI Update: What's Going On?!

#baddesign #discuss #ui

(Update: 20250804) Salute🫡 To Dev.To Dev Team!

The dev team addressed the issue within an hour! I didn't even expect them to notice my post.

Updated/Reverted compose view:

Love Dev.To! I was so frustrated I was thinking about developing my own platform, which is a daunting thought. On the other hand, below are some concepts for a new platform, notably mentioning problems of existing ones.

QuietSapce: Distraction-free blogging

Key ideas:

Medium style editing interface
Dev.to style Markdown and easy image uploading through dropping and pasting, single button Preview
CDN for blog contents
GitHub style support for video and YouTube embedding.

Key formatting elements:

Fully support tables (a issue in both CoderLegion and Medium)
Fully support images gifs and videos (through CDN link) (an issue in Dev.to)

Web editor, optional desktop editor. No dedicated subdomain: url path for user. No ads, central explore and save articles. May even be paid writing experience at $5 per month. Easy sharing, simple commenting.

Used for: Methodox DevLog.

Derivation: dedicated blog-style web hosting, like the simplest form of Word Press.

(20250804) Original Post: Some Ranting on Dev.to and Opinion on UI Design

Each platform strives to provide its best and each has its pros and cons. Some are simple technical issues - like the Markdown editor of CoderLegion, some are serious design flaws (like there is no way to manage brushes in Affinity Photo).

Today I was going to comb my thoughts and write something on Dev.to and was shocked so see this.

This ugly new feature is driving me mad.

Distracting Side Bar

It's one of the things I don't like about Discord/Slack. The interface is so clustered with irrelevant things or buttons that I rarely click on or need. And there are too many colors.

Now Dev.to is completely ruining the used-to-be quiet and focused writing experience. Just look at the screenshot below:

It's honestly so annoying I can't bear staying on this site any second longer. What's worse, because of this total distraction, I almost forgot what I was about to write.

Alternatives

I would love to officially moving to CoderLegion for canonical Dev Logs, but the image uploading experience is also not smooth. So that's a dilemma.

Dev Mate was second to come to mind following an interaction previously. However after signing up and taking a second look, the interface and fonts felt too stylized. And I prefer proper title + body + tags for a more traditional blogging style for longer contents than social media style.

We have the official Methodox Blog on WordPress. For those who aren't familiar with its content management system - it requires uploading images to the blog server for every single thing you display (or else use plugins) and is really inconvenient if one just want to share quick screenshots.