What to eye-on in the latest Medium version upgrade?

A Guide and Review on Medium’s latest version upgrade

I have been on Medium for not longer than a couple of months.

There are atypical number of changes on Medium with its new upgrade, in comparison to the previous version.

Nevertheless, there are quite a number of aspects Medium could improve on its new look and feel of the web application as well.

Article Layout

I wanted to write on this right at the top, because the layout of the articles is the biggest and best upgrade of the new version of Medium.

How the article are arranged to be set in the form of a drop-down, but letting the reader give an outlook on what the article is cool — Yay! on that.

All the time it sounds like there is something inquisitive left behind the section that is not visible behind the article. It keeps the reader on the edge always.

Having the name of publication the article is published under is cool too.

Rather than having the banner or the logo in the list mode of articles, having the publication name is appraisable.

Side bar

A side bar is available in the profile page to have a profile description included.

Also called the About section of the profile, adds as a summary to the profile, but in my personal opinion, it looks all a little cramped up in a tight space.

In a user experience perspective, working on Closure and Proximity would be just as good.

In case, if you dislike the addition on the side bar, unlike I did though I do not like it much, you can change the positioning to come under the Header section.

Header

You can keep the header as free as you want just displaying your Medium handle, or as suggested above, you can always have it on the side bar as well.

What I believe is keeping the header as simple and less populated is a good approach.

Next, it is the little search-icon available to the top of the page that let the user search articles.

The best thing is, a visitor to the profile can search for articles written by the author as well.

This way, a long scroll down the profile is not required any longer on Medium.

Also, a “New Story” button is available to start writing off right-away is a good addition.

Nothing much to add to the profile drop-down from the previous version, and with a new addition of the Design tab — and, all what the tab does is explained below.

Keeping the profile drop-down just as it was is actually neither a considerable positive nor a negative.

All the tabs such as the Stories, Stats, Design and the rest of the functions still look handy to appear in the same drop-down as well.

Claim your own URL!

All Writers can claim a URL for the respective profiles. This is exciting news, I am eager to see what this could assist me with in the future.

But,

Next move by Medium moved me the most,

Design

To my shock, I still try out what the Design offers to the writers.

This is the single biggest improvement on the latest version upgrade for Medium.

I was waiting for the day, where I would be able to literally add some color and style to my article — and did the day come not fast!

Just as the picture depicts, the design edits could be applied for the two main views of Home and Story.

Home edits are for the profile view.

Story edits are for article styles.

Not quite the feature you could see on a web page customization, but all edits could be viewed for a web, tab and a mobile phone screen — That is pretty sick!

After the edits are done, click on Publish and your changes are just made to your articles and the profile views.

But,

What are the edits available under Design?

Medium has allowed its Writers to do changes under three main aspects: Colors, Fonts and Header.

This is what Colors tab offers:

‘Accent’ allows changes in color for buttons in the pages, while ‘Background’ allows changes in the entire background the article is written and published.

Under the Fonts section,

There are three main areas a you can make edits on the fonts, they are basically under the sections of Titles, Details and Body.

Titles cover the Story titles and pull-quotes,

Details are used for sub-titles, profile names, meta-data, eyebrows and headings,

Body is used for…. you guessed it right — body of the story.

All the edits under Fonts restrict to three font types: Two Serif fonts and one Sans-Serif.

Header sections tend to get trickier though it covers just the Header area of the story.

A decent range of changes in the header section is sufficient for you to make a considerable impact on the first impression on the profile and the stories.

‘Layout’ allows you to place the header, basically the towards the left or center, and the size of the header, either small or large.

‘Background’ allows you to make selections on the Color, Story of the header and have it either as a solid color or a gradient.

Else, you can upload a suitable image of a recommended 1500 pixels wide of formats JPG, PNG or GIF files. A simple upload from the device or an online link is sufficient to add the favorite background image needed for the classy look of the profile.

Just at the end, when the Story is ready to hit the grounds, you can select whether you want the story to be Pinned as well.

In Conclusion,

I, personally think the version upgrade on Medium is a cool move, and the experience for both the writer and reader is better.

Just focusing on the minor design changes can make Medium just as cool.

About Author:

I am an Associate Business Analyst keeping baby-steps to pursue a career as a writer, all the while learning the basics and advanced techniques in writing.

My medium handle is Muad Arshad where you can find out articles I have written on random topics, life experiences and tech-based roles! — whoops

Reach me on twitter through @muad_0911 and on LinkedIn through Muad Arshad