New Dropbox Homepage

https://www.dropbox.com/?home

by pearkes • 13 years ago

43 39 13 years ago

loupeabody2• 13 years ago

Looks great! Considering how the concept of a web + desktop app can confuse some less savvy users of the internet, these animations do a great job of conveying what Dropbox does. They're concise, expressive, and apparently very efficient in terms of performance. (frame data says the animations ran consistently ~60fps)

I haven't got the chance to see how the site looks on mobile, however. Anyone seen this on a phone or tablet?

scrapcode• 13 years ago

On my S3 http://dropbox.com redirects to https://www.dropbox.com/login?display=desktop -- https://www.dropbox.com/?display=desktop, however, does display this new lander and it works just fine. Animations and everything. Looks great to me.

lostlogin• 13 years ago

Thank you. I was trying to avoid being the who asks what's different. iPhone 4 IOS6 redirects me too (and I couldn't tell as my HN app doesn't display the URL) I see the new and like it now.

ricardobeat• 13 years ago

I only noticed the animations after reading this comment... thought the screens were just blank.

cpr• 13 years ago

It's probably a coincidence, since they'd have to have started the redesign a while back, but I wonder if we'll start seeing a bunch of "super-sparse" design now that iOS7 is out.

glomph• 13 years ago

"super-sparse" was a bandwagon joined by apple, not the other way around...

blairbeckwith• 13 years ago

Agreed, but it will arguably be more prominent then ever going forward, largely because of Apple doing it.

markdennis• 13 years ago

A bandwagon joined by Apple, sure, but one that now has considerably more momentum & exposure because of their joining.

zeitg3ist• 13 years ago

Note for "international" users (including myself): set English from the language chooser. Otherwise, it'll just show the (translated) old version. If you're logged in, you should also open the site in incognito mode (or log out, eh).

Justin_Time• 13 years ago

Great job! Small nitpick that's bothering me: The 'Sign up' & 'Download' text inside the bottom buttons is not vertically centered. (This is on Chrome 27.0.1453.110)

post_break2• 13 years ago

Instead of a home page I want to see a status page with actual updates that happen when an outage occurs. Dropbox has the worst response time of any host I know, and their reactions are lethargic at best. When my contract is up I'm moving to something else.

ja27• 13 years ago

I know they're not quick to update it, but they do run a status page: http://status.dropbox.com/

And a twitter: https://twitter.com/DropboxOps

flurian• 13 years ago

have you considered that maybe when dropbox SREs get paged they get busy fixing the site, not updating the status page?

post_break2• 13 years ago

It takes 10 seconds to tweet "Experiencing and issue" and then another 10 seconds to explain why after they figure it out. It's not rocket science.

tannerc2• 13 years ago

Looks great, absolutely. My concern is why websites like this tend to "hide" or de-value the login link.

I regularly have to access the Dropbox website, but with every change they make the login button seems to get smaller and smaller. I get that they're a business and need new customers, but it feels like existing customers "just aren't that important."

s0rce• 13 years ago

I think in the current iteration the login link is slightly more visible, at least closer to the sign-up button, then it was in the past.

timdorr• 13 years ago

Because that's not the primary access point. You normally log in through the app. For cases where you want to use the website, the app provides you a link to it that automatically logs you in.

It's de-valued because the majority of people that see this page are looking to sign up, learn more about Dropbox, or download the app. This page is optimized for those common use cases.

freehunter2• 13 years ago

There's a perfectly valid use case for using the Dropbox site to get to your files. A huge benefit of Dropbox is the ability to access your files anywhere, including a computer that does not or even cannot have the client installed. I'm thinking of a library machine at your university, your grandmother's computer, a friend's computer where you don't want to sign them out of their own desktop client, a work laptop where you're not allowed to install your own software, etc.

donniezazen• 13 years ago

In my case I would like websites to expose login and password dialog, so, for example, password managers could have easy access to them.

hrktb• 13 years ago

I think too much credit is given here. Another way to view it is that it is more important for Dropbox to have new people signup than already converted people login in.

Of course loging in should not be unfriendly, but pushing slighly out of sight on the home page is fair game. BTW my main use case for login to the website is for accessing my files from someone's computer or a different account, so yhe appis not helping.

jrochkind1• 13 years ago

Because that's not the primary access point. You normally log in through the app

I know tons of people who use Dropbox for file sharing with their friends and colleagues, exclusively via the web interface. They don't even know there IS an app, and never install apps on their laptops, they think the web browser is all there is.

(And the dropbox web browser UI is actually quite good.)

It is not obvious to me what is typical for the majority of dropbox users though (and then the majority of paying customers may be different again)

aviswanathan• 13 years ago

I'm sometimes a skeptic of flat design, but the flattened Dropbox icon looks awesome on the new site.

loupeabody2• 13 years ago

Not entirely flat design on the new homepage (the buttons have form), but the new wiki design[0] does seem almost entirely flat without bandwagoning. Confusingly, the old logo is still present in the new wiki.

[0]http://new.dropboxwiki.com/

namank2• 13 years ago

Interesting. My question is why is this setup like a landing page of a pre-funding startup?

Or am I missing something?

untog• 13 years ago

What do you mean by that, exactly? That it looks simple?

namank2• 13 years ago

It's aimed at displaying value propositions to a new user - something that startups usually focus on. I suppose Dropbox must be looking to expand their market share.

cpursley2• 13 years ago

The download button is where the signin button should be. Having login in the upper righthand corner is a long seated UX pattern - there is very little logic to messing with it. Now every time I go to signin, I'm going to accidentally download dropbox.

This is going to confuse the hell out of non-technical people like my dad, a dropbox user, but not a very patient one. I'm sure I'll get a confused call from him in a few days... Plus, I'll have to go into his downloads folder several times a year to remove all the dropbox install files that were inadvertently downloaded.

Cthulhu_• 13 years ago

I don't want to judge your dad, but does he actually read links before clicking them?

cpursley2• 13 years ago

That's a good point, a lot of people don't. That's why its prudent to use good UX patterns.

Everybody knows that signin is the upper righthand corner.

Breaking the mold to progress a pattern or for a specific project is fine, but the login? There's 0 reasons for this.

josephjrobison• 13 years ago

Hopefully if someone knows how to read, they'll be smart enough to know not to click Download if they want to sign on. What makes them able to get away with the placement is that there are 11 words above the fold on the homepage, instead of thousands like on Yahoo, so it should be fine.

oneeyedpigeon• 13 years ago

http://www.thereisnopagefold.com/

nhangen• 13 years ago

This is nothing special. Just a few animations and sketched graphics.

Edit: curious why the downvotes? Usually we hold ourselves to high standards on this board. We bash all the little guys, but Dropbox doesn't have to be held accountable to inspiring design?

New Dropbox Homepage

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