Introducing Sidebar 2.0

The 5 best design links of the day now have a brand new home

Almost four years ago, I started Sidebar with a simple concept: showcase the five best design links from around the web, every day. The funny thing is: that first version was supposed to be little more than a prototype, a placeholder for the real site that would be coming soon.

I wanted comments, upvotes, engagement, features! But then something weird happened: people seemed to like my simple prototype. Turns out that sometimes, simple is good.

Also, life got in the way, as it often does. I got sidetracked, and Sidebar got put on the sidelines. And that first crappy, simple prototype stayed basically unchanged, little more than a side project. OK, I’ll stop with the “side” puns now.

But all this changes today. Today, I’m launching Sidebar 2.0.

The first thing you’ll notice is probably the images. Science has progressed a lot since 2012, and we now have the technology to display pictures on websites! Each image is pulled from the linked site via Embedly, and displayed in full bitmap glory.

I also wanted to make it easier to search Sidebar’s vast archives of over 7000 links. So there’s now a whole new filter panel for searching by keyword, category, or date:

But wait, remember how I said being simple was one of Sidebar’s main assets? Wouldn’t adding a complex filtering UI detract from that simplicity?

I went back and forth on this quite a bit, and then it hit me: I would go against every principle of discoverability and use the “fold” to hide my content:

Maybe this will raise a few eyebrows, but personally I like this compromise: users who just want to open up the site and get their five links can do it without distraction, yet the full-featured searchable link feed is just a scroll away if you need it.

Sidebar 2.0 also features a brand new email template. I need to thank Aurélien Foutoyet for hooking me up with a great design, and Jason Rodriguez for his help with the HTML email integration.

Sidebar’s typography also got a much-needed refresh. I wanted to replace Futura with something a bit more original, but with just as much character. I have to confess I hadn’t been keeping up with the latest, coolest typefaces though. So I turned to an expert, Typewolf’s Jeremiah Shoaf. He suggested GT Eesti from the amazing Grillitype foundry, and I have to say it was love at first sight.

There are also some more functional improvements. In an attempt to make Sidebar a bit more democratic, anybody can now sign up and post links. Don’t worry though, these links will still have to be manually reviewed and approved before they appear publicly on the site. A special class of “vetted” user accounts that can skip the moderation process is also on the roadmap.

You can also now “like” Sidebar links. While that doesn’t do much currently, I’m planning on building more full-featured profile pages that recap all your liked links, as well as “most liked” link rankings.

Finally, a word on code: Sidebar is actually based on Telescope Nova, a free, open-source back-end for React apps. I’ve been working on it for the past couple years, and it now supports every feature you see on Sidebar, and more!

Which reminds me, I owe a huge thank you to the awesome Telescope open-source community. You guys are always helping me fix bugs and develop new feature, and the new Sidebar wouldn’t have been possible without you!

Finally, while I’m pretty comfortable with React and Meteor by now, I must confess that I’m still a novice when it comes to properly setting up servers for maximum performance. So I owe a lot to both Josh Owens and Michael Shilman for making sure the server doesn’t crash five minutes into the launch.

There would be a lot more to say about the code, as well as about the design process behind the new site. But I’ll leave this for another time.

For now, check out the new Sidebar. And if you’d like to support the site, a quick tweet would be much appreciated!