by muhammad Saleem.

digg just updated their site and to clarify what has changed and what has been added, here is a tour of the updated site with before and after screen-shots.

first of all, here’s a ‘before’ screen shot of the home page followed by the new look.

starting from the very top, digg has removed the three-level layout which had the option of content-type (news, videos, and podcasts) on level one, the topics/categories displayed under it, and collapsible subtopics hidden within each topic. instead, they have opted to use a much more streamlined interface with each content-type displayed at the top and expandable as follows:

accessible from right under the content-types you still have the popular topics (such as world and business, technology, and so on).

the next big change has been made to the submitted story box.

with the new design, more importance is given to the title and the summary of the story. information about who submitted the story, when it was submitted/made popular, now joins the interaction options (like commenting, emailing, burying) at the bottom and all of the options are accompanied with fancy new buttons. the new layout is more efficient because it focuses on the content first and then gives you the option to interact with it and the rest of the extra information.

the one addition to the box is a button that allows you to select a story as a favorite. the button appears once you have dugg a story, and clicking it will add a story into the same archive where the ‘my number one’ stories were previously displayed.

the single most important change in the update is the new ‘one-click bury’ system digg has instituted. you are no longer required to give a reason for burying a story (though you still can if you want to). simply click the red x at the bottom of a story and you’re done. note that the option to bury a story exists only as long as you haven’t already dugg a story. unlike before, you can’t digg and then bury a story without undigging it first.

going back to the menu bar at the top, checking out your friends’ activity has also been made much easier. the total activity is displayed in a collapsible button at the top, and clicking it opens a drop-down menu allowing you to see the activity in more detail.

while much anticipated changes like a new comment system and a pictures section were not released in this update (which is largely cosmetic), there were some additional smaller changes as well. for example, the recent top stories section is now being displayed more prominently (thanks in part to the orange color), news and videos have been combined into one section (users can change this), and the ‘top in all sections’ lets you choose between all, news, and video.

overall, the update is great. the interface has been streamlined and compacted so that there is minimal clutter. the new design is not drastic and ensures that users will find it both easy to adapt to and more efficient to use.

Technorati Tags: digg, social media, social bookmarking, socially driven, design