MEDIUM | EXPERIENCE DESIGN

Project Zen at Medium

(going white and showing more)

photo by flaleman, 2020

Have you noticed? Are you just as excited as I am?

Medium is bringing back the clean, minimal experience that readers and writers deserve. The ad-free experience fitting for a platform that has always claimed to be just this: a home where writers and stories are the heart of the matter.

Here is what has changed:

• Even if you had just gotten used to having the writer’s info and follow button always close by in the sidebar to the right of the piece you read, we are back on a single-column page with plenty of white and no sidebar template.
• With more screenspace, expect to see your favorite writers giving more attention to layout and design.
• Medium promises more and better options for writers and page designers to work with images and non-text information.
• When you reach the end of a story, you’ll find recommended stories from the author and publication you are reading, before you get to Medium’s recommended lists.

Internally, says Breana Jones (here), Medium has been calling these updates Project Zen. Because it is said that delivering a zen-like reading experience is what matters most.