In this discussion he makes several assumptions like "we can de-emphasize the branch switcher since it’s so rarely used" and "The Clone in Mac button was a perfect example of an under-used feature" and "Cloning a repository happens rarely" all of which do not chime with my personal experience.
Our disagreement is to be expected - no two people completely agree about an interface - but it is extremely disappointing that he makes no mention of testing on real users (or at the very least, speaking to them) in order to gauge whether these features really are unimportant. If you want to know the reason why so many site redesigns are unpopular with users, here it is: you didn't test them.
I'm not trying to take this to absurd conclusions like "every change has to be tested" but the central idea of this guy is faulty: design of the user interface, like design of software, is NOT to be done by anyone in isolation. You need to involve real users in major changes before they happen.
I hope Github ran user testing before they released these changes.
Our disagreement is to be expected - no two people completely agree about an interface - but it is extremely disappointing that he makes no mention of testing on real users (or at the very least, speaking to them) in order to gauge whether these features really are unimportant. If you want to know the reason why so many site redesigns are unpopular with users, here it is: you didn't test them.
I'm not trying to take this to absurd conclusions like "every change has to be tested" but the central idea of this guy is faulty: design of the user interface, like design of software, is NOT to be done by anyone in isolation. You need to involve real users in major changes before they happen.
I hope Github ran user testing before they released these changes.