Summary

Medium is introducing new features that enhance customization for authors and publications while maintaining its minimalist design, and improving the visibility of short-form content and seamless reading experience.

Abstract

Medium is rolling out a set of new features aimed at bridging the gap between customization and aesthetic integrity. These features include the ability for authors and publications to personalize their pages with headers, fonts, colors, and branding elements, while still adhering to Medium's signature minimalist style. The platform is also introducing an inline reading experience to better showcase short-form content, such as haikus and life updates, which have historically been overshadowed by longer articles. Additionally, Medium is implementing seamless scrolling with rich snippets to improve content discovery and keep readers engaged, ensuring that content quality, not just catchy headlines, drives reader interest. These updates are part of Medium's beta program, with a promise of more flexible options to come, and users are encouraged to sign up for the beta to experience and provide feedback on these changes.

Opinions

The author acknowledges Medium's minimalist UI but notes the appeal of WordPress's extensive customization options.
There is a positive outlook on Medium's new features, as long as they maintain a balance between minimalism and personalization.
The author believes that giving bloggers control over their blog's visual appearance would be highly beneficial.
There is enthusiasm about the new inline reading experience, especially for poets and those who produce creative short-form content.
The author is cautiously optimistic about whether the new features will shift Medium's identity towards that of a conventional social media platform.
The author appreciates the new seamless scrolling feature, which puts content at the center of the reading experience and reduces reliance on catchy headlines.
The author encourages users to participate in the beta to help refine these new features and ensure they integrate well with Medium's existing interface.

MEDIUM

Medium’s New Features Are a Step in the Right Direction

Sign up for the beta now!

Stories. That’s what Medium has always been about.

Medium’s abundance of white space makes for a minimal yet pleasant UI. But on the other side of the ring, competitors like WordPress offer bloggers an incredible amount of customization options. True, you need to spring up for a solid hosting solution and dabble with themes if you pick that route. You name it, you can tinker with it. I can see why Medium chooses not to go that route. It keeps things simple. And unified.

Giving users too many tools can turn Medium’s characteristic vibe to an unrecognizable pile of mismatched fonts and colors.

This is why I was surprised when Medium decided to test a couple of features that would bridge the gap between customization and aesthetics. As long as Medium draws the line between minimalism and personalization, these tools will bring sweeping changes that would be welcomed by creators and publications alike.

Pick your vibe

Medium’s new features let you decide how your author page or publication looks like. While publications already enjoy features such as feature pages and home page customization, offering this control to bloggers would be a blessing indeed. Medium’s upcoming beta seeks to go even further with granular control over your blog’s visual appearance.

Headers, fonts, and colors are now customizable, although I hope the options are reined in to better represent Medium’s unifying interface. You can also add branding elements for an additional layer of customization. Medium promises that even more options in terms of flexibility are on their way. I believe they will strike the right balance to keep things Medium.

Size doesn’t matter

Based on my experience with Medium, the site has always hosted some of the most compelling stories out there, be it fictional or otherwise. But short-form content like life updates and yes, Haikus, haven’t had the same degree of success. While it’s true that search engines tend to reward bigger reads, the same doesn’t have to be true at Medium.

Their new inline reading experience promises a safe haven for shorter forms of content. This means that it’s now easier to create and share bite-sized articles, be it quotes or links to news updates or the latest in tech. Among Medium’s new features, this is the best of the lot for poets and those armed with a creative license.

While this opens up new avenues for creativity, only time and experience will tell whether this experiment nudges Medium in the direction of more conventional social media platforms.

Seamless scrolling

The front page of Medium and its array of publications today assault you with dozens of headlines vying for your attention. In fact, crafting a good headline is often the difference between a click and a pass. This is often detrimental to the content within the article itself. The reach of top-notch pieces is sometimes held back by a headline that doesn’t grab a reader’s attention from the get-go.

This flaw, in turn, either limits the reader’s focus to articles with catchy titles or forces them to enter every article and skim their contents. Add to that receding attention spans and the delay between loading pages and you can see why this is a problem.

Medium seeks to fix this with a novel inline reading experience that displays a teaser of sorts under each link, giving you a better understanding of what each article contains. In addition, story pages now make use of brand-new footers that offer these rich snippets (okay, Google) at the end of your stories, letting your readers head into the next article without pondering over where to head next.

This move puts your content at the center of the reading experience.

If you’d like to see this feature in action and apply for the beta, head here.

Coming soon to a device near you

For a taste of what’s to come, check out Medium’s OneZero and Momentum publications. Ethical Futures and Evhead, blogs run by Medium staff have also undergone a visual overhaul thanks to Medium’s new features.

Medium promises to let users get in on the fun in the next few weeks. All you have to do is get on the waitlist by filling the form here. Constructive feedback and criticism are crucial to making these features feel at home amidst Medium’s minimal interface.

Here’s your chance to make Medium your very own.