Mint's redesign is … numb
It was some kind of hype today around the web, about the new look of Mint. To refresh your memory, Mint is a web application that according to its motto is the best free way to manage your money. Or also on the home page you can find the following description: Mint downloads, categorizes, and graphs all of your finances automatically every day— so you don’t have to. Know where you’re spending, without spending any effort.
From Techcrunch we find out that this redesign can boost the productivity up to 20%. Really ??? Don’t get me wrong but in the following comparison I only see drawbacks and not advantages. Let’s compare the footer from the old design with the new one:
New Footer:
Old Footer:
In the new design we can see how the usability of this section is very low. The contrast between the footer links and the background is not enough to ensure decent readability. For sure there is no boost in productivity for this section.
Rafe Needleman from Cnet’s Webware was also charmed with Mint’s new design. From him we found out that the redesign session was led by a former Apple guy. Don’t get me wrong, but that doesn’t mean that the new design is good.
The new site has no contrast. It has also unnecessary shadows and a pretty numb overall look. I’ve noticed also a handwritten element. This was placed there in order to go with the design trends. The thing is that it does not fit at all. But that is just my point. As a conclusion I think that the old design was way much better and the new one has many issues.
User Experience 
Design
Creativity
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Graphic
Andy Gongea is a passionate UI/UX designer with a great appetite for technology and trends. Currently he owns, a future wife, a loan that comes with a monthly fee and some strange ideas about user interface and user interaction. Cheers!3 Responses to “Mint's redesign is … numb”
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Hi,
Thanks for your input. I just wanted to offer a few points. First, the footer is not really for humans, if you read the bulk of the links it’s pretty apparent. They were too heavy in the previous iteration for my taste. As for the design direction, it wasn’t meant to be trendy, but rather to be more natural in accordance to where we wanted the brand image to be, and much less ‘Web 2.0′ for lack of a better term. The harsh gradients, unnatural reflections, and heavy contrasting elements were removed in favor of a more ‘fresh’ look. It tested very well, boosting conversion by a measurable margin. Also, I was the visual designer for this as well as the last version, I’ve never worked at Apple, though I am a huge fan.
Thanks for the opposing viewpoint.
Jason M. Putorti
Lead Designer, mint.com
Regarding the footer, that was just one example. The features page has also some issues from my point of view.
Anyway, it is just my opinion. Good job, because I know it is very hard to please everyone and thank you for your comment.
PS: I am still a bigger fan of the previous version.
personally, i found it easier to find stuff. i tried the older version i didn’t stick around — but, i am back, now that the new one is out. i just wrote about my experience and more about why i came back here – http://webpoet.wordpress.com/2008/08/19/no-cooking-for-me/