I actually prefer the current design, and here's why:
--navigation: putting the comments button so far to the right, away from the title, makes it annoying to navigate between the two. I often like to open both in new tabs.
--visual complexity: humans understand numbers well, especially hackers. scanning down a page, I can read and understand numbers much more quickly than charts.
While I really think the ideas behind some of your aesthetics in the redesign (like the score meter), I think these take away from the usability of HN. HN is a site mostly visited by HN experts, people who use HN everyday, and, as such, I think navigation, especially quickness, is one of the most important principles in the design of its layout.
--navigation: putting the comments button so far to the right, away from the title, makes it annoying to navigate between the two. I often like to open both in new tabs.
--visual complexity: humans understand numbers well, especially hackers. scanning down a page, I can read and understand numbers much more quickly than charts.
While I really think the ideas behind some of your aesthetics in the redesign (like the score meter), I think these take away from the usability of HN. HN is a site mostly visited by HN experts, people who use HN everyday, and, as such, I think navigation, especially quickness, is one of the most important principles in the design of its layout.