On Medium

medium.com is an incredibly popular website where enlightened millennial programmers go to tell their peers to drop out of college and move to Silicon Valley, or alternatively, to stay in college and move to Silicon Valley after they get that degree. It’s also the place to go if you need to rant about some injustice, or to tell an onslaught of angry hackers to calm down. At least that’s what I see whenever I’m linked to a medium article––and I love it. I love hearing other’s opinions on matters. With the internet, it’s so easy to sit down, type out all your thoughts, and then post it for the world to see. Because the accessibility of the internet, anyone can do this. That’s not what I wanted to focus on, however. 

medium.com has a perfect name. If someone needs a medium to express their ideas, all they have to do is go to medium.com. The name is perfectly descriptive; medium doesn’t actually do all that much. There’s nothing fancy about it. There’s not to many fancy themes, it’s very simple. Really the only great thing about it is the very smooth style sheet that makes scrolling through writing pleasing to the eye. There’s large text and nice spacing, for easy readability. And that’s it. With that simplicity, the writing and the ideas are the only thing appealing on the page. I believe that’s why the website is so successful. 

To me, medium’s popularity is a testament to the importance of good design in technology. Sure, as a nerdy programmer it’s easy for me to focus on the extremely technical part of everything. But, the bottom line is, now that the standard of technology has reached a certain point, from here on out, good products need to have good design. medium doesn’t need to exist. It’s functionality can be fulfilled by a random subreddit, or google’s old blogspot (remember 2010?), or even facebook. Of all these, medium has *by far* the best design for highlighting the writing and ideas of the writer, and that’s why it controls that market now.