Redesigning a popular site is a good way for up-and-coming designers to show off their skills - but it's important to consider the target audience and their priorities. Yes, HN users want speed, but mentioning page load times and moving on shows that you haven't really thought about that. We want to get into the meat of HN (which is the conversations) as fast as possible. Everything that gets in the way of that is bad.
1) Spacing - designers love adding extra space, and on first glance it looks beautiful. But too much space slows down browsing speed.
2) The numbered articles - more eye catching than the actual content. A user reading that page will have to spend concentration on not looking at the numbers.
3) The same with the bubbles around the comment counts and upvotes. Those values are important for HN readers - but not as important as the actual topic.
1) Spacing - designers love adding extra space, and on first glance it looks beautiful. But too much space slows down browsing speed.
2) The numbered articles - more eye catching than the actual content. A user reading that page will have to spend concentration on not looking at the numbers.
3) The same with the bubbles around the comment counts and upvotes. Those values are important for HN readers - but not as important as the actual topic.
The design is less important than the content.