Naver Blog has undergone a rebranding overhaul, revamping its design and user experience. The wordmark, which incorporates the same grammar as Naver Pay, reinforces brand consistency across all Naver services. The new symbol, inspired by the "blinking cursor," symbolizes the essence of writing, intuitively reveals the blog's core functions.
The product itself has also changed. The UI has become simpler and clearer overall, and the complex structure has been streamlined, creating an environment that allows users to focus on their content. This article will examine the usability and aesthetics of the Naver Blog app in detail.
The feed selection menu appears as a bottom sheet, with the default setting set to "blog," displaying all posts. When you first launch the app, the wordmark "blog" appears with a typing animation, followed by content recommended by the platform.
This structure is designed to allow users to naturally access a variety of content. Because a specific feed (e.g., only the blogs I've added as friends) cannot be set as the default, the likelihood of discovering new content increases. If a user selects only a specific group of feeds and then forgets about it, only a very limited number of posts will appear on the home page. Therefore, the default feed, always set to "All," and its inability to be changed, appears to be a strategy to expose as much content as possible.
The top right corner displays search and lists. The lists contain contextual elements necessary for content production. Each page displays context-specific tools, tailored to the specific context.
The bottom navigation bar should be fixed as much as possible to make navigation easier, and on pages like webviews, the web navigation tools float at the bottom, so the tools are placed in the top right.
A closable container is exposed, with a thin, flat promotional banner at the top. Below this, a list of popular articles is displayed, organized in a carousel format, allowing users to swipe right to browse through various content.
The content displayed in the feed is eye-catching with large images. The content UI Instagram-like usabilityYou can experience the content. The content is structured in a single column and can be navigated by vertical scrolling. Topical sections, such as "Hot Topics," are inserted throughout the list.
The bottom navigation bar contains five main icons:
Posts from people you don't follow will also be displayed, allowing you to discover new content beyond your existing network. A variety of pre-defined topics (e.g., travel, cooking, fashion, etc.) are displayed at the top of the screen, and when a user selects a topic, a tab for that topic is added to the top.
The first tab is always set to "Blog Recommendations," displaying content curated by Naver. The algorithm for this recommendation is not disclosed, so the exact criteria are unclear, but it's designed to provide a diverse range of posts regardless of whether you follow the blog or not.
Content is arranged horizontally, starting with title, followed by information, and then images. This allows for a more text-centric navigation, allowing content to be browsed primarily by title. While similar to a feed, the format is different. Author information and reaction information have been streamlined. However, unlike the various reaction icons seen in the feed, the linear heart moire can be mistaken for separate information.
It's composed of a mix of layouts. The grid-style list changes content with each refresh, and a carousel of recommended cards with different background colors creates a visual rhythm.
Above the Fold (ATF) displays 'age-based recommended content' first, which appears to be intended to suggest content based on age information when the user has no blog activity history or lacks information.
During this process, Naver allows users to directly choose whether to allow recommendations and search results based on their age. This also serves as a means of obtaining prior consent for the user's blog posts to be included in search and recommendation algorithms.
Recommended content types also vary. For example, the "Hot Topics" section features trendy topics like OOTDs (Outfit of the Day), while "Recommended Clips" showcases short video content.
‘'Trend Keywords' are also displayed at the top of the search page, and serve to show the most frequently mentioned topics within the blog in real time.
When a user enters a keyword into the search bar, search suggestions are displayed in real time based on the user's input. This recommendation feature appears to be based on the user's search history, and it appears that recommendations are only available if the search term saving feature is enabled.
‘"Trend Keywords" are recommended based on keywords that were popular within the blog over a specific period. They are designed to maximize the number of keywords of varying lengths displayed on a single screen in a chip format. Additionally, each keyword is accompanied by an image for easy visual identification.
Tapping your profile image in the bottom navigation of the app will take you to the My Blog screen. This blog screen allows you to directly edit your blog as it currently appears, allowing you to adjust content composition and layout in real time.
Additionally, the ability to set up or manage your entire blog is provided as a separate button near your profile, similar to Instagram, separating editing and settings functions.
Overall, the effort to achieve a streamlined UX is evident. It's impressive that they've attempted various design approaches to maintain the structure of existing blog posts while also encouraging the discovery of new content.
Unexpected content exposure areas are presented in the form of closable containers to minimize friction. While quite large, the design allows users direct control, which is a positive aspect, as it avoids feeling forced.
Reflecting recent trends, I expected blogs to shift towards a video-centric approach. However, in reality, the exposure of video content was surprisingly low. This appears to be a decision to preserve the blog's essence of a "text-centric experience.".
Aesthetically, the translucent glass-style top bar blends in naturally and harmoniously, and the keyword chip stands out for its sophisticated use of a softly spreading shadow effect instead of a thin gray line to differentiate it from the background.
Meanwhile, the character icon with three strands of hair that appears when leaving a comment is somewhat questionable. While it gives a friendly impression, the lack of consistency in emotional expression and character description leaves something to be desired.
It's also a bit disappointing from a usability perspective. There are three interaction icons, two of which are hollow and one is colored. This makes it confusing for users to know whether they've left a response. While this was quickly fixed, the redundant icons add to the complexity.
