Redesign
Discord
Redesign
A redesign of discord to resolve friction from March 2025 update
Timeline: 1 Week · Tools: Figma · Solo Project
Overview
Discord is one of the world's largest communication platforms — but on March 25, 2025, its biggest desktop redesign in years triggered an immediate and widespread user backlash. Complaints flooded Discord's own support forums, Reddit, and Twitter within hours of launch, with a Change.org petition to roll back the changes gaining thousands of signatures within days. This case study focuses on two specific problems the redesign introduced: a notification system that gives users no way to locate which server triggered an alert, and a sidebar that buries direct messages beneath gaming and monetisation surfaces — both symptoms of a redesign that prioritised new features over the communication workflows its users rely on most.
TLDR (Summary)
When Discord's March 2025 redesign launched, user backlash was immediate — complaints flooded support forums, Reddit, and Twitter within hours. This project focuses on two specific problems it introduced: a notification system that gives users no way to locate which server triggered an alert, and a sidebar that buries direct messages beneath gaming and monetization surfaces. Rather than redesigning from opinion, I grounded the work in real user feedback pulled from Discord's own support forums, r/discordapp, a Change.org petition, and editorial coverage — all sourced within the six months surrounding the update.
The solution to the notification problem is a persistent inbox panel grouped by server, letting users triage alerts without committing to a server prematurely — a pattern already familiar from email and mobile notification centers. The sidebar fix promotes DMs to the top of the left rail while keeping monetization surfaces accessible in a collapsible section, preserving Discord's business model without letting it block the app's core use case. The constraint I held throughout: free tier users had to benefit, and nothing could gate improvements behind Nitro. The biggest takeaway from the project: defaults are the design. The sidebar problem exists because the default state doesn't reflect how most users actually behave — and no amount of customization options fixes a wrong starting point.
The Process
Discovery & Define
Problem 1
The first prominent issue appears to be about a lack of system status regarding notifications, where users cannot track the source of notifications on the desktop app. This forces them to either sort through each servers to locate the source or blanket mute many channels. As seen in the statistics, too many or irrelvant notifications can cause people to mute notifications altogether as well as drop-off/uninstallation.
"As someone who is in around 60 servers, I have no reasonable way to discover where a notification sound is coming from, without blanket muting channels which I would rather not do."
-Discord Support Forums, March 2025
"I'm on Windows, and am currently getting notification beeps. Clicking on the flashing tray icon just stops the flashing, and I get absolutely no indication of which server and channel the notification is coming from."
-Discord Support Forums, March 2025
It's maddening hearing notifications pinging away and yet no way of locating where in the hell they are coming from. Also, trying to control what notifications you get and don't get is too complicated. You shouldn't need a help article to explain your settings."
-Discord Support Forums, March 2025
Problem 2
The second prominent issue appears to be the restructuring of the sidebar, which buries direct messages beneath gaming and monetization surfaces.
"I haven't seen anybody talk positively of this new change. It appears to be pretty agreed upon that the update is a downgrade in every way and should be rolled back."
-Discord Support Forums, March 2025
-Discord Support Forums, March 2025
"The new Discord UI is like the worst thing — everything is either too small or too big. The server icons are so small it's nigh impossible to see what each server is."
-Discord Support Forums, March 2025
Observations
Both problems surfaced independently across unrelated sources — support forums, social media, developer communities, and petition platforms — within hours of the March 25 launch. The notification issue has documented threads dating back years, suggesting the redesign worsened a pre-existing structural problem rather than introducing it. The sidebar issue is new to the 2025 update and directly contradicts Discord's own user demographic data.
40%
Disable notifications after 3-6 alerts/week
68%
Uninstall risk: untraceable notifications
7 Avg
Servers visited per day
78%
Use discord for non-gaming
Define
The next step was to define the problem and ask ourselves “how might we” resolve these issues. For two problems, there are two questions:
Problem 1
How might we help Discord users quickly identify and act on notifications without having to mute entire servers or manually scan their server list?
Who it affects
Users in 10+ servers — moderators, community managers, active members
Behavior Consequences
Users mute servers or disable notifications entirely, reducing engagement
User Feeling
"I can hear it but I can't find it" = anxiety without resolution
Business Consequences
Lower notification engagement reduces time-on-app and server activity
Problem 2
How might we restructure Discord's sidebar so that users can access their most-used communication surfaces immediately, without removing monetisation features from the interface?
Who it affects
Non-gaming users, study groups, creative communities, professionals
Behavior Consequences
Extra steps to reach DMs on every session; messages get missed or feel deprioritised
User Feeling
"The app feels like it's trying to sell me something before I can talk to anyone"
Business Consequences
Lower notification engagement reduces time-on-app and server activity
Ideation & Design Decisions
Problem 1
I had come up with three potential solutions to the first problem before diving into design. Direction A solves the single-ping case but breaks when multiple servers are active simultaneously. Direction C only helps once the user is already looking at the server list, which doesn't address the core problem of not knowing where to look. Direction B introduces a persistent, scannable log that works regardless of how many notifications fired and lets the user triage without committing to a server prematurely. It also mirrors a pattern users already understand from email and mobile notification centres, reducing the learning curve.
Direction A
Jump-to on tray click
Navigates directly to the most recent notification source on click. Fast — but only works for a single alert. Breaks when multiple servers ping simultaneously.
Direction B (Chosen)
Notification inbox panel
A persistent panel opened from the title bar inbox icon, listing alerts grouped by server with message previews and Jump to buttons. Handles multiple pings, persists for triage.
Direction A
Server badge tooltip
Hovering a server icon with an unread badge shows a tooltip preview. Only helps once the user is already scanning the server list — doesn't solve the discovery problem.
Problem 2
Direction A is too aggressive — it removes business value entirely and would face real stakeholder pushback in a production context. Acknowledging that constraint makes the design more realistic and credible. Direction C is appealing in theory but relies on users actively configuring their experience — research consistently shows that most users never change defaults, so the default itself has to be right. Direction B fixes the default (DMs first) while keeping monetization surfaces accessible and present elsewhere. The new "Features" section can still be found, preserving Discord's ability to introduce Nitro to new users without blocking existing users from their DMs.
Direction A
Remove gaming & shop tabs
Strip Gaming, Shop, and Nitro from the sidebar entirely and move them to a settings page or profile menu.
Direction B (Chosen)
Collapsible secondary section
DMs are promoted to the top of the left rail. Gaming, Shop, and Nitro are moved into the discover section
Direction A
User-reorderable sidebar
Allow users to drag and reorder all sidebar items — DMs, servers, Gaming, Shop — into any sequence they prefer.
Constraints
Design constraints considered:
Stay within Discord's existing visual system — dark theme, component styles, type scale
Don't remove monetization surfaces — the goal is hierarchy, not deletion
Free tier must benefit — solutions cannot gate improvements behind Nitro
Minimal new surface area — new patterns should extend existing Discord components
Works at scale — must function for users in 2 servers and users in 60+
Desktop-scoped — mobile patterns are noted but not solved here
Reflection
Next Step
Need for Usability Testing
Limiation
No A/B Test
The biggest unresolved constraint: the impact of collapsing the Discover section on Nitro conversion is unknown without an A/B test — my redesign argues the risk is low, but that's a hypothesis Discord's monetisation team would need to validate with real traffic data.
Lesson Learned
User-reorderable sidebar
The clearest thing this project taught me: defaults are the design. The sidebar problem exists because the default state doesn't reflect how most users behave — no customisation option fixes a wrong starting point.
© 2025 · Sydney Hendrix