Did you want the GIF I created for the voting arrow? It appears that the voting arrows are not styled in so the GIF is written in every cell in that column. Here's what else I would change if I could:
- Instead of arrow disappearing after you upvote, turn it orange so you know what you've already read and voted up.
- Offer a checkbox option on top to "hide articles already read" which will then leave only unread items in the list!
I went the opposite direction and went with Georgia (a serif font that was designed for better online legibility) and made the following tweaks:
- Tested out a block style button (1st listing) and adding more horizontal padding to make it harder to misclick on upvote.
- Made the header a neutral grey because someone said their eyes always moved to the top.
- Added more padding to the top just to give it some breathing room.
- Made the font underneath the titles slightly larger and made links turn "black" when hovered over.
I messed around in Firebug for this and in doing so realized the whole HN site is a gigantic table. Very interesting...