Nice sleuthing! So it's quite a recent change. It stands out to me that the items up top (faves, acct, etc.) which already had icons also got emojified.
Prior to that, they had already introduced emojis to draw attention to their Craigslist charitable fund: that probably made this a much easier decision.
I think I personally see emojis used in this manner as unnecessary visual distraction, because it detracts from whatever self-consistent design system you had going on (when used for high visibility items like front page headings). Emojis don't even render the same on every platform, so its a move that dilutes your design language.
Even if it's a useful visual guide, I would wager nine times out of ten you'd be better off with a self-consistent icon set...depending on what you're going for, of course.
The page uses 'font-family: sans-serif'. They've already given up on any control over what the page looks like. They leave it up to the browser, which, IMO, more sites should do.
> Emojis don't even render the same on every platform
This is a feature, not a bug. That it's using your platform-specific emojis makes it easier to scan, since it's the ideograms you are already accustomed to. Much faster to scan familiar symbols than to read each section heading serially.
Yup, the association with LLMs is a bit odd, since there's emojis everywhere in mainstream digital comunication way before the big hit of the ai stuff.
Without seeing how it looked before I think this just gives a little bit more of clue about what each category is about. They are still being used sparsely.
The only thing where it irks me to find emojis is in cli apps. They use to not be the same character width as the monofont I use so they either look chopped or they displace their nearing text.
As long as emojis are used as an _addition_ to text labels I think this is a good thing. The problem arises when they are used _instead_ of labels, although that’s a problem that predates emojis, it’s common with normal icons.
If you design an interface when some actions are only behind icons/emojis (no text, no hover title), expect users like me to click on them just to see what they do.
Yeah just as an adddion to the main groupings it's not terrible. The actual emojis used are not very good. It's unclear to me what several of them are or why they represent the group title.
oh, it looks like they changed the URLs tool. I used to be able to go to a subdomain like boston.craigslist.org. Now it redirects to www.craigslist.org/area/boston
Based on https://web.archive.org/web/20260618001349/https://washingto... and https://web.archive.org/web/20260621034150/https://washingto..., it seems like they were added at some point between the 18th and the 21st. I definitely think it helps navigating the site, and it's a nice compromise between Craigslist's text-first style and a nod towards usability.
Nice sleuthing! So it's quite a recent change. It stands out to me that the items up top (faves, acct, etc.) which already had icons also got emojified.
Prior to that, they had already introduced emojis to draw attention to their Craigslist charitable fund: that probably made this a much easier decision.
I like it.
Good user experience isn't about dogmatically sticking to "text only", but about making a useful, understandable, navigable site.
Emojis seem to help section the dozens of links on the homepage without adding unnecessary visual distraction or page payload.
> unnecessary visual distraction
I think I personally see emojis used in this manner as unnecessary visual distraction, because it detracts from whatever self-consistent design system you had going on (when used for high visibility items like front page headings). Emojis don't even render the same on every platform, so its a move that dilutes your design language.
Even if it's a useful visual guide, I would wager nine times out of ten you'd be better off with a self-consistent icon set...depending on what you're going for, of course.
The page uses 'font-family: sans-serif'. They've already given up on any control over what the page looks like. They leave it up to the browser, which, IMO, more sites should do.
> Emojis don't even render the same on every platform
This is a feature, not a bug. That it's using your platform-specific emojis makes it easier to scan, since it's the ideograms you are already accustomed to. Much faster to scan familiar symbols than to read each section heading serially.
Sites having individual "design language" is part of the problem that got us to the current balkanized web.
You’re completely over reacting and might need to spend some time relaxing with other humans
I am going to start using "might need to spend time relaxing with other humans"...brilliant.
> people are beginning to feel emoji fatigue
Are they? News to me. I like them. Do they show up in Lynx or whatever terminal-based browser the hip kids are using these day are using?
Lynx won't render the page. Links doesn't show them.
This prompted me to check out rental rates in my old haunt of Inner Sunset. I remember the Craigslist offices on 9th and Judah...
It's shocking that a 1 bedroom apartment now rents for $4-5k/month....
Interesting, it even uses the clippy emoji for resumes!
I think OP is reading into it too much , it seems like a minor embellishment and I never personally correlated emojis with LLMs.
Yup, the association with LLMs is a bit odd, since there's emojis everywhere in mainstream digital comunication way before the big hit of the ai stuff.
Without seeing how it looked before I think this just gives a little bit more of clue about what each category is about. They are still being used sparsely.
The only thing where it irks me to find emojis is in cli apps. They use to not be the same character width as the monofont I use so they either look chopped or they displace their nearing text.
Which logically makes sense. LLMs wouldn't have invented the pattern, it would have been learned as a common pattern in the training material.
I wouldn't find it remarkable anywhere else, but Craigslist has built a reputation on not doing this kind of thing.
I wouldn't say so.
I would say it's actually exactly the kind of thing they would do - stick with plain text over things that load slower like images.
Emojis are great for that, they're plain unicode text!
So, why now? Emojis have existed for a while, haven't they? Whereas Craigslist has been using images up until now (at least for the top nav items).
Craigslist has stayed very small in employee count, so I imagine someone was playing around with it and the team just agreed that they liked it.
As long as emojis are used as an _addition_ to text labels I think this is a good thing. The problem arises when they are used _instead_ of labels, although that’s a problem that predates emojis, it’s common with normal icons.
If you design an interface when some actions are only behind icons/emojis (no text, no hover title), expect users like me to click on them just to see what they do.
Yeah just as an adddion to the main groupings it's not terrible. The actual emojis used are not very good. It's unclear to me what several of them are or why they represent the group title.
Would have been nice when they had casual encounters - eggplant, water droplets, tongue peach.
Maybe it is from a coding agent. And the maintainer has no reason to remove it as it looks ok.
oh, it looks like they changed the URLs tool. I used to be able to go to a subdomain like boston.craigslist.org. Now it redirects to www.craigslist.org/area/boston
> how do you feel about the entire thing?
I feel about as strongly as I do about the font that Google use
I will never understand this visceral reaction that emojis provoke in some people
nah the worst part is they moved boats from for sale -> auto. threw off my whole flow
What’s your flow, if you don’t mind? Are you often looking at boats? Just curious
Phew been a minute since I've been on craigslist!