[addicted]

As a reader I avoid Medium based articles.

For one thing, the UI for wildly different blogs are the same. This means that I am unable to place anything I read in context. As a visual learner, one of the ways I remember stuff I read is by remembering the entire context (for blogs this is usually the look of the blog). Medium completely eliminates that crutch for me.

I feel the overuse of annoying funny GIFs in the middle of articles is far more prevalent on Medium pages. I suspect because it's one of the only ways for authors to personalize their content visually.

[magic_beans]

Medium blogs all have different colored nav-bars and logos.

[HappyTypist]

That's so minute. Different fonts, typography, page layout, structure, etc all improve uniqueness and memorability.

[magic_beans]

I guess I'm in the camp of people who prefer uniform blogs. The decorative accents on medium are more than enough for me to be able to distinguish them. I enjoy the fact that the layout is familiar and I can dive right into a piece without the distraction of a different or unique layout. To each her own!