UX

[marnanel]

So, let's talk about UX. I'm not any kind of expert on this stuff, so this is entirely handwavey, and I'd especially welcome suggestions.

What do people think about hamburger buttons? It would make design easier, but people say it's more confusing for users. Maybe it'd be good at least for a first draft?

It seems to me that the most important screens we have to be able to display are timeline (which is both "lastn" and "read") and compose (which is "new post" and "edit post"). We'll need several others (change circle, choose reading group, view post without editing it, view comments, settings...) but those two seem to be the ones we really have to have.

I have an idea that the Tumblr app has some good ideas we might be able to steal. Like this, perhaps:


(Thanks to the two users who agreed to have their posts in that image)

Thoughts?

Comments

[swaldman]

My main thought is "if you're building an Android app, follow the current (Marshmallow) Android design guide". That way things work as people expect, plus, by now it's generally quite good advice anyway, I think.

But I guess youvre wanting to take a step back now, and not think it terms of visual design but simply the flow of using the app. I don’t really feel there's much to comment on at the moment - perhaps if you have ideas a flowchart and /or sketches might help? - but one thought re compose: I believe that there's an intention for DW to support draft and scheduled posts, so that should be probably be allowed for (even if not used) from the start,even if not exposed in the UI. Possibly the infrastructure for offline sync relates to that nicely, possibly not...

[marnanel]

Design guide: very good point, and I should have started there.

I didn't know about the plans for draft/scheduled posts-- thank you!

[marahmarie]

I don't mind hamburger menus. Then again, I'm just one of many potential users. But now that I'm over my own shock and surprise at their existence (they always existed; I had to read up on that) I don't see the big deal. You click on them. Menu items drop down.

They're not pretty. They don't fill screen space nicely. But on a small phone or tablet design especially they have their utility and seem to serve their intended purpose well enough.

That said, any chance you're making the app work on both Android and Windows? I hate to jump in so early with such a request but Android apps are supposed to be able to run on Windows now, if the proper...I want to say SDK is used, but perhaps that's the wrong terminology.

I won't benefit much from a purely Android app as I mostly use Windows (but I'll still be happy to fire up your app on the old Android phone I don't use anymore, and to run it on the Android tablet that kicks around my house, for testing purposes).

[marnanel]

Thank you :) Someone else will have to answer about Windows-- I haven't run it in ten years, so I don't have any way of testing (or knowing what it takes for Android apps to run on it).

Not sure if I understand...

[marahmarie]

Is there a specific person on your project whom I'm supposed to contact about that?

Re: Not sure if I understand...

[marnanel]

Well, there's only really me at the moment, plus anyone here who wants to help.

[katieastrophe]

On hamburger menus: I hadn't realised other people disliked them. They're so integral to what I come to expect of a mobile app these days that if I'm looking for an icon on my screen that might mean "menu" then that's the shape I look for.

[marnanel]

I'm ambivalent about them, but the other day I read something where people were ranting about them, so I wondered.

Whether they're good or bad, they're certainly simple to design for, so I figure they're the way to go for the first version. Then if people want to advocate for a change, they have something to work from.

[katieastrophe]

The tab bar is a row of persistently visible buttons typically at the bottom of the screen that open different parts of the app.

All well and good but I prefer actual content to menu items!

[marnanel]

That's rather a relief (that it's not just me who prefers the hamburger menu)-- the tab bar thing sounds much more fiddly to implement. Not to mention a waste of screen space.

[marahmarie]

I know, me too!

[dreamatdrew]

Personal, not-so-humble opinion: hamburger menus are fine if you're not putting EVERYTHING EVAR behind them.

You're theoretical Read/write/everthingelse under a burger makes sense to me, personally.

[deborah]

User research shows a pretty negative experience with findability and usability and hamburger and suggests sacrificing screen real estate for discoverability, based on basic human memory and attention issues. There are pros and cons.

One site did an A/B test with a hamburger menu on mobile vs. the bordered word "Menu". "The MENU button was clicked by 20% more unique visitors than the HAMBURGER button". Though when compared iOS vs Android they found "Android users are almost 3x less likely to click a navigation button than iOS users", which speaks to concerns about hiding the navigation at all.

[0jack]

I like "hamburger" buttons. I called them "stacks" long before I knew the other word for them bc they look like a stack of papers and also the word hamburger makes me hungry.

I would really like it if there was an option page that showed the timeline via only the post title and tags (or first 100char and tags) (as well as poster ID and comment #). It would cut down on loading and allow for more salient information to fit on my phone--especially if those things can be retrieved with greater alacrity than a whole post.