Suggestion: Make it easier to follow people on Steemit
This is how the current interface looks:
You have to click on the person's name and then the little window appears that allows you to follow them.
The problem I see with it is that many new people might not know that you can click on someone's name and that clicking opens up such a window. The current interface both presupposes this knowledge and requires one mouse click more than seems necessary. To users with good computer skills this might not sound like a big deal, but most people don't have good computer skills, unfortunately.
There are a couple of possible ways to improve this that I could think of. The first way is to make the window appear on mouse hover rather than on mouse click. This will eliminate one click. I like it because the user is prone to move the mouse over the name, even if by accident. When it happens once (by accident or not), the user will learn that the window appears when they move the mouse over the name.
The second way is to add an additional Follow button somewhere next to the name. This again would eliminate one click because the user now has to directly click the Follow button rather than click on the name and then on the Follow button. What I don't like about this approach is that it will make the interface more cluttered.
Does anyone see another approach?
I would suggest a button to open the author's blog page, preferably in a new tab. Sometimes we don't decide to follow based on the only one article we are reading. But a list of recent posts in the blog page will be useful to know is he or she the person to follow.
Right. I like your suggestion because I do the same - go to the author's page to check out if their posts fit my interests. So, if clicking on the author's name opens the author's page in a new tab (rather than open the little window), would that do it?
Interesting thoughts but it wouldn't eliminate the clicking for those who use mobile devices. Also, I personally don't follow before checking out their content. The thing that bugs me most is that you have to click TWICE (omg lol) to get to their blog! Once in their name and then on their image. I think that's much more of an unknown loophole for sure.
Yep, agreed. I'm not sure how to streamline it on mobile, unfortunately.
At least on Mobile, I think it should be the exact opposite as it is now. We should be following for genuine and not follow for follow (imo). It would be beneficial to immediately be sent to someone's blog. Or, at least adding a "go to blog" button on that little pop up. But if someone's on a computer, hover would be great but also adding a button to the blog.
I was thinking the same way. Clicking on the user to get additional options feels unnatural. Either of your suggestions would work.
Nice idea. I resteemed it and asked some others to do the same :-)
Thanks, hope it gets noticed by the Steemit developers.
I see your point, however I dislike both of your suggestions.
On hover creates annoying pop-ups when you want to do something else.
And 99% of the time, you want to do something else.
There is already too much in the line that has the name. It actually needs to be simplified. So, adding a follow button there is not a good design decision.
If you go to the person's home page, there is a follow button there at the top.
And most people who are looking for more of the person's blogs, would try clicking on the persons name, and thus find the dialog, or get to their home page.
The way it is done now is a bit clunky, so I would love to hear any suggestions.
(unfortunately, I will probably nit-pick them too... sorry)
Nitpicking is alright, that's how we see possible problems with the suggestions.
What if the popup that displays on hover is made minimally intrusive? Like, if it displays above the name so it's out of the way.
Right on for the hover idea. We could also add intelligence in the script to stop flashing on hover after the user has clicked/seen it a couple of times. Even reactivate it again if the script detects that the user is bypassing that method again cuz he forgot
Hmm, interesting. I think it would be best to leave the control in the hands of the user. But not exactly sure how to accomplish that and make the behavior more intelligent at the same time.
I'd love to see an easy cut & paste script or plugin made available that would somehow perform or link directly to the follow function.
Many Steemians craft their own "follow" banners and paste them in the footer of their post but it just links to their homepage. It would be nice if there was a true embeddable follow button.
I was thinking about the same, but the implementation might get complicated. Because it would have to know whether you have already followed the author. Otherwise it will always give you the option to follow, even if you already are following.
I guess the current "Follow" button already does that. But it's not a copy-and-paste piece of code that you can modify and place anywhere in your post. Not sure how that can be achieved.
Great idea. I'd also like to see it be easier to share someone's story. I recently had a friend join and I resteemed it too soon. Later I wanted to introduce them using their introduceyourself post and help get them followers (she had 5 after her post) and I got a few follows from it even though I specifically stated her introduction post was below and I even got comments where I don't think she got any. I"m not complaining about getting more followers for me but the point was to get her more and I don't think people realized they needed to click on her post to follow her. I also wish resteeming others posts didn't take up your blog space to make it more difficult to find your blog. It makes me not want to resteem because people see those as mixed in with your actual blogs. I think it's great to share posts that you like or admire... they deserve a resteem out of respect. However if that's going to cover up what I do then why do it?
I guess we can think about how resteemed posts could be displayed differently.
awesome. thank you.
Yeah, I'd prefer either the mouse hover idea or simply turning the name into a link to the profile. I heard the user interface wasn't the devs' priority at the moment, so we'll have the time to think about this.