Scott Jenson

There are two very different #UX observations about #mastodon:

1. Friction
The many UX problems that everyone likes to whine about

2. Value
That people are FLOCKING here in spite of this friction!

Stop missing the forest from the trees. In my career when people used a product with bad UX you *knew* you had a great product as it actually solved a need that was worth overcoming the problems.

Should we fix the UX problems? Of course! But this is a great place to start.

Nov 9, 2022 at 7:23pmWeb
Show threadJan DNov 9, 2022
@scottjenson I find the UI pretty decent. My biggest problem was that I had no clue how to decide for a server – which is more of a…service design-ish problem. Its nice to have freedom of choice if you know how you need to choose, but if not, a defautl helps a lot!
Show threadMatti JärvinenNov 9, 2022

@simulo @scottjenson yeah, that's a real issue.

In a corporate world we would have a sit down with the people explaining the problems, with the service designers and the UX people.

Draw some ideas on the board do some A/B tests on ideas on paper and in the wild.

Analyze results and re-iterate over and over again.

How that can work completely on GitHub/Discord/whatever?

Show threadScott JensonNov 9, 2022
@nemeciii @simulo OH, I completely agree and I've been very vocal about that recently. But I'd argue that is a #UX problem as well. It's just a multi-layered one without a quick fix.
Show threadBernard TyersNov 9, 2022

@nemeciii @simulo
@scottjenson

I don't know th design people involved in Mastodon so I don't know how busy they are, but improving experience of how to make decisions on what instance to join, discoverablity of people on other instances - all the problems that are easier (not easy) to fix on a centralised platform - are even harder here.

This (along with content moderation/safety) is going to be one of the big UX challenges.

Show threadScott JensonNov 9, 2022
@nemeciii @simulo How to make this work for #FOSS is a very different topic, one which I've been working on but don't see any quick fixes there either. It mostly boils down to design maturity of the team (and if it doesn't have it, what can you do to nudge it in the right direction?)
Show threadMatti JärvinenNov 9, 2022

@scottjenson @simulo maybe @sesivany could have some answers on how to handle UX in open source collaboration or have someone else on who to ask for the same question.

I get how #OpenSource software works but how design and #UX flows are handled in open source and re-iterated to achieve the underlying potential is a complete mystery to me.

Show threadScott JensonNov 9, 2022
@nemeciii @simulo @sesivany This is a topic I care deeply about. I'd love to continue this conversation (I've given two talks as FOSSBack on this topic and hope to give another next year)
Show threadJan DNov 9, 2022

@nemeciii @scottjenson @sesivany

> how design and #UX flows are handled in open source

They are usually not handled; or at least not like designers handle them. I think this is due to the very different ideas and morals of how creators of a software and its users should relate to each other: https://www.fordes.de/posts/CulturesUXOpenSource.html

The user in the cultures of UX design and open source - fordes

E. Raymonds Essay “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” is an essay on Open Source development. It is not about open source as a legal construct but about a possible development style of bottom-up activities in a community of creators. This bottom-up style Raymond calls “bazaar” and contrasts it with the …

Show threadScott JensonNov 10, 2022

@simulo @nemeciii @sesivany

Loved your blog post. I felt like your were just on the edge of equating ux design to the cathedral approach but never quite said it explicitly. But your comparison of programmers being decentralized and designers being the opposite is correct. But I'd argue FOSS projects do have some centralization, not every PR is accepted. But I'll grant your point that ux tends to be a bit more centralized which frustrates some

Show threadJan DNov 10, 2022

@scottjenson @nemeciii @sesivany

> I felt like your were just on
> the edge of equating ux design
> to the cathedral approach

I did not, since the cathedral is part of a pretty complex strawman argument.

I think the big difference is less about centralization but about abstraction and ideas of professional expertise.

Show threadJan DNov 10, 2022

@scottjenson @nemeciii @sesivany

(The article, however, got a lot of notes below and by now I would be able to express the argument differently)

Show threadKelsey Lian 💖💛💙 (she/her)Nov 10, 2022
@simulo @nemeciii @scottjenson @sesivany I’ve been thinking a lot about this in the past few days and this article captures SO much of what I’ve been mulling over. Great share!
Show threadJiří Eischmann Nov 9, 2022
@nemeciii
A better person to answer that would be my colleague @jimmac who has been a member of the GNOME design team for like two decades.
Or @mairin who has been the lead designer in the Fedora Project for many years, too.
@scottjenson @simulo
Show threadMáirín Ní Dhufaigh ᚋᚐᚐᚔᚏᚔᚔᚅNov 9, 2022
@sesivany @nemeciii @jimmac @scottjenson @simulo If you're talking cross project collaboration, that's always a challenge - open source or not. But in terms of Mastodon server discovery? There's plenty of server directories out there. Isn't this a marketing problem of the directories not having enough visibility? How could we make them more seamlessly visible? Those are the types of questions you want to ask if that's the prob you want to tackle.
Show threadJan DNov 9, 2022

@mairin @sesivany @nemeciii @jimmac @scottjenson

I had no trouble finding servers or server listings. But I had no clue how to decide which one to pick.

Show threadScott JensonNov 9, 2022

@simulo @mairin @sesivany @nemeciii @jimmac

That's my point Jan. It's like picking between 3000 different jars of peanut butter. There's just no way to know which one to pick! This is especially true as most servers are 'just a guy in his basement'. That's fine for now but I'd argue for some type of standards to be put in place (like the Mastodon covenant but more so) so people feel some comfort that they are picking a reliable server.

Show threadMáirín Ní Dhufaigh ᚋᚐᚐᚔᚏᚔᚔᚅNov 10, 2022
@scottjenson @simulo @sesivany @nemeciii @jimmac I guess you really need to start with the problem you want to solve, and figure out the best way to solve it, build up support for that, and do it. I don't think open source makes a difference either way, it's the same process IMO
Show threadScott JensonNov 10, 2022
@mairin @simulo @sesivany @nemeciii @jimmac
I agree. I'd start with questions, what are people looking for in a server? Community? Stability? A recommendation? Likely more than one answer. But I'm pretty sure the current solution doesn't work for any of them. Federation is amazing but it can also be overwhelming.
Show threadMáirín Ní Dhufaigh ᚋᚐᚐᚔᚏᚔᚔᚅNov 10, 2022
@scottjenson @simulo @sesivany @nemeciii @jimmac And that's particularly where the open source nature of it all does make a diff - you are not reduced to complaining into a vacuum as w proprietary products but are instead empowered to make that change if it's important to you to benefit all. But the basic design process/approach doesn't change
Show threadnickNov 9, 2022
@simulo choosing a server was the most confusing thing for me also. I'm kinda just stumbling around through it and I'm loving it so far though lol
Show threadJan DNov 10, 2022

@scottjenson

OK, I found "my" UI problem: The Home button on a left-to-right language is on the right rather the left and I keep hovering my mouse over search wondering how I get to home until I remember to look right.

Show threadScott JensonNov 10, 2022
@simulo Screenshot? I'm not seeing that?
Show threadJan DNov 10, 2022
@scottjenson
Show threadScott JensonNov 10, 2022
@simulo Oh!!!! You're using the 'single column' view vs the multi-column one. Yes, I can totally see how that would be confusing.
Show threadAdrian P. DunstonNov 9, 2022
@scottjenson :) I've been in a similar situation at work. "We know we have a great value proposition, because people really want to use our stuff despite the fact that it's awful," the boss said. "Let's prioritize keeping that value for them and make it less awful as we go."
Show threadScott JensonNov 9, 2022
@bitcapulet Yeah, it's tricky, you can certainly abuse that position. I just breakdown UX into two very different paths: Value and Pain. You need to appreciate both
Show threadAdrian P. DunstonNov 9, 2022
@scottjenson That's a cool approach. Also "Value and Pain" will now be the name of my synthwave band.
Show threadLPSNov 9, 2022

@scottjenson It would be incredibly valuable for someone with your experience to give feedback on some of these issues. I've been using it long enough that I don't see them.

We could all benefit from input/expertise ... that's the beauty of #foss #opensource :)

Show threadNimish GNov 9, 2022

@scottjenson They might also be flocking over because the word-of-mouth (and the UI to an extent) imply it works a certain way (ie like twitter) when there are subtle, but important differences. So they might not fully know what they're getting into, but going into it because the UI and messaging seem deceptively similar to something they know.

(I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I think the differences are pretty cool, but not necessarily obvious at first glance)

Show threadCrosbieLizNov 9, 2022
@scottjenson We newbies are all crowding into the Mastodon space & should just put up with the speeds while things get fixed. Its better to read less posts but have better-quality interactions. Loving the civility & wide range of interesting folk. Bells & whistles we can wait for. Thanks to the background techies supporting us all.
Show threadShell BrysonNov 10, 2022
@scottjenson Absolutely. It will get better. It reminds me of the early days of that other birdie place in regards of UX bits, and all that will come with time as a larger audience starts to feel at home.