Some people say they don't want to join the Fediverse or Mastodon, because they think the UI sucks. As a front end developer, a designer-kind of a person who creates user interfaces, I agree. Most of the web clients on the Fedi are horrendous, even Mastodon by default. There's lots of room for improvement.
We should really focus on how to make it more pleasing to the eye, more modern and more pleasant. This should not be a nerd network, just for geeks to geek out. This is not IRC or BBS.
As long as Mastodon for instance looks like it's designed by a back end engineer, contains font-awesome icons, looks like 2010, and stuff like that, being open and free is not good reason enough for many. I'm not bashing it, Mastodon is not the worst out there, in fact in my honest opinion Mastodon user experience is far better than Akkoma or Calckey for example. It's also more accessible than many modern UIs, for example my visual impaired wife prefers the Vanilla Mastodon UI over my #BirdUI modifications, she has some small tiny improvements of her own like distinguishing the colors in the action buttons as they have no proper contrast in any of the default themes. But that's it. She likes it as it is. So it cannot be that bad. However, it could be better overall.
#OpenSource doesn't mean the product should look like it's created in a basement by a math teacher. For some people Mastodon UX is sufficient (it even is for me, I like it enough and it doesn't prevent me from using it), but it should be WORLD CLASS. I don't say the answer is #MastodonBirdUI but it should be something much more modern and minimal than the current default UI. Pixelfed's developer is a designer oriented, Pixelfed is indeed an example of an awesome Fediverse app experience throughout the web and apps. That is how it should be.
@Christo Betcha! I was merely speaking from today's standard. I've lived through the 90s and seen the rise of the Internet, not everything is pretty there :blob_smile_sweat: There are definitely worse UIs than this, that's for sure.
This is the exact problem that plagues many open source projects, they are built by users who have more of an "engineering" vision than design and usability.
@rolle I am not a UX professional, but I don't think the Mastodon UI is terrible. Some minor adjustments might be needed, but, for example, the "Mastodon (High Contrast)" theme is acceptable. I am unsure who determines if something is "world-class" or not. Is it based on the opinions of existing users on existing networks? People stay on networks because they can connect with like-minded individuals and discuss interesting topics, right?
@rolle See, I quite like the UI. It's clean, minimal, lots of sharp edges. It's got a technical, almost "industrial" type feel to it. And that's exactly my vibe.
I'm not into garish, colourful, graphically intensive UIs. I like my interfaces simple and minimal. In fact, the more reminiscent they are of a CLI, the better. ;-)
YMMV, but we need to find a way to keep everyone satisfied, by making the option to set your theme front and centre as part of the sign-up process, and easy to change later (and although thinking about a sensible middle-of-the-road default for people who really couldn't be bothered to actively choose).
@GrahamDowns@rolle I also like the UI as it is because I don't have to dig blindly behind a shiny, but over-minimal front end with primary colours. Things on the UI are all where I'd expect to find them, I think that makes for ease of use - but I'm probably just weird.
@TheDailyBurble Nah. Like me, you probably come from a highly technical background. And technical people have different sensibilities and different preferences to non-technical users. And that's what makes this stuff so damn difficult. Often, pandering to non-technical users alienates the non-technical ones. :( @rolle
@GrahamDowns Because you can't please everyone I'm really glad there are choices on the Fediverse for techincal people. If we get defaults right for non-techies, nothing will stop us. @TheDailyBurble
@rolle@GrahamDowns Oh you're right there, if I could choose to look at something nuts and bolts I probably wouldn't worry too much about which obscure set of rounded icons I had to pick through to make my choice.😂
@rolle Yeah, that's perfect! And maybe the whole site changes as you select each one, in real time.
And then, for the "sensible default" comment, we need to carefully decide which of those options is selected by default, because many users will just click Next with a "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just let me in already!"
@RonInDortmund Good feature set, but for me it looks even more outdated than Mastodon's default web UI. It's like some third party Reddit app with Material UI couple of years behind... Most of these kind of apps don't have any white space or an eye for proportions.
@rolle I'm not sure I can agree when the alternative are for profit optimized UIs cluttered with advertisement I can barely distinguish from actual content, and full of horrifying dark patterns that drive me crazy and suck up the last bit of free will I used to have. The Mastodon app is the first one in years I find usable.
@rolle I literally find myself struggling with some functions, like trying to add friends from across different instances or tagging people from other instances.
@rolle I agree. There's room to improve. However, in some aspects, you might be mixing up UI issues with unfamiliarity. The fact that people who migrated were typically a bit thrown by the UI and UX differences (including me), does not mean "whatever it's called now" choices were better.
A good example is that, after understanding it, I think the different feed views in mastodon are a much better way to consume content. Same for features not even present there, like content warnings.
There's a gorrillion different frontends so anyone will find one that will fit their needs. It's just a lazy excuse. You can't convince some people to break their own chains, slave mentality.
This point was about the UI only though. There are other reasons why some folks won't join, but now we're talking about the UI and Mastodon UI specifically. Yes, there are choices. But default is what leads the way for people like my mother. Not all are tech-oriented people.
@koyu@f_o_u_r_t_y cc @rolle
I don't share your opinion on most of them apparently sucking. Can you elaborate? This is not an issue in the slightest imo.
@rolle As a backend(only in coding) dude, UI/UX is hard, and important unfortunately.
And no matter how cool is your UI/UX, users gonna nag and hate it anyway.
Code bless us all
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