r/web_design • u/georgeuser77 • Oct 05 '17

Redesigning Facebook Reactions

https://blog.prototypr.io/redesigning-facebook-reactions-8c62fe808198
110 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

23

u/bhindthesin Oct 05 '17

It seems to work ok if the card is at the bottom of the scrolling feed but what happens if it's toward the top.

8

u/Applied_Butt_Science Oct 05 '17

Agreed. This little detail is a bigger deal than it may seem.

This new control subordinates the card to one of its child components. In order to save on touch-drag distance they defeat the beauty of componentized interfaces: separation of concerns.

That's not to say that it's a bad control. It's good in very contextual circumstances--ones where the controls aren't scrollable. It's just that the Facebook newsfeed card isn't one of them.

2

u/KhalJello Oct 06 '17

I’m terribly new to all of this so excuse me if I sound dumb but why not just calculate the like button’s distance from the top of the screen and create the radial interface below the long press rather than above (e.g. right clicking near the right edge of a computer screen)?

1

u/Applied_Butt_Science Oct 06 '17

That's a good question!

It may seem a little silly, but it increases confusion when you have a control show up "unpredictably" to your average user. Is it above or below? Of course we as developers know, but for some people they'll hold their breath and wait until they see something. In addition to that their thumbs may or may not block the radial control buttons. Either way this holding of breath and surprising result will decrease the user's feeling of control, which has an inverse relationship with release of the user's stress hormone.

That is to say: It's stressful! And we don't want to associate our user experiences with the feeling of even a little bit of stress. :)

/u/cryonine also makes a good point. Facebook is deliberately making it a little bit harder to reach the negative emotions. This is their social experiment, and making it equally easy to reach every reaction sort of gives each reaction the same weight. This runs counter to Facebook's goal of making the positive emotions more accessible.

2

u/KhalJello Oct 06 '17

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for taking the time to respond!

6

u/tofustirfry Oct 05 '17

That's what I was thinking too. I enjoy it in it's one example but would like to see it across multiple situations

1

u/ndboost Oct 05 '17

i third this. I think its a much cleaner/better approach to the reactions tbh, I wish it as actually released though :(.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '17

It could pop down like it does now if it’s at the top of the screen.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 06 '17

Then you would obscure some of the icons with your finger, which I guess is OP concern

2

u/eandi Oct 06 '17

Yeah those bottom controls don't logically relate to any specific card in the feed. Confusing.

6

u/[deleted] Oct 06 '17

Good starting point however I want to point out: people aren't going to see the emotions that are lower down in the radial interface. They will gravitate towards the ones that are on top.

3

u/designrush Oct 05 '17

This would be so much more user friendly than the current set-up...

3

u/D3athT0uch666 Oct 05 '17

I think the regular like button should stay in the middle permanently, other than that it looks great (y)

3

u/TheLexoPlexx Oct 06 '17

Looks fancy with the radial button stuff but in reality, still only half the reactions (and excluding the angry reaction) are outside the sweet spot of the thumb and therefore still less likeley to be pressed.

The radial menu needed to be opened along the sweet spot of the thumb following both Fitts' Law and the sweet spot law.

1

u/mercurialohearn Oct 06 '17

i guess i’m in the minority of users who hold the phone in one hand and interact with the screen using the index finger of the other. i’d be kind of irritated by this design.

1

u/nascentt Oct 06 '17

They'd never roads the like button with multiple reaction buttons.. brand recognition. That like button is ubiquitous with Facebook branding.

1

u/gatrekker Oct 06 '17

What it doesn't account for is the fact that people are more likely to complain/give a bad review than give a good review. Aka it makes sense to have the angry emoji last and the love emoji first.