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(Disclaimer: I gave up on Quora months ago – maybe they've fixed these things) I desperately wish I could effectively convey how bad I think Quora's implementa

(Disclaimer: I gave up on Quora months ago – maybe they've fixed these things) I desperately wish I could effectively convey how bad I think Quora's implementation is. I'll try now. The visual design is simple, if bland, but that's not my beef. Simple is usually good. I think it mostly hinges around discovery and sense of place. On Quora, it never feels like you are anywhere. No sense of hierarchy, no sense of order. Quora is a massive sense of limbo. It's really weird. More than that, because of the myriad subjects under discussion, and the wholly opaque mechanisms for discovering them, it constantly feels as though there are places in Quora you're shut out of, without a clear path to get there. So, I don't feel like I'm anywhere, while it feels like there are elsewheres I could be. It's too clever by half, trying to intelligently curate what a given user will want to see, but ending up leaving the user in a state of helplessness. There's also this bizarre conception of having to follow a topic in order consume it. Commitment before preview? Really? At least I think that's how it works. I mean, it's too confusing, too complicated for how simple the problem is. Contrast this with Convore, which gives you: - Discussions your friends have joined - Bigass list of all discussions - Discussions by category - Discussion search Quora has the benefit of founders with a solid network, so the early adopters are heavy hitters with interesting things to say. It's a shame, then, that the user experience is just so... tepid.

jdp23 16y ago
The tepidness is a direct result of the approach they took: "Really early on I decided to focus only on the product design and would forgo any time spent on things like visual design and, to some extent, branding."
- danilocampos 16y ago
  Hmm, but none of the tepidness is a result of the visual design. craigslist continues to look like shit but it works well. Quora doesn't. It's just bad product design, poor user experience, whatever you want to call it. These issues are structural, not visual or aesthetic. Slapping on a new paint job whenever they get around to it isn't going to fix the problem. It's a classic engineer's special, and that quote is a rationalization for this truth.
  - jdp23 16y ago
    At least to me, it's a poor user experience ''and'' a tepid visual design. Incorporating visual design and branding from the beginning certainly would have helped address the tepidness, and might have helped with usability as well (unless they were consciously trying to brand it has 'intimidating to newcomers').
    - danilocampos 16y ago
      > unless they were consciously trying to brand it has 'intimidating to newcomers') Haha, sure, that's true enough. I firmly believe that design isn't just something you can do at the end. Design has to happen from the ground up. Having a competent designer involved with real veto power might have helped to get some usable organization of content in there.
      - jdp23 16y ago
        Agreed. This post is from January 2010 and she had been there for six months. When did they start?
pasbesoin 16y ago
Quora has the benefit of founders with a solid network, so the early adopters are heavy hitters with interesting things to say. It's a shame, then, that the user experience is just so... tepid. I'm not really qualified to comment, as I've only encountered Quora via deep links, and sometimes some additional clicking around. But the above summarizes my impression, both from my own limited interaction and from the limited amount of "the buzz" [1] that enters my personal world. Quora became the next cool, limited, (temporarily?) high S/N place to be, after the previous one became too noisy. -- 1 Oops, no pun intended. Although, OT, I have been wondering whether Buzz is going to "make it", longer term, or whether it's already on or being considered for a near term hit list (e.g. Wave's fate (but without an open source spinoff that I can imagine)).
- jdp23 16y ago
  Yes exactly, the next Friendfeed / Buzz where the elites can hang out before the masses get there.
gojomo 16y ago
Having it look different to every user, with no 'canonical' view or hierarchy, is an actual design tactic, inherited from Facebook, which makes the site more inviting to certain kinds of exploration and growth.
- danilocampos 16y ago
  Facebook does have a very clear, distinct hierarchy. It's user centric, and oriented around relationships. -Homepage: Big wall of stuff --User page, another wall ---Info ---Pictures --Your profile ---Pictures etc At no point do ever look around in Facebook and think "where am I? How do I go somewhere else?" Other users exist on Facebook. Discovering them is straightforward. If I want more friends, I know how to get them. Tailoring the experience to your personal profile is the correct choice. Quora just isn't doing it correctly. What you're saying makes a lot of sense, though, in that Quora is treating questions and topics like people. It seems like using a screwdriver to make an omelet.
richcollins 16y ago
It's amazing how many web ui's fail at navigation hierarchy when its a solved problem (see Apple UIs like the Finder, iPhone and iPad).

jdp23 16y ago

The tepidness is a direct result of the approach they took: "Really early on I decided to focus only on the product design and would forgo any time spent on things like visual design and, to some extent, branding."

danilocampos 16y ago
Hmm, but none of the tepidness is a result of the visual design. craigslist continues to look like shit but it works well. Quora doesn't. It's just bad product design, poor user experience, whatever you want to call it. These issues are structural, not visual or aesthetic. Slapping on a new paint job whenever they get around to it isn't going to fix the problem. It's a classic engineer's special, and that quote is a rationalization for this truth.
- jdp23 16y ago
  At least to me, it's a poor user experience ''and'' a tepid visual design. Incorporating visual design and branding from the beginning certainly would have helped address the tepidness, and might have helped with usability as well (unless they were consciously trying to brand it has 'intimidating to newcomers').
  - danilocampos 16y ago
    > unless they were consciously trying to brand it has 'intimidating to newcomers') Haha, sure, that's true enough. I firmly believe that design isn't just something you can do at the end. Design has to happen from the ground up. Having a competent designer involved with real veto power might have helped to get some usable organization of content in there.
    - jdp23 16y ago
      Agreed. This post is from January 2010 and she had been there for six months. When did they start?

pasbesoin 16y ago

Quora has the benefit of founders with a solid network, so the early adopters are heavy hitters with interesting things to say. It's a shame, then, that the user experience is just so... tepid. I'm not really qualified to comment, as I've only encountered Quora via deep links, and sometimes some additional clicking around. But the above summarizes my impression, both from my own limited interaction and from the limited amount of "the buzz" [1] that enters my personal world. Quora became the next cool, limited, (temporarily?) high S/N place to be, after the previous one became too noisy. -- 1 Oops, no pun intended. Although, OT, I have been wondering whether Buzz is going to "make it", longer term, or whether it's already on or being considered for a near term hit list (e.g. Wave's fate (but without an open source spinoff that I can imagine)).

jdp23 16y ago
Yes exactly, the next Friendfeed / Buzz where the elites can hang out before the masses get there.

gojomo 16y ago

Having it look different to every user, with no 'canonical' view or hierarchy, is an actual design tactic, inherited from Facebook, which makes the site more inviting to certain kinds of exploration and growth.

danilocampos 16y ago
Facebook does have a very clear, distinct hierarchy. It's user centric, and oriented around relationships. -Homepage: Big wall of stuff --User page, another wall ---Info ---Pictures --Your profile ---Pictures etc At no point do ever look around in Facebook and think "where am I? How do I go somewhere else?" Other users exist on Facebook. Discovering them is straightforward. If I want more friends, I know how to get them. Tailoring the experience to your personal profile is the correct choice. Quora just isn't doing it correctly. What you're saying makes a lot of sense, though, in that Quora is treating questions and topics like people. It seems like using a screwdriver to make an omelet.

richcollins 16y ago

It's amazing how many web ui's fail at navigation hierarchy when its a solved problem (see Apple UIs like the Finder, iPhone and iPad).