4 ms·

I've tried Matrix. The principle sounds great but the lack of quality client just put me off on whichever platforms I've tried with most popular clients. The i

I've tried Matrix. The principle sounds great but the lack of quality client just put me off on whichever platforms I've tried with most popular clients. The interface is just complicated for average people and the translations were half done and this will scare people off if I recommend for cross company chat. The server side may be great but it needs some work to have simple and elegant client on desktop and mobile clients. Currently I use Mattermost and it seems to be doing ok but this has no built-in support for audio and video.

holler 6y ago
Personally I think this is a fundamental problem with matrix and why it will always only appeal to a certain segment of users. For those users, namely tech/security enthusiasts, it is appealing due to its federated architecture, privacy, etc. For anyone else, it’s too complicated. Even discord, often cited, suffers from this imo. The mass public does not want complicated. The mention of words like “e2e”, “server”, “bridge”, “decentralized”, might as well be from an alien language. That said, if it works well for their target demographic then it could have success in that space.
- mekster 6y ago
  It can be solved with a simple client that hides the complexity but only shows what makes sense to average users.
  - Arathorn 6y ago
    So we are painfully aware that Riot’s usability still needs to increase, as per https://blog.riot.im/e2e-encryption-by-default-cross-signing-is-here/#what-s-next https://blog.riot.im/e2e-encryption-by-default-cross-signing... - although I’m not sure it’s quite as dire as the GP makes out. All I can say is that we’ve hired three permanent kick-ass full time UI/UX designers for the team, put them charge of the product direction for Riot, and told all the devs that their job is to do nothing but implement their design iterations as efficiently and accurately as possible. Let’s see how it goes.

holler 6y ago

Personally I think this is a fundamental problem with matrix and why it will always only appeal to a certain segment of users. For those users, namely tech/security enthusiasts, it is appealing due to its federated architecture, privacy, etc. For anyone else, it’s too complicated. Even discord, often cited, suffers from this imo. The mass public does not want complicated. The mention of words like “e2e”, “server”, “bridge”, “decentralized”, might as well be from an alien language. That said, if it works well for their target demographic then it could have success in that space.

mekster 6y ago
It can be solved with a simple client that hides the complexity but only shows what makes sense to average users.
- Arathorn 6y ago
  So we are painfully aware that Riot’s usability still needs to increase, as per https://blog.riot.im/e2e-encryption-by-default-cross-signing-is-here/#what-s-next https://blog.riot.im/e2e-encryption-by-default-cross-signing... - although I’m not sure it’s quite as dire as the GP makes out. All I can say is that we’ve hired three permanent kick-ass full time UI/UX designers for the team, put them charge of the product direction for Riot, and told all the devs that their job is to do nothing but implement their design iterations as efficiently and accurately as possible. Let’s see how it goes.