3 ms·

Poll: How to display a comment timeline

12 points by sytse 12y ago

A timeline of comments can be rendered with minimal chrome or with text-balloons. What is best?

sytse 12y ago
The text-balloons look better but also less clean, I'm not sure.
- wingerlang 12y ago
  I think they look cleaner, the other may have less elements but they are more scrambled.
nekdev 12y ago
IMO the text balloons is more user friendly :) .
styluss 12y ago
Text balloons have a nice separation from the rest of the timeline http://605.wikispaces.com/Closure http://605.wikispaces.com/Closure
melle 12y ago
In this example text balloons are more clear for me. The background of the balloon seems to 'tie' the comment to the user, and it's easier to spot the end of a comment. In the minimal chrome example you need a line to separate comments which is less distinctive, i guess this makes it harder for me to notice
tux3 12y ago
I like how with the balloons the different messages are really separated, and you don't risk not seeing the boundary if someone has an avatar that happens to blend in. But I like that the minimal chrome fits a bit more messages on the screen. Overall I don't feel strongly towards either, but I'd maybe pick the balloons if I had to pick something.
davidw 12y ago
This is a good group of people for questions like this: http://ux.stackexchange.com/ http://ux.stackexchange.com/ for future reference. (BTW, not saying this is off-topic or anything, just that that stack exchange is a really good resource, IMO)
- hoof_marks 12y ago
  It'S a Poll. Not a technial question. So good to be here, we all can learn from opinions that flow in.
- Gracana 12y ago
  In my experience with other stack exchange sites, questions like this would be locked for being "non constructive." IS ux more accepting of subjective, open-ended questions?
icebraining 12y ago
I think the text balloons have too much going on, and don't provide much benefit since the avatars already demarcate the posts.
narag 12y ago
Neither, sorry. I can't see why the avatar icons are left out of the balloons. Also the balloons would be unnecessary if there was a little more space between comments. I like balloons or some other kind of containers for threaded forums. For flat forums it seems they're useless.
dgmike 12y ago
I like minimal way. It`s more clear (IMO). I like to see a conversation with replies to see how to solve indentations.
mattlutze 12y ago
Are we to assume through the context provided, that this poll is for the specifically linked designs, or if the poll is meant to inform a general design aesthetic? If the former, I'd say balloons, as there's very little other grouping indicators present in the individual comments (and the page design looks pretty flat in general). If it's the later, we'd need to consider the design of the elements of the page and the relationship between various headers and text elements before a good decision could be reached. As well, more color/size/contrast elements in a potential design may force the balloon elements to be of a much higher contrast themselves, which could ultimately overload the page.
- drinchev 12y ago
  I agree. I also think there are a couple of factors that might subjectively push people towards one of the answers, which will loose the OP's idea of this pool. 1) One of the provided design might be bad and so people will choose the other one. For example text balloons background is slightly grey and the space between the comments is bigger than the separation line on the minimal chrome. Also the separation line is the same color as the code example and the attached image border, which kinda makes a different perception of the whole content. So here I would choose balloons, because of this flaw. 2) The dummy content might look better in one of the two designs, which doesn't mean that the concept of the case is bad, but just the rendering. ( This can be solved by providing a design + content for the two cases that makes them look equally ( another subjectivism ) good. ) 3) Misunderstandings about the question. What is being asked here : Which one of those two designs is better? or Which concept is better?
  - randx 12y ago
    We discuss concept here. Balloons or not. In future we proceed with improving font-size/colours/margins etc for selected concept.
thisjepisje 12y ago
The line between the avatars in the second one is pointless.
e12e 12y ago
I think both are pretty awful (if conventional for contemporary UIs) -- way too little emphasis on the text (too hard to read as a conversation). That said, if you have to have that much whitespace, and ridiculously long lines, a box helps repair the damage done by the basic layout. I never understood why the various variants of "phpBB"-style, table-like layouts became so popular. I much prefer something that looks like irssi (perhaps with some support for indenting blocks, with optional syntax colouring). Or, if the goal is "long form" comments, something that reads more or less like properly quoted, properly re-flowed text emails: >>> Example line, but too short paragraph to >>> adequately illustrate superiority >> >> With a response that is similarly afflicted > > Another line -- you'd probably have to have sender > somewhere, maybe in the margins, if we're trying to > move beyond simple text? I think margins would work. I'm not saying that one has to use brackets and only text, I'm fine with using fonts, colours and white space -- just make sure you're improving on the UIs from the 70s with the bling-bling.
cryptos 12y ago
I'd vote for a tree-like structure, where you can actually see the discussion structure (what post is the answer for what post).
ColinWright 12y ago
Clickables: http://i.imgur.com/EWicL11.png http://i.imgur.com/EWicL11.png http://i.imgur.com/TtehVD6.png http://i.imgur.com/TtehVD6.png
- randx 12y ago
  Thank you!!! :)
- sytse 12y ago
  How do I make the links clickable? adding an ahref didn't work :-(
  - sytse 12y ago
    Ah, it is not possible https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1543853 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1543853
    - ColinWright 12y ago
      You can also edit comments and submissions for up to about 2 hours, unless it/they are edited by the mods. You could have added this find to your original question/comment as an update.
karts 12y ago
http://i.imgur.com/TtehVD6.png http://i.imgur.com/TtehVD6.png
jeffehobbs 12y ago
Take a look at how Discourse has done it. They thought long and hard about threaded v. non-threaded, etc. http://try.discourse.org/ http://try.discourse.org/
- maxerickson 12y ago
  They ended up where Jeff Atwood started though: http://blog.codinghorror.com/discussions-flat-or-threaded/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/discussions-flat-or-threaded/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/web-discussions-flat-by-design/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/web-discussions-flat-by-design/ (from 2006 and 2012) I still don't agree with Feels great to use. It's fun. from: http://blog.codinghorror.com/civilized-discourse-construction-kit/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/civilized-discourse-constructio... So maybe I'm a weirdo, but I think maybe Discourse embraces one set of people based on a certain way of interacting with information.
sytse 12y ago
Looks like people like the text-balloons, we'll proceed with implementing them.

12 points by sytse 12y ago

A timeline of comments can be rendered with minimal chrome or with text-balloons. What is best?

sytse 12y ago

The text-balloons look better but also less clean, I'm not sure.

wingerlang 12y ago
I think they look cleaner, the other may have less elements but they are more scrambled.

nekdev 12y ago

IMO the text balloons is more user friendly :) .

styluss 12y ago

Text balloons have a nice separation from the rest of the timeline http://605.wikispaces.com/Closure http://605.wikispaces.com/Closure

melle 12y ago

In this example text balloons are more clear for me. The background of the balloon seems to 'tie' the comment to the user, and it's easier to spot the end of a comment. In the minimal chrome example you need a line to separate comments which is less distinctive, i guess this makes it harder for me to notice

tux3 12y ago

I like how with the balloons the different messages are really separated, and you don't risk not seeing the boundary if someone has an avatar that happens to blend in. But I like that the minimal chrome fits a bit more messages on the screen. Overall I don't feel strongly towards either, but I'd maybe pick the balloons if I had to pick something.

davidw 12y ago

This is a good group of people for questions like this: http://ux.stackexchange.com/ http://ux.stackexchange.com/ for future reference. (BTW, not saying this is off-topic or anything, just that that stack exchange is a really good resource, IMO)

hoof_marks 12y ago
It'S a Poll. Not a technial question. So good to be here, we all can learn from opinions that flow in.
Gracana 12y ago
In my experience with other stack exchange sites, questions like this would be locked for being "non constructive." IS ux more accepting of subjective, open-ended questions?

icebraining 12y ago

I think the text balloons have too much going on, and don't provide much benefit since the avatars already demarcate the posts.

narag 12y ago

Neither, sorry. I can't see why the avatar icons are left out of the balloons. Also the balloons would be unnecessary if there was a little more space between comments. I like balloons or some other kind of containers for threaded forums. For flat forums it seems they're useless.

dgmike 12y ago

I like minimal way. It`s more clear (IMO). I like to see a conversation with replies to see how to solve indentations.

mattlutze 12y ago

Are we to assume through the context provided, that this poll is for the specifically linked designs, or if the poll is meant to inform a general design aesthetic? If the former, I'd say balloons, as there's very little other grouping indicators present in the individual comments (and the page design looks pretty flat in general). If it's the later, we'd need to consider the design of the elements of the page and the relationship between various headers and text elements before a good decision could be reached. As well, more color/size/contrast elements in a potential design may force the balloon elements to be of a much higher contrast themselves, which could ultimately overload the page.

drinchev 12y ago
I agree. I also think there are a couple of factors that might subjectively push people towards one of the answers, which will loose the OP's idea of this pool. 1) One of the provided design might be bad and so people will choose the other one. For example text balloons background is slightly grey and the space between the comments is bigger than the separation line on the minimal chrome. Also the separation line is the same color as the code example and the attached image border, which kinda makes a different perception of the whole content. So here I would choose balloons, because of this flaw. 2) The dummy content might look better in one of the two designs, which doesn't mean that the concept of the case is bad, but just the rendering. ( This can be solved by providing a design + content for the two cases that makes them look equally ( another subjectivism ) good. ) 3) Misunderstandings about the question. What is being asked here : Which one of those two designs is better? or Which concept is better?
- randx 12y ago
  We discuss concept here. Balloons or not. In future we proceed with improving font-size/colours/margins etc for selected concept.

thisjepisje 12y ago

The line between the avatars in the second one is pointless.

e12e 12y ago

I think both are pretty awful (if conventional for contemporary UIs) -- way too little emphasis on the text (too hard to read as a conversation). That said, if you have to have that much whitespace, and ridiculously long lines, a box helps repair the damage done by the basic layout. I never understood why the various variants of "phpBB"-style, table-like layouts became so popular. I much prefer something that looks like irssi (perhaps with some support for indenting blocks, with optional syntax colouring). Or, if the goal is "long form" comments, something that reads more or less like properly quoted, properly re-flowed text emails: >>> Example line, but too short paragraph to >>> adequately illustrate superiority >> >> With a response that is similarly afflicted > > Another line -- you'd probably have to have sender > somewhere, maybe in the margins, if we're trying to > move beyond simple text? I think margins would work. I'm not saying that one has to use brackets and only text, I'm fine with using fonts, colours and white space -- just make sure you're improving on the UIs from the 70s with the bling-bling.

cryptos 12y ago

I'd vote for a tree-like structure, where you can actually see the discussion structure (what post is the answer for what post).

ColinWright 12y ago

Clickables: http://i.imgur.com/EWicL11.png http://i.imgur.com/EWicL11.png http://i.imgur.com/TtehVD6.png http://i.imgur.com/TtehVD6.png

randx 12y ago
Thank you!!! :)
sytse 12y ago
How do I make the links clickable? adding an ahref didn't work :-(
- sytse 12y ago
  Ah, it is not possible https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1543853 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1543853
  - ColinWright 12y ago
    You can also edit comments and submissions for up to about 2 hours, unless it/they are edited by the mods. You could have added this find to your original question/comment as an update.

karts 12y ago

http://i.imgur.com/TtehVD6.png http://i.imgur.com/TtehVD6.png

jeffehobbs 12y ago

Take a look at how Discourse has done it. They thought long and hard about threaded v. non-threaded, etc. http://try.discourse.org/ http://try.discourse.org/

maxerickson 12y ago
They ended up where Jeff Atwood started though: http://blog.codinghorror.com/discussions-flat-or-threaded/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/discussions-flat-or-threaded/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/web-discussions-flat-by-design/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/web-discussions-flat-by-design/ (from 2006 and 2012) I still don't agree with Feels great to use. It's fun. from: http://blog.codinghorror.com/civilized-discourse-construction-kit/ http://blog.codinghorror.com/civilized-discourse-constructio... So maybe I'm a weirdo, but I think maybe Discourse embraces one set of people based on a certain way of interacting with information.

sytse 12y ago

Looks like people like the text-balloons, we'll proceed with implementing them.