I would like to endorse other minor web apps in the #Fediverse, but most of them are full of UI glitches, are incomplete and downright buggy looking odd things.
From my designer point of view #Mastodon and #Pixelfed are the only effective ones, because they speak to people who are used to proper visual design language (read: Non-nerds, non-engineers, the regular people and design oriented people).
Things like #BookWyrm, #Lemmy, #Friendica and newer niche apps cause reactions like: "What is this?", they look like back end is fine but nobody is in charge of the design and the UI has no direction whatsoever. It's the general culprit in the programming world: A back end developer thinks everything is fine when we add a CSS framework and that's that.
If we just get the UI right everywhere, we get more people to the #Fediverse. I just wish there was more #CSS/design people willing to contribute. #UI#UIDesign
Messy 😕 huh .. well I like it. I think I prefer it over masto-fe. It's simple .. the basic layout is almost identical to masto in standard/non-advanced mode.
@rolle I sincerely hope you will be able to add @nodebb to that list soon 🤠 — I've only dipped my toes in the implementation, but I'm looking forward to seeing it federate!
@rolle Unfortunately this is very true. Having tried several, they are not ready for prime time. They are buggy, too loaded up with features that don't all work, and way too busy with things like a riot of color and dancing emojis. When you spend a little time actually trying to use them, you get a real appreciation for the difficulty of clean UI design, and the importance of testing testing testing testing before rolling out capabilities. Mastodon is sort of a bulky dated UI, but it works.
Every little UI decision is critical to a platform's success, and the initial user experience is vital. It could be argued that defaulting to dark mode and 16:9 image clipping is in large part responsible for people bouncing off Mastodon, because it makes the UI look junky. That said, Mastodon works really well, and the more you use it the more you appreciate the functionality decisions.
I've been always attracted to beautiful things. I always list pros and cons in the things I use. I go through dozens of options.
The user interface has HUGE value for me and it can weigh so much it can even top some of the downsides. But even if ALL of the other features are fine and the UI is bad, I have no desire in using the software. It's just the way it is and I'm pretty sure bad UI is a big turn-off for most of the people. Who doesn't love nice looking things?
@rolle You should contribute to Lemmy if possible. I don't like to use it just because of the UI. I hope more CSS wizards like you will join the fediverse ❤
@mitexleo I would like to contribute to many things. But I have limited time and energy, so I just focus on the things that I myself use and are the easiests, to save myself from burning out. Right now the #MastodonBirdUI is my sole focus and perhaps later the #Mastodon CSS/UI in general. #Lemmy is out of scope time/energy-wise for me right now.
I too hope that more excited #CSS people have motivation and time to help, but I'm well aware of the fact that all the good ones are overworked and busy with projects they make money from, me included. But one can hope. :bunhdlurkaww:
@rolle@mitexleo I can give feedback on the Join Lemmy site: it doesn't show what it is about, the content does not match what is seen. The first screenshot is code. And first item in feature list mentions Docker and Ansible. I'm a dev and this kind of prio turns me away because I only touch those tools if I absolutely have to.
All the coder first content should be removed from the intro page, it should instead be part of how to/getting started.
Add comment