How & Why
UI Case Studies
Daniel Burka
Pownce - Co-founder
Digg - Creative Director
Silverorange - Co-founder

Case Studies
1. Digg - Story Format
Getting started and changes over 3 years
2. Digg - Comment System
Adaptation over 2.5 years
3. Pownce - Initial Design
Starting from scratch

Starting with Digg
• Started working with Digg in March 2005
• Original scope is one week of work
• Where do you start?

Digg story design

Why start so focused?
• You need to start somewhere
• Homepage template was more obvious but...
• Identify key themes quickly
• Get fast & focused client (Kevin) feedback
• Develop visual language

Example Mozilla Download Page & Button

Example Store product page

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Identifying the problems

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Identify what makes Digg unique... Digging!
1. Doesn’t feel important
2. Doesn’t indicate an action
3. Not quickly scannable

?
Title isn’t bad, but...
1. Could be emphasized better
2. Help user jump down page visually

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Submitter information
1. Oh, he’s the submitter! Not the author?
2. What the heck is that number?

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Report?
1. What do you mean?
2. Why would I do it?
3. That’s a multiple select dropdown? Really?

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More stuff to add?
1. New comments system 3. Show the source?
2. Ability to share stories 4. What order are these in?

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First revision...

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Ok, spot the differences...
1. Digg button is emphasized... a lot.
2. Digg button is an action with a verb
3. Button style helps with brand identity, visual language

Mezzoblue Mozilla Digg
(thanks Dave!!)

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What else has changed?
4. Title is bigger and bolder
5. Submitter is labeled as such and has an image
6. Time stamp is entirely new

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What else has changed?
7. Comments are entirely new
8. Two share links are new
9. ‘Report’ is now clearly a dropdown renamed ‘Bury Story’

Success?

Success?
• In this case not always clear cut
• Can people scan stories faster?
• How does it make people feel?

Success?
• In this case not always clear cut
• Can people scan stories faster?
• How does it make people feel?
• Gather stats where possible
• More digging and other participation?
• More registered users? More overall visitors?

Success?
• In this case not always clear cut
• Can people scan stories faster?
• How does it make people feel?
• Gather stats where possible
• More digging and other participation?
• More registered users? More overall visitors?
• User test, even basics
• Is date-order more comprehensible?
• Can someone successfully digg or report?

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Identify the problems again...
1. Digg number is too big (the site’s getting popular)
2. Gradients are so last year
3. Too much stuff - could be tighter

?
Identify the problems again...
4. Meta data divides the story’s core info
5. Burying is not being used enough

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Second Revision

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What’s changed?
1. Gradients reduced, bevels gone
2. Metadata reduced to a single line, no visual jump
3. Share replaced ‘blog it’ ‘email it’
4. Bury has single-click option and prominence

Success?
• Buries increase
• Testers find chronology slightly clearer
• There’s less stuff

Digg Comment System
2005 2006 2007 soon...

First Design, 2005

First Design, 2005
Challenges become obvious
• Design is awfully literal
• Data isn’t very compact
• Limited Functionality
• Doesn’t scale

Second Design, 2006

Second Design, 2006
But... still doesn’t scale
• Nesting encourages
discussion but now there
are more comments than
ever

Second Design, 2006
Nesting confuses novices
• User testing reveals
confusion
• Don’t understand
‘indented comments’
• Top-posting adds to the
problem

Second Design, 2006
Too little nesting for experts
• Users implicitly say this
by using @soandso to
fake functionality
• Users explicitly tell us
by email and comments

Second Design, 2006
Content organization...
• Block button is too
abstract and too cluttered

Third design, 2007

What’s changed?
1. Header is simplified... less image heavy
2. Block button hidden
3. Threads collapsed
a. Scales better
b. Lessens top-posting
c. Simplifies initial view

Explicit feedback
What are people saying?
1. I liked it the old way (you should be fired)
2. Annoying to open threads (too slow)
3. Hard to find your own comments
4. Ugly threading, too many vertical lines

Implicit feedback
What are people doing?
• Total comments increased by
over 30%
• Unique commenters increased by
around 20%
• Unique comments per person increased by
about 15%

Successes & missteps
! Top-posting is lessened and doesn’t confuse novices
! Scales to thousands of comments
! More people are participating
! More comments are being posted
! People are threading better

Successes & missteps
x Too slow to load individual threads
x Design is cluttered
x Especially when threads are open
x Can’t find your own comments if threaded
x Interactions are poorly designed

What to do about it...
• Go back to the old design?
• Address shortcomings
• Adapt to user feedback
• Get more feedback -- we released a video
• User test this time
• Leave time for further iteration

What to do about it...
• Go back to the old design?
• Address shortcomings
• Adapt to user feedback
• Get more feedback -- we released a video
• User test this time
• Leave time for further iteration
Let’s see it...

Pownce Initial Design

Pownce is brand new...
• No established design language
• No prior expectations from users
• Blank slate is intimidating though

Inspiration leads the way

First take is close...

Focus on the note...

Focus on the note...

Hatch adds movement & character

Visual language spreads
An ‘aha’ moment. Leads to more things.

A few conclusions
• Starting focused can be a big help
• Echo design language
• Be prepared to iterate and react to your users
• Many types of feedback
Implicit feedback is especially important
• There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes

Thanks!
Slides will be on Slideshare
pownce.com/dburka
or
deltatangobravo.com
Illustrations by Ryan Putnam (via istockphoto.com)