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We've recently added a new feature to the front page of Betterhumans: Info Bars. These bars, in light blue coloring, show how many hits an article has, along with its progress rating and number of comments.
We're thinking of expanding this feature to different areas of the site, but before we do we wanted to ask you, the Betterhumans audience, what you think of the new info bars.
How do you feel about them? Are they informative? Do they add to the site? Do they influence how you navigate through the site and which articles you read? Does it give you an enhanced sense of how the site works and what draws people to certain areas? Are there things about the info bars that you don't like? Is there any other information that you'd like to see?
We're thinking of expanding this feature to different areas of the site, but before we do we wanted to ask you, the Betterhumans audience, what you think of the new info bars.
How do you feel about them? Are they informative? Do they add to the site? Do they influence how you navigate through the site and which articles you read? Does it give you an enhanced sense of how the site works and what draws people to certain areas? Are there things about the info bars that you don't like? Is there any other information that you'd like to see?
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As a reader, I find the extra data distracting. However, as a writer, I like it (Betterhumans published my "Gray Goo Is a Small Issue" article, among others). What would be cool and interactive is if the website visitor had the option to turn the new feature on or off -- can you arrange that?
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Mike, I'm curious. We used to have the post date and the byline, and have now added hits, comments and for some articles progress ratings. Could you be more specific about what you find distracting? We probably wouldn't, for example, want to allow people to hide an article's author. What makes the hits and comments more distracting than the byline and the post date? The fact that they are constantly changing?
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Yo, Simon, wazzup!
I think it's all the numbers. Words and letters are easier for my eyes to ignore than are numbers. It also seems less annoying in the Features frame than in the News frame; there it just adds clutter to an already very busy page. But this is just an initial reaction -- it's quite possible I will get used to the new look.
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Numbers are good, but colors may be better in this application. Various categories for articles could be represented by different colors, which would darken with more hits. One could easily tell at a glance what an article is about and how often it's been read without the pesky nuisance of thinking.
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Andrew, I've actually been thinking the same thing. Alternatively, we could have symbols that indicate hot articles or bars that lengthen as articles become more popular. We may want to keep the numbers as well, but you're right that shapes, sizes and colors would provide information at a glance. Something to think about.
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