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ASK DN: How can we improve the UI of this feed?

over 4 years ago from , Designer at day, Developer at night.

Hey everyone,

we are struggling with the current UI for the iOS version of Bynd (http://byndapp.com).

With our product, you can bundle all your favorite feeds into one central hub! At the moment we support Facebook, Designer News, Twitter, Hacker News and YouTube!

UI Screens: http://imgur.com/IxzBcnC (from left to right: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Designer News)

Screencast: https://youtu.be/lC2c5ntD7YI

How can we improve this?

The feedback and suggestions from the Designer News community means the world to us!

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE: sooo much feedback! Thanks to all of you. I think it makse more sense, to send you the current iOS beta version. Please tell me you mail address and I will send a TestFlight invitation asap.

17 comments

  • Mitch Malone, over 4 years ago

    What kind of feedback are you looking for? How exactly are you struggling? Are there usability problems? Are there engagement/retention problems?

    3 points
    • Ömer Akyürek, over 4 years ago

      Mitch, we would like to present an unified feed with as little information as possible (no profil picture or time stamp). You should understand where the information is coming from and which person/site has posted it from while you're scrolling.

      It needs to be very simple and unified while we are adding more and more channels.

      1 point
      • Powers Gray, over 4 years ago

        I think at the very least in the feed you need a logo of which service the information is posting from. I don't like that you can't see that until you're a level deeper.

        Maybe just end it at the feed though...I think I would like this as a simple aggregator. I have the real thing of each platform if i really want to dig deep. Maybe a toggle up top you could define "all" or just one service if you're trying to narrow the experience.

        0 points
        • Ömer Akyürek, over 4 years ago

          Thanks for feedback! What if, instead of posting the logo, we simply write it below the account name? Take a look at the picture in the top right corner.

          Do you have an iPhone? If so, would you mind beta testing the current version?

          0 points
      • Mitch Malone, over 4 years ago

        Here's a link to some of my thoughts on my initial experience.

        2 points
        • Ömer Akyürek, over 4 years ago

          Thanks for your feedback Mitch! You have tested version 1.0! I would love to send you the newest version. Please dm me you mail address.

          0 points
  • Rafael AlexRafael Alex, over 4 years ago

    I wireframed something small in Sketch.

    How about something like this?

    Feed - Dropbox

    Even if you delete the excerpt, it's useable.

    Feed Small - Dropbox

    Cheers, Rafael

    PS: Gerne auch auf Deutsch ;)

    2 points
  • Alex CampAlex Camp, over 4 years ago

    Quick and dirty...

    Personally, I'm not a huge fan of websites that look like blown up versions of mobile layouts. I understand the mobile-first philosophy but recommend adding some desktop-specific layout changes to make the experience better.

    Not a huge fan of several sections that capture the browser viewport, especially when the content does not fill them up. On an iMac there is always an odd amount of space above/below the content making for pointless scrolling.

    Text seems pretty small across the board.

    A popular effect app companies are using is motion graphics - could make your site a little more engaging/interesting.

    Hope that helps!

    2 points
    • Andreas EllwangerAndreas Ellwanger, over 4 years ago

      I second that! But he wants feedback regarding the iOS UI.

      3 points
    • Ömer Akyürek, over 4 years ago

      Thanks Alex, but as Andreas stated below, we are looking for feedback regarding the iOS UI.

      p.s.: the webpage is getting re-designed at the moment!

      1 point
      • Alex CampAlex Camp, over 4 years ago

        Oops, gotcha. My bad.

        The feeds' text is also too small, and there should be more padding on the sides to prevent it from getting so close. It looks a little wireframey- maybe bring in some more branding and nice typography.

        There may be a better way to show the text over the images because like on the Colbert one it gets a little lost. And the tags Tasty or Movie Trailers could maybe get some special formatting instead of the same white text.

        On the publication screens, perhaps blur that background even more, it's at a weird place where you can see too much of what the image is and its a little distracting. The blurry text look doesn't look that great to me. Text is a little small here too, and the action buttons are bigger, does that mean they are more important? A bit more padding on the sides here too would help.

        Maybe see if you can truncate or shorten URLs - there is potential to get some super ugly ones if left alone. Not sure if its just the quality of the image, but the link color could maybe be more pronounced.

        Hope that helps

        0 points
  • J VJ V, over 4 years ago

    from a pure VisD POV:

    Usability would improve a lot if you used this structure: http://avc.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/google-now-stories.png

    -Tiny header with source & time -Title -Some of the content -Thumbnail

    Avoid center aligning the text, super tiring for streams.

    Avoid breaking conventions for the sake of it (is that icon on the top left a menu button? Then make the three lines even, otherwise looks like a list icon; people won't tap on icons they don't recognize 100%, seems like a dumb way to gamble users).

    Stick with black text over white background for the whole stream, is very exhausting for the user to switch from dark to light every couple cells.

    Introduce white text over hero images only for titles. This treatment is the worst of both worlds (the image is darkened and the text is harder to read) so use it only under very specific circumstances when you want to get extra attention to that bit of information. I would avoid it as much as you can; it's a nightmare to make it work.

    You don't need that much space between cells. Easy fix to gain some information density back.

    The pattern you're using for Feed/Trending caret is invisible to 99% of humans. Switch to tabs instead.

    Not really getting the header section for Casey Nestat / TechCrunch. If there's no actions, why not a simple top nav with title? Seems kind of unnecessary and distracting from the thing I want to read (the information on the cell I just tapped). Think about the way twitter handles tapping on a tweet. They don't bring you to the user TL, but to a expanded view of that tweet. You can find a way to merge both worlds, but right now is not good.

    On scroll inside source feed, that top bar is super crunched. Either make it larger (like instagram) or break it into two lines.

    I would reconsider that branding color to something friendlier and easier to the eyes. From the mocks I'm seeing on your web, is both a contrast nightmare on both black and white text and is way too loud to pay attention to anything else.

    1 point
  • Aaron SagrayAaron Sagray, over 4 years ago (edited over 4 years ago )

    Quick stream of conscious feedback after watching the youtube video:

    • I don't think the big blocks for stories in the feed is working. You have a few stories where there is no image, and it looks very sparse. Text on top of images is tough to read (and looks awkward when covering faces). Suggest switching to a thumbnail, and providing additional story details, like a preview of first paragraph in the body.

    • Moreover, I don't really know why these stories would be in my feed. How are they ordered? Why should I care? One thing I like about apps like Nuzzel and Reddit is that there's some social proof

    • Later in the video, it actually appears that the prior screen is a cover for an article feed. This was unexpected, since there was a headline on the prior page.

    • Consider different ways to organize the app. You could choose to load in your entire feed from all sources by date, category, social influence (likes/views/retweets) etc.

    • The list view of articles lacks an engaging visual structure. I think some sort of anchoring image or iconography might be nice for each article.

    • How can I share?

    • There's a large "show replies" button, but it doesn't indicate how many people have discussed the article. Inform the user why they should care.

    • Consider a tab bar or other more discoverable navigation

    I think the problems overall center around content hierarchy and flows. It also needs some magic – why should I go here? (other than seeing everything in one app).

    I wish you the best with your business. Reader apps are difficult. It's a crowded market, and requires a lot to differentiate.

    1 point
    • Ömer Akyürek, over 4 years ago

      It woud make sense to send you the newest version, if you have an iphone. Please tell me your mail address and I will send it right away

      0 points
  • Rey AlejandroRey Alejandro, over 4 years ago

    I guess some inspiration on Google now can solve your problem. They get recommendation from different sources, a card is a good metaphor to make the info easier to digest and not too overwhelming. https://www.google.com/search/about/learn-more/now/

    0 points