launchpad-dev team mailing list archive

[Jonathan Lange <jml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 9:49 AM, Michael Nelson
<michael.nelson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> There are some situations where we are using (or wanting to use)
> comments in Launchpad for a log of activity (like an activity stream),
> or a log of changes. In these situations Henning, Curtis and I think
> that ordering from newest to oldest would be more helpful to see.
>
> Here's a 1 minute demo of an interaction where I've done this:
>
> http://people.canonical.com/~michaeln/tmp/649559-blacklisting-with-comments.ogv
>
...
> So the questions are:
>
> 1) Do other people also share the view that users will benefit from
> newest-oldest comments/activity logs in some situations? If so, what
> are the other situations? If not, why not?
>

I'm sceptical. Not because I think old->new is clearly superior, but
because I possess no rational basis for forming an opinion. Have we
done user testing? Is there research on ordering that we could
consult? How can we meaningfully talk about this without relying on
anecdotes & hunches? Having said that...

Yes, I think there's a benefit in activity streams being newest first.

No, I do not think newest first is a good way to present a conversation.

> 2) How could they be visually distinctive from the normal comments (or
> more generally, how can we ensure the two different orderings don't
> confuse people)? Or should we restrict newest-oldest ordering to
> specific functionality (ie. don't use it for anything that is like a
> comment, but it's ok for an activity stream for a person/pillar.
>

My hunch is that the right place to draw the line is conversation vs
activity stream. As for how to make them distinctive, well, I'm not a
visual designer. However, I am trying to hire one. If you are reading
this & are interested or know someone who is, get in touch with me or
maybe even pitch in on this thread with your thoughts!

jml