Issue
The create post button is hard to find for new forum members.
What user would expect
- Could think it's the button in bottom right corner, since it stands out, but that seems to be a chat.
- Could also look for it via the hamburger icon on the top left, but no create option is visible in the slideout menu.
- Searching for how to create a post would give create button or at least explanation on how to do it, but nothing to be found there.
Current design
User needs to hover over their own name in top right to open the dropdown.
- Note that you need to hover, the intuitive action of clicking brings you to your profile.
- Also your name doesn't indicate it can be hovered over or clicked.
- Here is how it looks at the moment on desktop browser.
Solution
General UI
Make the create button more obvious in the general forum UI. Here are two options:
- Put the buttons somewhere in the top bar, for example next to search.
- Make sure it doesn't look like a simple text, so user actually knows it can be clicked. E.g. add a visual "+" icon in front of "Create Post" text.
- Add a + button in the bottom right corner, next to the chat.
- Adding a button that looks clickable stands out more and communicates to user it will go to a new page.
- Perhaps the chat can even be replaced / moved somewhere else? I'm not sure how often it is being used, but "usual reply time 1 day" doesn't really make it sound like the "real-time chat experience" user would expect.
Search Page
Additionally, ensure the answer for "How to create a post" shows up in the search. It might be explained in the forum manual, but that doesn't seem to be a search result at the moment.
Additional Suggestions
- Forum manual isn't immediately visible on the side bar, can add a link there or make existing option more obvious.
- Also add a link to forum manual / create post instructions to the New Post Menu.
- Add a small downwards arrow next to user name in top right or any similar icon that indicates this can open a hover dropdown.
- Make tapping the name not open the profile, and instead open the dropdown.
- There is already an open profile option as part of the dropdown.
- The sidebar on the left, search field and notifications button opens on click too, so more consistent design.
Reason
There are quite some posts and talks encouraging new users to create posts. They cannot create posts if they can't find the create button and/or forget where to find the instructions. :)
Thanks for posting this. I definitely understand the cognitive dissonance between guidance that encourages people to write on the Forum and a UX that isn't intuitive for a brand new user coming from standard web tools.
The Forum team is currently hiring for a product designer, and I'm hopeful that we'll have a chance to take a look at our information architecture and interaction design, among other things. I don't think confusing UX should be a reason for not using a tool, even if there are various other reasons (which perhaps we should also work on).
Also, I'd note that we have a feature suggestion thread that you can use in the future for suggestions like this.
Thanks for your reply and the link. I wasn't aware of that thread before and added a comment there now. Hope you'll have success with the hiring process. :)