Move media item to another folder not user friendly

[duderuud]

When you want to move a media item to another folder you need to enter the URL of that folder.

Really? That is so not user-friendly A lot of our visitors will not get that.
Is it possible to change that to a dropdown menu with of all your current albums?

 

[Chris D]

Educate them. I’d be severely worried if copy and pasting a URL was beyond their grasp.

It’s actually done with a URL because if you happen to have hundreds or thousands of albums, some of which may not even belong to them if the albums have been shared with them, then copying and pasting a URL is a much better experience than scrolling through a significant number of albums.

 

[Kirby]

Educate them. I’d be severely worried if copy and pasting a URL was beyond their grasp.

I'd argue a UI that requires users to be educated how to use it is a bad UI

I'm fine with offering URL as an option, but this isn't what the average joe would be able to use easily ... heck many of our users don't even know what a URL is.

How about displaying the albums if the number is small enough and a autofill/autocomplete textbox with a nice explanation to enter (part of) the album name if the number of albums is too large?

 

[Alpha1]

heck many of our users don't even know what a URL is.

Correct. They are browsing a page on a small screen. The URL is partly visible if at all. Copying an URL often doesnt work well on touchscreens.
People expect instant gratification. They are used to Facebook use entry level of UXD. Not Nerd level UXD.
In other words they will abort in confusion and go to another site.

@Chris D I honestly think that it's really important to reconsider our perspective because its so easy to think about UXD from within what is normal for us and its really hard to approach it from the perspective of users who never use a physical keyboard, do not know what an URL is, do not know the difference between a page and a website, and are accustomed to be spoon-fed and to UXD at the lowest entry level possible. i.e. IMHO we really need to consider things from a really dumbed down perspective because that is where a mass of users are.

 

[Chris D]

Let us know when you actually have users who struggle with this.

I strongly feel this is being overstated and in reality most users will know what a URL is and will know how to copy and paste.

If they struggle with pasting URLs I assume you never get users using links in posts, or embedding media etc.

Platforms like Reddit whose almost entire premise revolves around posting and discussing URLs seem to cope fine. Or do Reddit have a drop down list containing every URL that’s ever existed these days?

 

[Kirby]

Platforms like Reddit whose almost entire premise revolves around posting and discussing URLs seem to cope fine. Or do Reddit have a drop down list containing every URL that’s ever existed these days?

R L Y ? I am sure Reddit users won't have any issues with this, but Reddit users aren't what I would call mainstream - Reddit users are usually highly technically skilled.

I do get phone calls (!) every day by users asking about products or services (both of which I never heared before) just because they saw some kind of advertising for those on our forums or found some posts discussing them.
When I ask them about the URL so I can at least take a look at what they are talking about, they are unable to answer this simple quesition - they simply don't know what a URL is, they also don't know what a browser is or which browser they are using and they don't know the website they are on.
At least they somehow managed to navigate to our imprint through the footer link to find our phone number to call us.

We also usually do get several tickets every week asking how to reply to a thread or how to create a new thread.
And even threads asking how to create new threads like this one
https://www.gartenforum.de/threads/3724823-beitrag-erstellen

This is reality and it is just the tip of the iceberg, technical knowledge about general (internet) technology is on a constant decline since the first iPhone got available.
Forums are a kind old technology and I do have the feeling that we (as forums admins) are sometimes locked a bit in our perception of how forums should be when we in fact do have to adapt.

 

[Alpha1]

That is exactly what is going on for us as well. We encounter the exact same examples that @Kirby posted. We get the 'how do I post?' post a few times a week. People do not know how they got there, they do not understand how to browse forums, they do not know what OS, browser, URL, webpage, website, antivirus, they are using. They just click on links and use search. Its extremely bizarre, but this is the reality we live in.

Like @Kirby says: Facebook/Instagram/Whatsapp/SnapChat users are something entirely different than Reddit users. But even the Reddit app has been extremely dumbed down so that Facebook grannies are able to reply to threads.

 

[Kirby]

Somewhat unrelated but still another great example for not trusting users ability to perform "complex" tasks:
We do get several tickets every week from users asking for help in restoring access to their account because they lost the password and don't remember username and email, any information in their profile that might help to identify an account or any post they made in the past.
Yet they contact us and ask for help

 

[Alpha1]

Yes, happens many times a week.