One tap to open reaction menu

[Ozzy47]

On mobile it is rather annoying to open the reaction menu. I would like to see the menu open by one tap rather than pressing down.

 

[Neutral Singh]

Well, it's exactly like how Facebook does. One tap for a like and pressing down for the menu. How can this be improved on a mobile device?

 

[Ozzy47]

By simply opening on a tap, that's what I would like to see. I don't use Facebook nor am I concerned how they do things.

 

[RobinHood]

Well, it's exactly like how Facebook does. One tap for a like and pressing down for the menu. How can this be improved on a mobile device?

That's how it works on the app, which is fine when every aspect of the UI is finely controlled and defined by the app.

The XF implementation is for a web browser, which causes big issues across various devices and browsers.

I completely agree with this, I find reactions pretty much unusable on my iPhone at the moment and propose taps only, which works very well with the add on from Xon as explained here

I’m having a tough time with reactions on mobile safari ios here, I keep activating peek and pop due to force touch, or just not working.

I think a single tap on mobile should give you the reaction menu instantly. That’s how I have it setup with @Xon’s version and it’s nice and snappy.

A second tap on the same location (over the ‘Like’ text), activates a like, alternatively a second tap over any of the reaction icons activates that reaction (including the like icon)

 

[Martok]

That's how it works on the app, which is fine when every aspect of the UI is finely controlled and defined by the app.

It also works like this in the browser when using Facebook on a mobile device (I prefer m.facebook.com to the app). Somehow they have it so that only the reactions appear when you press and hold, you never get the menu that you get when pressing and holding on links. So tap to like and press and hold to get reactions works perfectly on there, hopefully the XF devs can replicate this.

 

[RobinHood]

Ahh okay, I've never used the web browser version.

I still think taps are better though, long press isn't as instant and feels like more of an alternate right click option.

Plus with the tap option you don't get accidental likes, and therefore accidental notifications sent. The second tap will always be the reaction confirmation, whether it's on the text or an icon from the pop up menu. A third tap undoes the reaction.

This becomes more important on sites that have negative or neutral feedback reactions or users that have never even used a long press in their life so wouldn't think to try it. At least with a tap they'd immediately see the full reaction menu presented to them.

 

[Ozzy47]

A tap to open the menu makes life much easier.

 

[SyTry]

+1

 

[Wilouness]

A tap to open the menu makes life much easier.

This is what the theme house reaction addon does !! You can choose between two options.

 

[Sadiq6210]

A tap to open the menu makes life much easier.

+1

 

[Ozzy47]

+1

You need to like the first post the thread to show your support.

 

[RobinHood]

Reposting here as the other thread is duped

I'm not sure the reaction menu being accessible from long press on mobile is the best option, I think there's a few issues with it being long press on a web site.

First of all, long press on mobile web is generally used as a mobile right click to bring up a native mobile os menu. It doesn't have a widespread use of being used for interacting with the site on a large number of web sites (I've only seen it used on facebook, no where else). This means it's not an action that many people use regularly already when browsing the web unless they're avid facebook mobile web users.

This effectively hides the reaction menu from those who have never used one before and makes it hard to discover, because they may not think to hold down on the Like button to see more options unless they're specifically instructed to do so.

Then there's the issue with long press on phones with touch sensitive screens, I regularly accidentally activate peek on my iPhone when trying to long press the like button and I think I've got pretty good dexterity. If you're instructing the users of your forums that they need to long press on the like button to access this new feature I think there will be a decent subset of users who also associate pushing hard with a long press, because they're not used to it, so will also activate this. I witness this when teaching some users who to copy and paste text using long press functionality in native apps, they often push very hard instinctively.

There is then also the case of accidentally liking by tapping, when you may intend to react differently, which requires the long press. In which case you will have to undo the like, and re do the action. This will result in erroneous and multiple push notifications being sent to that user.

If it was a single tap to bring up the menu, then a single tap to choose your reaction, this would help mitigate this. It would also expose all the reactions to a user every time they use the feature, encouraging users to make use of reactions other than like, and giving a greater diversity of reactions given to all posts.

Some may argue that it means it will mean you always need two taps for like if you change it to this way, yes that's the case. But two quick light taps I think is better than forcing users to use two different input methods to action different reactions, that are part of the same feature.

I've been using the tap to expose the menu, tap to select on my XF2 site with @Xon s add on for ages now on mobile, and it's great.

This is also the default behaviour that IPS uses on mobile, it works well and feel much snappier and easier to use rather than waiting for long presses. Every other action to engage with buttons in XF is via tap, keeping it consistent will help make it easier to use. I think it's definitely better than long press and it should be the default way of engaging with reactions on mobile.

View attachment 190133

 

[RobinHood]

View attachment 049485C4-9EFA-46E2-A628-3B28A2AE6936.MP4

 

[Mr Lucky]

I agree this is very confusing. The issue is compounded by the link to the reactions menu saying "Like" because people just think it is a like button and so only tap on it for a like, not thinking they tap on it to see the menu. Of course we can change that in Phrases.

Also there is inconsistency between desktop and mobile, as well as inconsistency with other click behaviour on xenForo (and other software).

On desktop a click makes a like BUT hover brings up the whole reactions menu
On mobile a tap makes a like BUT you have to tap and hold. to see the menu

I mentioned in another thread and was suggested I say it here. This kind of flies in the face of what @Chris D said about consistent behaviour in the nav menu dropdown discussion in which some people wanted back the old hover to see dropdown behaviour. In the post here hover to reveal a menu is no longer a good thing:

[QUOTE ="Chris D"]Not really consistent with just a mobile UI in general. You'd be hard pushed these days to find hover to activate menus anywhere in any software. If you broaden that to even desktop OS' and apps then click to activate is pretty much universally the expected behaviour.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]
And yet with reactions there is now a hover to activate a menu (so that is inconsistent)

It would be better (and consistent) if a click or tap opened the menu, then a second click or tap to make the reaction of your choice.

NB: in the other thread Chris has clarified that there is a difference

Reactions are not a menu. They are a tooltip.

And I do get that, but to lots of users it's the same thing. With the navigation the menu drops down, with the reactions tooltip the menu drops up.

 

[RobinHood]

I'd say reactions are more like a menu. It might look like a tooltip, but they're interactive and allow user interaction.

Tooltips are usually purely informational pop ups that don't allow interaction.

I don't think the phrasing would matter if it was tap to open, as it's would be obvious when the menu appears that you can either confirm a like or choose from the array of additional reactions.

That's how IPS does it and it works fine on mobile. I was going to record a video but their community is broken and won't recognise my email address on mobile even though I'm logged into it just fine on desktop and can verify it's the right email God their site is hard to navigate.

 

[Mr Lucky]

The way Xon's Content rating works is ideal.

You know that a menu will open as there is a triangle next the word Rate


Plus a click opens it on desktop and a tap opens it on mobile.

Consistent and user friendly.

 

[RobinHood]

Plus a click opens it on desktop and a tap opens it on mobile.

I really like the native hover of the XF2 implementation on desktop, but with the current tap to show of Xon's on mobile. Best of both world's IMO

 

[Masetrix]

+1 ....

 

[DM426]

I agree this is very confusing. The issue is compounded by the link to the reactions menu saying "Like" because people just think it is a like button and so only tap on it for a like, not thinking they tap on it to see the menu.

It would be better (and consistent) if a click or tap opened the menu, then a second click or tap to make the reaction of your choice.

Absolutely agree.

Users simply don't understand the reactions are even there as an option, because it basically just looks and works like a simple 'Like' button, defeating the entire purpose. There's no point in having a reaction system is no one knows it's there.

 

[Mr Lucky]

I agree this is very confusing. The issue is compounded by the link to the reactions menu saying "Like" because people just think it is a like button and so only tap on it for a like, not thinking they tap on it to see the menu. Of course we can change that in Phrases.

I was wrong. If you change the phrase for the menu from Like to Ratings or reactions or whatever, then it also changes the name of the actual like.