Lack of interest [Suggestion] profile / user card access is inconsistent

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Jake Bunce

Well-known member
I found myself a bit confused when trying to get to my profile page. I was looking for a direct link to my profile page, shortcutting my user card. Long short... profile / user card access is inconsistent.

When clicking my avatar in the Jake Bunce menu on the top it goes to edit my avatar which is inconsistent with other avatar links which go to the user card. That may be an efficient way for the user to edit their avatar, but it's also overloaded and potentially confusing for some one who has been browsing the forum and is used to avatar -> user card. There is already an Avatar link in that menu, so it's redundant anyways.

I can click my username in the Jake Bunce menu, or my username in the Signed in as Jake Bunce text on the forumhome. That goes directly to my profile page which is what I was looking for, but it's still inconsistent with other username links like those in the postbit which go to the usercard.

I suggest making all avatars / usernames link to the user card for consistency. Then give the logged in user a dedicated link for their own profile page. This should be part of the Jake Bunce menu where other direct links are.
 
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I'd just like to bump this because it's a valid point.
On the quick links, clicking 'avatar' has the same function as clicking your avatar photo - this is useless IMO!

No point re-quoting everything Jake said, read up ;)
 
As I do not have an avatar (as of yet) I just thought clicking my avatar took me to the edit avatar as a reminder to upload one.

+1 to this suggestion.
 
I should note that I have actually watched someone (not a site owner) sign up and try to figure out how to set their avatar. Clicking the avatar was the first thing she did (and at the time, it was going to the member card).

So I'm a bit torn as to what's a better behavior.
 
I found myself a bit confused when trying to get to my profile page. I was looking for a direct link to my profile page, shortcutting my user card. Long short... profile / user card access is inconsistent.

When clicking my avatar in the Jake Bunce menu on the top it goes to edit my avatar which is inconsistent with other avatar links which go to the user card. That may be an efficient way for the user to edit their avatar, but it's also overloaded and potentially confusing for some one who has been browsing the forum and is used to avatar -> user card. There is already an Avatar link in that menu, so it's redundant anyways.

I completely agree with everything you say there.

Supported!
 
Personally I quite like how it is now.

It takes 2 clicks at most to get to my profile, 1 if I use middle click or open in new tab.

The tooltip on mouseover states "Edit your avatar" so for me it works fine.
 
When clicking my avatar in the Jake Bunce menu on the top it goes to edit my avatar...

I can click my username in the Jake Bunce menu, or my username in the Signed in as Jake Bunce text on the forumhome. That goes directly to my profile page which is what I was looking for, but it's still inconsistent with other username links like those in the postbit which go to the usercard.

I suggest making all avatars / usernames link to the user card for consistency. Then give the logged in user a dedicated link for their own profile page. This should be part of the Jake Bunce menu where other direct links are.

1 - clicking on my own avatar in my own card and having the 'change avatar' menu come up incredibly confusing to me, and I am sure to my vb3 users. They almost never change their avatars. I believe when people click on their own avatar it should go to what you are referring to as their own profile page.

2 - I do not see Signed in as Abomination on the forumhome anywhere, but clicking on my name in the upper right hand corner of my screen takes me to a page I believe you are referring to as the profile page where comments where left and a list of people I am following and who is following me show up.
edit: ok, now I see it, and it goes to my profile page, which I think is perfect.


3 - No, and yes. Clicking on the name in the upper right hand corner could go to the user card, that makes sense, or to their profile page. If it does go to their user card I see no reason to that the user name or avatar should not go to their profile page, just like it does for all other users - I see no reason for a dedicated link on peoples on profile card, clicking on the avatar or username in the user card should be quite sufficient.

3b - I see absolutely no reason people need another method to get to their profile page. Having another link to click on in the dropdown menu is adding more things in an area with many options already. (if anything a link to 'threads I started' should be in there which would add functionality). If people are taken to their profile page when they click on their own name that should be sufficient or if they are taken to their user card they can click on their name or avatar.

3c - it would probably be simplest to simply go to peoples profile page when clicking on their name in the upper right hand corner, because that could be more familer to them and really would be efficient.

I hope to get feedback on this, these types of things are really important to me, because we have thousands of low tech people that like things really simple and easy to use.

edit: to summarize what I just said, I think things work well, but if people went to their profile page instead of their edit avatar page that would be far more consistent and expected operation for (at least our) users.
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I agree that there does need to be easier access to our full profile.

What do you mean 'full' profile? If you click on your name in the upper right hand corner you get your profile page that everyone else sees. If you click on Your Account it goes to your account with watched threads in it and a column of options on the left (similar to usercp).
 
I found it confusing myself...
like Jake, I learned that by clicking an avatar while viewing a thread the user card is displayed (popup) ... when I was viewing my personal dropdown (settings) menu I expected the same behavior when clicking on my avatar but was introduced with something different

With that said, I do think the behavior should stay as is.
However, I believe the avatar display needs to look different so that the reader doesn't expect the same behavior.
 
I should note that I have actually watched someone (not a site owner) sign up and try to figure out how to set their avatar. Clicking the avatar was the first thing she did (and at the time, it was going to the member card).

So I'm a bit torn as to what's a better behavior.

Edit avatar:
Regarding editing the avatar... what about a mouse-over effect that shows an edit link, but only when you mouse-over your own avatar. Otherwise all avatar clicks would pull up the user card for consistency.

Direct profile linking:
Regarding a direct link to your profile page... I am going to think out loud here. What about making the profile page into full a navbar tab? You could perhaps overload it with one of the existing tabs like the Jake Bunce menu. Or perhaps overload the Your Account menu with our profile tab.

More focus on profile page:
I am also going to digress a little bit and talk about profile page focus. The profile pages are great in XF, but they still feel a little bit like an aside next to the forum. I propose that you put all personal account-related stuff into the profile page, and then make the profile page more prominent. I had the thought to replace the Your Account menu completely with a profile page tab, then move all account shortcuts into our profile page. So the profile page/tab would become the place to manage our prefs and see all personal stuff like profile posts and personal conservations. It would become as important a landing place as Home and Forums whose tabs would be right next to the profile tab. You might also give the admin the option to make the profile page the default index after a user logs in, for admins who want to run a more social site.

Getting back to what you said about the user who was trying to edit their avatar... I suspect that if you put all that stuff into the profile and then make the profile more prominent then it will be intuitive for many users that they need to go to their profile to edit stuff.
 
Edit avatar:
Regarding editing the avatar... what about a mouse-over effect that shows an edit link, but only when you mouse-over your own avatar. Otherwise all avatar clicks would pull up the user card for consistency.
Smart idea. People associate items with functions, so if an avatar brings up a user card they expect it to do that all the time.


Direct profile linking:

Regarding a direct link to your profile page... I am going to think out loud here. What about making the profile page into full a navbar tab? You could perhaps overload it with one of the existing tabs like the Jake Bunce menu. Or perhaps overload the Your Account menu with our profile tab.
I like the thought of a menu that corresponds to your username. It makes sense that all of your information will be under your username! But it might look a little duplicated with the quick links menu on the right that says your username, unless you scrapped that.

More focus on profile page:

I am also going to digress a little bit and talk about profile page focus. The profile pages are great in XF, but they still feel a little bit like an aside next to the forum. I propose that you put all personal account-related stuff into the profile page, and then make the profile page more prominent. I had the thought to replace the Your Account menu completely with a profile page tab, then move all account shortcuts into our profile page. So the profile page/tab would become the place to manage our prefs and see all personal stuff like profile posts and personal conservations. It would become as important a landing place as Home and Forums whose tabs would be right next to the profile tab. You might also give the admin the option to make the profile page the default index after a user logs in, for admins who want to run a more social site.
I'd also like inline editing of profile fields (like vBulletin) where you click the pencil icon and can edit that text box right there.
 
I'd just like to bump this because it's a valid point.
On the quick links, clicking 'avatar' has the same function as clicking your avatar photo - this is useless IMO!

No point re-quoting everything Jake said, read up ;)

Duplicate paths to the same function are *not* useless. From a UI perspective, you *should* have multiple ways to access the same thing, if all those multiple ways are intuitive and are paths people naturally take to get there. The software should be intuitive enough so that documentation is not necessary.
 
I'd also like inline editing of profile fields (like vBulletin) where you click the pencil icon and can edit that text box right there.
To expand upon that, I'd like to see staff be able to edit people's profiles in the same way. Screw the Admin CP :)
 
Duplicate paths to the same function are *not* useless. From a UI perspective, you *should* have multiple ways to access the same thing, if all those multiple ways are intuitive and are paths people naturally take to get there. The software should be intuitive enough so that documentation is not necessary.
I get what you're saying but two ways to get to your avatar on the same pop-up? There's an 'Avatar' hyperlink that does exactly the same function.
 
I get what you're saying but two ways to get to your avatar on the same pop-up? There's an 'Avatar' hyperlink that does exactly the same function.

Yes. If you don't think to click on the avatar, there's a link for you. If you naturally gravitated toward the avatar and click it, it's linked. Having the avatar linked in addition to the menu item adds no bloat to the menu, and serves a purpose. Win-win.
 
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