New UI feedback - missing a lot of things?

App Feedback UX Feedback
1

Hi.

First: Thank you for working on Mastodon and trying to make it better! I love Mastodon because of the decentralization, openness, and integration with Fediverse.

Now the new UI feedback. On the web, mastodon.social.

The new UI is a bit of surprise. And not a positive one TBH. But let’s see, perhaps I didn’t get it yet? So, in no particular order:

  • The layout. A bit confusing.
    • I do see:
      • Private mentions → Messages - good :slight_smile:
      • Saved / bookmarks
    • Even after clicking around, I do not see:
      • Trending
      • Live feeds
      • Favorited - gone?
      • My own lists - is that now the Custom feeds?
      • Collections - also the Custom feeds? Is this feature gone?
    • It’s ok if these go left and the post writing has a popup.
      • But these should definitely disappear. I use them a lot. Without them, Mastodon far less useful. Please explain where can I get these in the basic view.
    • If the motivation for this “simpler” layout is to make it simpler for new users:
      • Could there be a third layout, which would not hide these? Or an option that would make them appear?
  • The theme. The background. There is no theme which would have just white background. That makes me literally sick (as in, weird feeling looking at the page). I have tried all themes and all are tinted this way. Please remove and leave it on a grayscale.
  • Writing a post: Confusing: “Public” dropdown duplicates the thing in the “cog wheel” menu? Perhaps remove in one of the places?
  • The look is too roundy. Feels like 2000’s. Please reduce the corner diameter to what it used to be - I guess 2px. Also for the buttons.
    • The settings is still less round (and that’s fine)
  • Avatars are now rounds, too? This is something that happened 5 years ago on other platforms, and it’s not really too great, as it clips the avatar and removes visual info vital to recognize the avatar. Please keep the squarkle (with more towards the “squa”.)
  • New reaction icons - okay, probably more clear to new users.
  • The font: IMHO better - easier to read than the little bold one.

Thanks for reviewing my feedback, and again, thanks for all the great work! I love Mastodon, and promote it all around the internet :wink:

4 Likes
2

Thanks for your feedback.

Trending → Explore
Live feeds → Fediverse Feeds
Favorited → Saved
Lists → Custom Feeds

Collections can be found in the Account Settings menu next to your account name in the bottom-left corner:

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1 Like
3

Thanks. I will learn the changes. But some I still can’t find:

  • I do not see “Fediverse Feeds” anywhere.
  • Saved is now merged with favorites?
    I just want to bookmark some posts, not all that I favorite. Favoriting means, I think others should see this (or would like to). Saving it as a bookmark means its long-term significant for me personally. This is very different functionality.
    When I go to Saved, I see the bookmarked ones. Not those I favorited.
    How can I see tje favproted ones?

Plus a note to naming:

“Explore”? Should IMHO be named Trending, because that name captures the crucial difference: Sorting by popularity rather than time, exclusively.

Explore vs Trending
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The Search bar is gone and only displayed in Explore. That’s IMHO not a good change. I use it a lot, and want it accessible in any screen, ideally without a mouse. Just a shortcut and start writing, hit enter, voi-la.

The “tag page” used to display the “Follow hashtag” button.
Hiding it, IMHO, hides this very useful feature from the new users. Especially when it is behind subtle three dots on the far-right. But that may be just my taste.

1 Like
5

I forgot, that page is disabled on mastodon.social. (But so was Public feeds before the redesign, normally.)

No, “Favorite” was renamed “Like”, and “Bookmark” was renamed “Save”. You’ll find your favourited posts in the account menu under “Liked Posts” (you can see it in the screenshot above).

2 Likes