The Devil in the Details: Polishing Raccoon's UX

As you may remember from previous articles (here and here), the way Raccoon displays group accounts is a bit special.

Forum Mode: simple by design¶

Instead of opening them in Classic mode like regular accounts (with four sections: Posts, Posts & Replies, Pinned, Media), groups are displayed in Forum mode with a single section.

This layout¹ has the purpose of giving prominence to the "aggregator-like" feature of Friendica, and the screen structure is intentionally simple.

The screen title displays the group name, while the main content is a refreshable list of top-level posts, each of which is the root topic of a discussion thread. Full stop.

Spotting the missing bit¶

In my main Friendica instance, I have a group account which I use to communicate news and receive feedback. I check it out from time to time to see whether there are bug reports or feature requests.

I don't know how it could have happened… probably because I've always had more important aspects to focus on, but it was not until very recently that I realized Forum mode was missing a crucial bit.

There are basically two ways a user can interact with a group:

1. Participating in the discussion by either:
   • creating a new thread, which translates to creating a new top-level post mentioning the group;²
   • adding a reply to an existing thread;
2. Joining the group, which translates to following the account.

In Raccoon, the first kind of interaction had been implemented, documented and optimized. But what about the second one?

No button, no dedicated item in the top app bar actions menu, nothing. Absolutely nothing.

The only way to actually join the group was (ironically) to switch back to Classic mode and use the relationship button which is shown for regular accounts.

Small details, big impact¶

In order to solve this quite important usability flaw, I chose to implement a header card, very similar to the one used for regular users, except that it is vertically more compact³ to keep the focus on the discussion.

It is weird that I am only realizing this after almost two years, of project development.

However, since groups are a minority of accounts in the current Fediverse, this oversight could go unnoticed.

The telltale sign was a user comment asking to make Classic mode the default, which got me wondering why: what could make a user miss the classic view?

This is part of a continuous effort to make the UI more functional and appealing. I've also recently restyled the app info dialog to have a "fresher" layout (more concise texts, custom logos, etc.).

I am also trying to make interactions with groups easier, literally "a touch of a finger away" for everyone, because it is one of the most powerful and interesting features of the Fediverse.