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The Sphinn button
Went Hot: August 23, 2007 - 3:02 am
Posted By: perkoch 683 days ago
Topic Type: Discussion
Category: Sphinn Zone
The reason I ask is that I have seen several users clicking on the button to cast a vote and not on the "Sphinn it" text link below (heck, I was one of them myself in the beginning).
Sphinn may be loosing some votes this way.
11 Comments
Comments
I blogged about this recently aswell, I was a button clicker before I noticed the text :)
Duh, yep, took me a few days to realize that stuff I thought I sphunn actually wasn't.
Yup, shove all functionality into the widget and remove the text. It's plain irritating. Also, it's still buggy -sometimes it counts spinns immediately, sometimes I need a few clicks on the text until the vote counter changes- and awfully slowing down page load times on archive pages carrying multiple sphinn widgets.
The text is used as an indicator to let you know if you've already sphunn an article or not, so that won't be going away.
We recently removed the clickability of the button, as that confused people (it previously linked directly to the post at Sphinn). The button functioned as the buttons at Digg do, so we didn't originally think it would be problematic for users - and that clicking the text below would be intuitive. That turned out not to be the case, so the button is no longer clickable.
I didn't mean removing the information is a bright idea, just putting it as extra text below an image irritates folks. Perhaps you can design a widget that has a rectangle around the counter *and* the text?
Thank you... I wondered why it wasn't counting my Sphinns! Now I know. Sphinn - fix it!
I find myself clicking on the button. Seems natural to do so.
Am I missing something? Why not make the button clickable as a voting mechanism and not a link to anywhere and still have the text change from Sphinn to Sphunn too? That is what would be most intuitive for me and I suspect most other new users.
I am NOT a programmer so if that is a dumb question don't slap me with any dead fish; smile that I was willing to stick my neck out.
Even though many will have experience at Digg, not everyone using Sphinn has ever used Digg. That will be even more true in the future.
While we're on the subject of usability, if you don't have a copy of Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Every person involved in any online business should have one. Give one to your designer, your programmer, your advertising people - EVERYONE. Web Site Usability is critical to overall success.
Until I get the info on his book up on my new blog check out the links to the free chapters and an interview with Steve in the first post of the sticky thread at http://www.searchengineforums.com/apps/searchengine.forums/action::thread/forum::ppc/thread::1151631157/
Ahhhhh, I thought there was something wrong with my browser not allowing me to sphinn!! Now I know. Thanks so much!
If we think those commenting should always give a sphinn, why not automate that. Code it so that you automatically give a sphinn when you submit your comment. Otherwise people forget.
Nope. Sometimes I comment on stories I really don't want to sphinn.