Summary of my thoughts regarding Threads UX:
1. Easy to get started ONLY if you have instagram. I don’t think there’s any other option to sign up. This feels weirdly gated and unpleasant.
2. An option to easily import info from instagram seems smart and convenient
3. The overall layout is clean, minimal and easy to familiarize with. I like that there are not too many options to overwhelm the sense.
4. The UI seems to encourage mindless engagement. As Mike Brock stated, it feels very much like TikTok - and endless stream of consumption, encouraging you to doom scroll forever. The feed seems to prioritize media content (especially video). I did not see many photos. Of course, this is mixed in with other short and shallow commentary.
5. I saw very little engagement in terms of replies. Most engagement is likes. This confirms my belief that Threads is a zombie doom scroller’s app. It seeks to extract your time, preferences and information and cares little about actual conversations. You have to have a big account with many followers to see much in terms of replies. Nostr is significantly better at meaningful interactions, but this could be in part because we’re so small.
6. The reload animation is very delightful. I like the micro interactions on the like button and the reload. Hope all nostr clients consider micro interactions.
7. The threading of replies is simple and intuitive. Obviously biased, but feels almost identical to Snort reply system I designed a while back, but faster / smoother (I think this is super important and what sets Threads apart).
8. The video in the feed does not feel as immersive as Damus, but works well.
9. I like how Threads handles multiple images in an easy to swipe gallery that spans the entire screen. Feels very clean and smooth.
10. The consistency between the web version and the app version is great and I think it’s important in onboarding people. Right now we have Damus and Amethyst ( I believe) both linking out to Snort and this could be a very confusing experience for users. Maybe we could make a more generic client that can be used for linking without any branding or particular styling?
11. Threads offers plenty of sharing options. The share button is within the reactions menu which is great as this minimizes any additional clicks. Many nostr clients hide the share button (primarily because we have an extra one for zaps which already makes everything look busy). We should think about how to make sharing more prominent.
12. Threads has an invite friends feature which I also like. I hope we can think about ways to make inviting more user friendly and more obvious (maybe even gamified a bit). There’s no reason a client could not give out a badge for people who invite x number of people for example.
13. One strange thing is that there are no hashtags on Threads. It is a person search and follow app. You literally cannot search for topics. This just further reinforces my belief that this app is made for maximum consumption and doesn’t really care if it’s good for humanity. Maybe it’s a planned feature for later? Who knows.. I suspect not.
14. The app over is very fast and snappy. This makes for a pleasant browsing experience and encourages to keep scrolling. There’s very little noticeable lag of any kind. I think performance is a key thing here and we can all take away from that. How do we make nostr apps smoother?
Overall I felt that the app UX and UIs are excellent. You can tell a team of professional designers poured their hearts and talent into this app.
However, the app design choices seem to push the content into the mindless doom scrolling generic category where engagement is not really encouraged or valued. To me this feels like a net negative to society.
I honestly don’t know how Zuck can sleep at night knowing this is what he is enabling, but appreciate the work by done Meta designers (however negative the consequences, you have to give them credit for creating a very smooth, simple and intuitive experience). nostr:note198vhslkxp2f6xyuyshzh777u7gtyawqr4mle2kvxs9gp6x0hajzsvw688s
