Denest: A different way to read threaded comments

Denest: A different way to read threaded comments(alizain.github.io)

3 points by alizainf 9 years ago | 4 comments

mcherm 9 years ago |

Hmm...

Definitely DIFFERENT, and I ought to give it a deeper try before giving serious feedback. But I'll go ahead and give my initial impressions anyway since you asked. My first thought is that I don't like it much. Probably because there is too much that isn't visible: I can only see the one path through the tree that I am currently engaging with.

It might be better if there were some kind of indications to the left and right that gave the user some sense of the rest of the tree so they felt like they were navigating around through a tree rather than simply "swiping left or right" in an oddly hierarchical fashion.

alizainf 9 years ago | |

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah it's definitely jarring at first to see just a single tree.

There are indicators above each comment to show which index you're on right now, and "prev"/"next" buttons to give you a better sense of other trees on either side of the comment. It's harder to show more because of space limitations, though I will continue to iterate!

mcherm 9 years ago | | |

I gave it a little thought: if the "prev" and "next" buttons included some visual indicator of how many more items there were in that direction, I think that would help a lot. Bonus points if it comes with a subtle animation that makes it look like the items are swinging into view as you navigate.

alizainf 9 years ago |

Hey everyone, original author here. I've been experimenting with ways to make threaded comments easier to read, I'd love your thoughts and feedback. When using the demo, try enabling keyboard mode, it makes navigating a lot faster and more fun!