505861 - Clicking a thumbnail should not set user's persona

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Websites Graveyard :: getpersonas.com, defect)

Description

[Alex Buchanan [:abuchanan]]

Hey.  While I was blindly clicking around getpersonas.com, I ran into this, and it felt awkward, so here I am.

STR:
1) On any page with a persona thumbnail

2) Hover your mouse over the thumbnail (don't click!). If you have personas installed, your current persona will change to show a preview (cool trick!).  Hover out and your original persona is restored.

3) Now, click that thumbnail.  Your persona will be permanently changed to the thumbnail you clicked.


After some thought, I realized this is probably meant to be a feature, and a useful one at that (live preview).

But, I think that clicking a thumbnail in this case overlaps with other common Internet actions, like wanting to see more details about the something (which is what I was trying to do).  We're currently doing both AND we have a "wear this" button.  

In summary, I can see how this is useful, but it was certainly confusing to me at first and that means it could be confusing for a lot of people.  Also, just moving my mouse around the page makes Personas freak out as I hover over each thumbnail (separate bug?).

I'm not sure what the best solution is.  It could involve any of the following:
1) Remove mousehover actions, add a "Preview" button 
2) Only permanently set the persona when I click "wear this"
3) Show a user message saying "Hey! We changed your persona permanently.  If that's not what you wanted, click here to restore your old one"

You get the point.  What do you think?

Comment 1

[Zandr Milewski [:zandr]]

I vote for 2!

This was the very first thing that annoyed me when I started playing with Personas. It's a very common UI convention on the web that clicking a thumbnail and the name next to it are equivalent. In this case, they aren't.

Comment 2

[Ryan Doherty (:rdoherty)]

I agree this is not a good user experience. And it actually was a feature, bug 488491 . I vote for #2.

Comment 3

[Alex Buchanan [:abuchanan]]

just wanted to clarify, the options aren't mutually exclusive.  I think having a living preview of a persona is useful, and could easily be implemented by making a "Preview" button

Comment 4

[Suneel]

Let's go with option #2, and see how people feel about it. The goal then is to make the result of "clicking on a thumbnail" the same as the result of clicking on "view details". 

So, just so we're clear, here is the flow:

1. Go to the gallery page (http://getpersonas.com/gallery/All/Popular)

2. Click on Groovy Blue. This takes you to the design detail page (http://getpersonas.com/persona/33) -- the same action as "view details"

3. Click on "wear this" to change your persona to "Groovy Blue"

Note that for "movers and shakers" on the homepage, there is no "view details" link, but those thumbnails should still navigate to the detail page instead of setting a new design.

Comment 5

[Zandr Milewski [:zandr]]

Of course, once you're on the design detail page, shouldn't mousing over the preview_large image give you a preview like the thumbnail does?

Comment 6

[Suneel]

filed 505882 for that fix. I don't see any downside, but Ryan can post additional thoughts in the bug in case there are other considerations.

Comment 7

[Ryan Doherty (:rdoherty)]

http://hg.mozilla.org/labs/personas/rev/fa35e464d44f

No downsides that I can see :)

Comment 8

[Vishal Kamdar [:vish_moz]]

clicking on a persona thumbnail does set your browser to that persona
permanently.

Ryan's working on it.

Comment 9

[Ryan Doherty (:rdoherty)]

just committed fix, should show up in ~10 mins.

Comment 10

[Vishal Kamdar [:vish_moz]]

Verified, FIXED.

Verified on Mac/Linux/Windows