PUBLIC MARKS with tags webdesign & usability

Run instant usability studies for your website using your real users. You can get it up & running in seconds with one line of javascript, and immediately watch movies of your users’ browsing sessions to analyze their behavior.

We just rolled out a new comments system today at Digg. Redesigning one of the busiest and most vibrant comments areas on the web is pretty intimidating. Every day quite a few thousands of people participate in the comments and many more read the comments even if they're not participating. Despite its shortcomings, many people are familiar with the current system and forcing people to adapt to an altered version isn't something I took lightly.

Beginning today, we are rolling out a completely rewritten comment system. Some users may notice the changes immediately, and others may notice the new stuff several days later. In other words, this is a rolling release, and since it may contain some bugs, we'd rather only a subsection of the Newsvine population be exposed to it at this time.

These are just different ways of displaying what can be a rather long list of comments.

By far the most complex portion of the comments system was how dynamic it was going to be. Threads would be zipping in and out, we’d be creating 90% of the HTML dynamically in the DOM from JSON, posting and editing over AJAX, etc. It was during design that Micah and I also plotted to remove script.aculo.us and replace it with the smaller jQuery library. The entire comment system is, in fact, a series of jQuery plugins.

Digg has added a new comment system which, in an apparent effort to fight "comment abuse", hides replies automatically. Comments can be expanded either through clicking on 'View Replies' or using the 'Expand Tree' button in 'Comment Display Options'. The Digg Up and Digg Down buttons also have new icons.

Hola! We’re excited to launch the new Comments system – we’ve listened to your requests and feedback and have incorporated many of your suggestions. Some highlights include:

After months of work behind the scenes, vague promises up front, and half-assed hacks, today we are very excited to take the wraps off exciting new stuff for Lifehacker commenters. In order to make having conversations with your fellow readers here easier, we've just rolled out a major revamp to our site commenting system. Fresh out of the oven, our all-new "threaded comments" system organizes comment replies more logically and makes discussing the post at hand—and other users' reactions to it—easier to do and digest. Hit up any post with comments to start tinkering with the new system yourself, or read on to get the full rundown of what's changed and why.

I’ve made another improvement to the comments system, and this time I think it’s pretty innovative (well, I think the last one was as well, but I do like this one). This only works 100% correctly in Mozilla, and I’m not sure why. IE and Opera get 90% of the way there, and that’ll do until I figure out what the problem is. Anyway, on to the idea…

A progressive enhancement to <select multiple> form elements

Drupal.org prototype development • Please note: These prototype files are to indicate and demonstrate functionality only. They are not indicative of the final design of the website.

How does SocialHistory.js know? By using a cute information leak introduced by CSS. The browser colors visited links differently than non-visited links. All you have to do is load up a whole bunch of URLs for the most popular social bookmarking sites in an iframe and see which of those links are purple and which are blue. It’s not perfect (which, from a privacy perspective, is at least a little comforting) but it does get you 80% of the way there. The best/worst part is that this information leak probably won’t be plugged because it’s a fundamental feature of the browser.

This blog is where I share what I’m passionate about and what’s currently got my attention in the realm of User Experience (UX), User Centred Design (UCD), Information Architecture (IA), Interaction Design (IxD), and Usability. I’m particularly interested in where these things intersect with Social Design and have a great interest in how social environments online shape us and how we shape them, and how we as designers should be getting involved in improving our social experience online. My name is Leisa Reichelt. I do freelance contextual research and user centred design. I’m based in London but have quite a bit of experience working remotely.