Head down OPW
10/1 '14
I've been working like a beast on OPW front end stuff related to ease of use and transparency (not the visual kind).
It's really important to me that websites take the time to explain through clear user interfaces what the hell is going on with you, your data and your metadata. Only through transparency can someone be even reasonably certain about what risks they are taking online.
To this end, if you take a look at someone else's profile page, you will now see a clear enumeration of what keys that person has to your locked posts, as well as "following" indicators for both directions.
So now, with just a glance of a person's profile page, you know exactly what your privacy exposure is with that person. I'm really happy about this, and hope you find it as useful as I do.
You can also now unfollow -- as well as follow -- directly from the profile page, by clicking the appropriate buttons.
I will soon add functionality for you to be able to edit a person's keys directly on their profile page. In the meantime you could unfollow and refollow someone and get the key editor pop-up, but this is clumsy and also sends a notification to the user about the following, which could be confusing.
We are also working on a list of policies, rights, responsibilities and safety disclosures. It's longer than I really want it to be because there's a lot of stuff to explain, but on the other hand I think transparency is not just about great UX, it's also about great documentation.
I did give you a new feature, too -- a user biography! You can add a short bio to your profile page by clicking Edit bio on your own page. (Click on my name on this post to see my bio so you know what it looks like.)
Enjoy!
Very, very helpful.
Thank you so much! This site is a treat to use!
Folks can currently edit locks from their "friends" page, or from an individual post they are writing, without following and unfollowing people in the process. But you are correct that if that's your mindset - if what you're thinking about is *this person*, as opposed to *this post* or *all my acquaintances generally* - then it is currently still a little awkward. Appreciating your steps to improve that.
Is it the case that each post has a collection of locks attached to it, and that if I have given any key that opens any lock on a post to a person, they are able to unlock (i.e., see) the post?
[A more general comment: there appear to be a lot of different mini-icons that are within a font definition here. I don't see them, because (for accessibility reasons) I make a lot of restrictions on websites: I see them in white-on-black, and I read them in Baskerville because I can actually read it comfortably. Ironically, the design here, now that I'm looking at it in whatever-is-the-actual-font, looks very good, but since most websites don't hold to that standard, I see this website, also, in Baskerville, which doesn't have your font-based widgets.]
And, yeah, the icons are font based for load speed and size/color flexibility. If your filtering allows certain fonts through, this one is one to add as it is becoming widely used.
Thanks for the kind words about the design. I'm doing my best.