04.29.08
A UX Critique of Digg
Well, this is one thing which really bothers me and I wish they would change how this particular section of digg works. But you know, advertisers are the ultimate customer, and more pageviews = more dollars.
Here you can see the left hand portion of Digg, where most stories appear and can be dugg. Note that here, clicking on a title, intuitively, brings you to the story in question. If you want amusing, inane drivel from the digg community, you can click on the big yellow box or on the ‘more…’ button.
This makes sense and I would count this as basic good design. Clear functionality and acts as you believe it will. Unlike the column next to it, which exhibits completely different behavior!
Here you see the ‘Top in’ section, located on the right hand of the page. Unlike the main page, when you click a title here, you go the aforementioned inane drivel section, instead of the story in question. I don’t want to know more, indeed, the social proof of a story’s worthiness has placed it in the ‘Top in’ section, so I don’t need to know more to know it’s going to be interesting. If I wanted to read more from the enlightened digg community, I’d click on the yellow box.
That’s it.
Don’t force me through another page of your site to boost your metrics, not as if digg doesn’t get enough views.
If you don’t know anything about what I’m talking about. You can either:
a) Visit digg.com
or
b) Go outside and enjoy some fresh air away from the computer.
I recommend b.
