Howdy all, I'm wrestling with a small difference around forum behavior that I hope will generate some interesting conversation here.
When you return to a forum that you are a member of (you have an account and are logged in), and that forum displays the count of unread posts for each discussion topic (12 unread out of 50), which of these two options makes more sense from an end-user point of view: - Clicking on the link delivers you to the last post you read - Clicking on the link delivers you to the first post you haven't read The difference is small and in many instances it doesn't have a large impact, but there are a couple of views that can impact the setup: A) A user returning after a lengthy absence may benefit from reviewing the last post they saw to regain context. B) An active user may be annoyed that they are taken to something they have just read, when they were expecting to see the next discussion post This is complicated further when the last read post is the last item on Page 1, and the first unread post is the first item on Page 2. If the user is taken to the last post on Page 1, the active user must click again to get into the conversation. If the user is taken to the first item on Page 2, the user who is returning after a length of time may not remember the text and tone of the previous discussion points. Any thoughts, real world experiences or recommendations would be very appreciated. Cheers, Alex ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
