UXUser Experience ofEllo: Ello! orMellow?

UX OF ELLOELLO! OR MELLOW?

ELLO SAYS:

“Ello is a simple, beautiful, and ad-free social network […].”

WE SAY:

We like Ello! Its straightforward design and the clear navigation are appealing. The Ello vision and its user experience make a good match. Tip to the hat, chaps!

Sorry, however, and even if that sounds old-fashioned: There are some usability flaws left.

https://ello.co/wtf/post/about

Simple design – simple challenges

USERS FEEDBACK

34 respondents (Non Ello Users) had a short look at Ellos privacy settings and answered one simple question:

Which of the switch button below do you think is saying “YES”?

UX OF ELLOOPINION POLL: PRIVACY SETTINGS

or

https://ello.co/settings

OPINION POLL: PRIVACY SETTINGS

68%

32%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

grey (activated)

white (activated)

UX OF ELLO

RESEARCH FACT

Only 68 % of participants stated that the grey coloured switch button is activated. So one third of all users in our random sample was wrong or at least insecure about the actual privacy settings.

THE REASON: Lacking self-descriptiveness of the button design

THE RISK: The UX might be weakened by this gap between the Ello vision and its design reality.

SUGGESTION

The design of switch buttons is frequently discussed in the design community. We assume that less errors would occur when the contrast is higher or if the activated buttons are highlighted.

Which “Switch Button“ do you believe is activated?

UX OF ELLOREGISTRATION PROCESS REVISITED

We did not attempt to review the whole UX of Ello.

It intrigued us, however, if the ‘open sesame’ AKA ‘registration process’ reflects the Ello vision – or if it needs veritable gate crashing qualities to enter.

UX OF ELLOREGISTRATION

WE THINK…

— During registration, it can happen that users make errors when…

» the user name wasn’t available anymore

» the password didn’t match security requirements

— None of this was obvious first, so we had to try again and again.

— No helpful feedback what was wrong, was providedFun. Not.

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https://ello.co/enter

UX OF ELLOREGISTRATION

WE THINK…

The “prove you are a human“ game rigorously breaks with Ellosvisual style. It thus does not appear to be part of the process and can be overseen despite its visual dominance. A sudden stop at registration can be the result.

» We saw users struggling and stop the sign up, because they did not see the game

» So, will users sign up, once they have to stop for a few seconds?

— Once this barrier is taken, the “Create Account“ button seems to lack affordance.

» The game is fun, and draws a lot of attention.

» Will users step out of the game and resume the sign-up process? Will they see the “Create Account” button?

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https://ello.co/enter

UX OF ELLO100 % AWESOME

RESPONSIVE DESIGN

We tried Ello on different devices and OS. On all mobiles it is amazing.

In our experience, Ello’s responsive design is state-of-the-art. We can easily recognize key features across devices, feel at home immediately and don’t have to learn many new interactions.

Thank you, Ello for responsive design and flexibility.

UX OF ELLOOUR CONCLUSION

ELLO IS SIMPLE AND BEAUTIFUL

Ello’s focus is on content. The design is clear and crisp, and doesn‘t distract from the content.

But sometimes we need the design to help us find the right way - and give us feedback, when we need help.

DEAR ELLO! SIMPLE, BEAUTIFUL AND AD-FREE –BUT SOME UI POLISHING STILL NEEDS TO BE DONE. .

Great design experience needsgreat user experience.

www.uid.com

Malte KrökelUSABILITY ENGINEER

malte.kroekel@uid.com

Tobias LimbachTEAM MANAGER USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN

tobias.limbach@uid.com

UX OF ELLOSOURCES FOR PICTURES

1) https://ello.co/friends („say Ello“ on slide 1)

2) https://ello.co/wtf/post/about (About on slide 2)

3) https://ello.co/settings (Settings on slide 4)

4) https://ello.co/enter (Registration process on slide 6 and 7)

5) Slide 8 © Tobias Limbach