A small UI change to promote more site support

This is an idea I once suggested in a post comment, some simple steps to make players more aware of the option to become a site supporter:

  1. Create a new icon to display next to the name of all site supporters. This should appear wherever their name appears, just like their rank. (e.g. “Azver [3k] :purple_heart:”, where I’m using the heart emoji to fill in for whatever symbol you’d create)
  2. When a user mouses over the symbol, a tooltip should pop up that says, “Site Supporter”
  3. The symbol should be hyperlinked to the Support OGS page. (p.s. the “Site Supporter” text that appears on supporters’ profile pages should also be hyperlinked to the action page.)

Note: the current UI is already part way there. It already highlights supporters’ names by rendering them in gold, and also places a gold circle to their left when they appear in chats, so I’m just suggesting we go a little further. Make the symbol more expressive, ubiquitous, and meaningfully positioned (a nondescript dot before the name only in chat is less noticeable and significant than a more expressive symbol after the name everywhere), give it a tooltip to immediately explain its meaning to any curious user, and allow it to link directly to the Support OGS page to make it easier for a user to take action.

2 Likes

If you click on their name, it takes you to their profile page which under their name says [site supporter] which i believe takes you to the site supporter page… IMO everything you want already exists, and I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking for? (other than a hover over affect for the golden orb)

1 Like

I’m suggesting incremental improvements in each part of that, that’s all. The “Site Supporter” label on players’ profiles does not in fact currently link to the Support OGS page, for example. It would be easy to fix that, and you might secure more conversions that way. It doesn’t take much – sometimes just one extra required click or search through a menu – to cause a casual user to give up the trail and turn their attention elsewhere. And the gold orb in chats isn’t very meaningful. If you changed it to something more expressive and used it everywhere, it might pique more users’ curiosity. And if a user gets curious, you want to satisfy that curiosity instantly, by providing hover text, the usual way that UI components explain themselves to users. And finally, you want to make it clickable, just like the “Site Supporter” label on profiles, so the curious user can be brought at once to where you want them.

You’re absolutely right that none of this is very major, but UX designers talk all the time about how easy changes like these can make a big difference.

3 Likes

My understanding is that most of what you have suggested should be a part of the front end. Have you considered coding it yourself and submitting a pull request?

Yeah, it wouldn’t require anything from the back end beyond what’s already available.

I might actually try jumping into the development pool some day, but I currently have other projects queued up ahead of it, and so can only submit suggestions for now.

1 Like

Maybe this is something @GreenAsJade could look into?

Fantastic idea!! More yummies for supporters!

This topic was automatically closed 91 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.