19

Call it the big buttons for meat fingers option.

This Christmas break, I've been living my digital life primarily through my iPad. With the mobile UI, I'm severely limited in what I can do in chat. With the desktop UI, I find it difficult to hit the star and reply buttons. Trying to do so, I accidentally flagged this post. Obviously, there is no reason for this post to be flagged.

What I'm asking for is a slight UI change to the desktop version of chat to enable tablet users to effectively reply, star, and flag posts in chat. The current buttons are too small to reliably hit.

Improve this question
1
  • 7
    My ten sausages joyfully agree with this. Could also explain some of the rather odd flags in chat. I mean really, someone flags "Hello!" and you're left wondering if they just hate Lionel Richie.
    – user50049
    Commented Dec 28, 2012 at 4:15

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
12

I totally agree. Both the mobile and the tablet versions of the site have pitiful usability in comparison to the full-fat site.

  • Use the 1 cm rule
  • Make them fully functional (especially for moderators!)

Big bonus:

  • Make a native app for that. I would pay for it.
Improve this answer
2

A few things that have annoyed me:

On the iPad, the desktop version has scrolling problems. The bottom bar floats around at times , covering random parts of the conversation. If you try to type, the popup keyboard reflows the whole page. Ick.

I propose:

Make the interface look like the mobile chat site, with these improvements:

  • Have an easily accessible message-reply button
  • Show the "this message was a reply to" arrow on chat messages which are message replies
  • Don't assume that I'm not in a room if it's not the active tab. On desktop, you can see new messages and pings on the chat room <title> in inactive tabs. Also in the list on the side where it shows the chatrooms you're in. On mobile, you can do neither, so whenever I get pinged, currently it screams at me "you were mentioned in , click here to join". Which seems unnecessary to me in the case of a tablet -- it should only be done for rooms that are not in any open browser tab.
  • Easily clickable "message actions" menu with big-button options for flagging, starring, etc (mod options as well).
Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .