I'm a fan of Open Source and have a growing interest in serverless and edge computing. I'm not a big fan of spiders, but they're doing good work eating bugs. I also stream on Twitch.
In my experience, the button should convey the action. Although the button says Following, that does not indicate what it should do. If we take a page from Twitter's UX, hovering over the button when it says Following, changes the text to Unfollow, the intended action. So I think it's OK to show the current state potentially, but in the end before it's pressed, it should convey the actual action about to happen.
Update... Just adding this comment here as I forgot to mention mobile
Good point about touch/mobile with hover. I should have took a bit more time before answering. 🙃
Looks like Twitter on mobile just shows Following and when you click it, you get the same prompt as desktop prompting you to make sure you really want to unfollow. I agree having just unfollow text would have made sense here like you suggest.
What is interesting is that with Twitter, even as something as non-destructive as unfollowing someone, they prompt to confirm so even if you didn't understand the meaning of the button, you've got a second chance with a more complete description.
That's no surprise, as Twitter focuses on maximizing engagement from its users.
They really don't want you to unfollow anyone. 🙈
They now even prompt you what the handles you follow like and follow themselves... Quite annoying. 🙄
The unfollow on Twitter can be pretty destructive, in that if you unfollow somewhat who is private, you have to request permission to follow again (so it's very clear to that person that you unfollowed). I'm a fan of any action that can be difficult to redo easily (or may have unintended consequences) getting a two step confirmation.
I'm a fan of Open Source and have a growing interest in serverless and edge computing. I'm not a big fan of spiders, but they're doing good work eating bugs. I also stream on Twitch.
Java Web Developer with a passion for Spring and cloud computing. Know a thing or two about AWS. Trying to learn NodeJS lately with the help of TypeScript.
I thought exactly the same example about Twitter. I think it is always good to convey the action. When I see a "Following" button I somewhat feel that I spend a split of second to understand that it is a button and it may be used to unfollow someone. On Twitter if you hover over it you have no doubt about it. However, this is not true for the app which makes me think what we can do to convey the action and state at the same time on mobile apps.
I've been a professional C, Perl, PHP and Python developer.
I'm an ex-sysadmin from the late 20th century.
These days I do more Javascript and CSS and whatnot, and promote UX and accessibility.
Here's an example of the worst possible combination of things, courtesy of Quora:
It says "Follow", but that's not an action, because the tiny tick indicates I'm already following. I have no idea what happens if I click on "All notifs" and don't want to try.
This is a huge part of mobile UI that I think a lot of people overlook if they're more focused on desktop. I think you should always design as though hover is not an option, only using it to add extra clarity, but not relying on it to convey the meaning of a button, etc.
I'm a fan of Open Source and have a growing interest in serverless and edge computing. I'm not a big fan of spiders, but they're doing good work eating bugs. I also stream on Twitch.
Good point about touch/mobile with hover. I should have took a bit more time before answering. 🙃
Looks like Twitter on mobile just shows Following and when you click it, you get the same prompt as desktop prompting you to make sure you really want to unfollow. I agree having just unfollow text would have made sense here like you suggest.
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In my experience, the button should convey the action. Although the button says Following, that does not indicate what it should do. If we take a page from Twitter's UX, hovering over the button when it says Following, changes the text to Unfollow, the intended action. So I think it's OK to show the current state potentially, but in the end before it's pressed, it should convey the actual action about to happen.
Update... Just adding this comment here as I forgot to mention mobile
Good point about touch/mobile with hover. I should have took a bit more time before answering. 🙃
Looks like Twitter on mobile just shows Following and when you click it, you get the same prompt as desktop prompting you to make sure you really want to unfollow. I agree having just unfollow text would have made sense here like you suggest.
What is interesting is that with Twitter, even as something as non-destructive as unfollowing someone, they prompt to confirm so even if you didn't understand the meaning of the button, you've got a second chance with a more complete description.
That's no surprise, as Twitter focuses on maximizing engagement from its users.
They really don't want you to unfollow anyone. 🙈
They now even prompt you what the handles you follow like and follow themselves... Quite annoying. 🙄
The
unfollowon Twitter can be pretty destructive, in that if you unfollow somewhat who is private, you have to request permission to follow again (so it's very clear to that person that you unfollowed). I'm a fan of any action that can be difficult to redo easily (or may have unintended consequences) getting a two step confirmation.Well, at least they prompt you before you unfollow.
I thought exactly the same example about Twitter. I think it is always good to convey the action. When I see a "Following" button I somewhat feel that I spend a split of second to understand that it is a button and it may be used to unfollow someone. On Twitter if you hover over it you have no doubt about it. However, this is not true for the app which makes me think what we can do to convey the action and state at the same time on mobile apps.
Here's an example of the worst possible combination of things, courtesy of Quora:
It says "Follow", but that's not an action, because the tiny tick indicates I'm already following. I have no idea what happens if I click on "All notifs" and don't want to try.
This. Confuses me every time.
What about touch devices? They don't have hover effects.
This is a huge part of mobile UI that I think a lot of people overlook if they're more focused on desktop. I think you should always design as though hover is not an option, only using it to add extra clarity, but not relying on it to convey the meaning of a button, etc.
I answered it here.
Good point about touch/mobile with hover. I should have took a bit more time before answering. 🙃
Looks like Twitter on mobile just shows Following and when you click it, you get the same prompt as desktop prompting you to make sure you really want to unfollow. I agree having just unfollow text would have made sense here like you suggest.