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Comment by moe | Hacker News Reader

UX Research, eh?

Let's just say your downvote on the original comment didn't make a dent, so much for a quick, unrepresentative poll. What I call Common Sense is ultimately no more than the essence of past UX research and can be obtained by a mere glance at what prevails in the grand petri dish.

Cf. Altavista/Google, Myspace/Facebook, and the rise of Apple for just a few major case studies in the area of UI clutter. With regard to the siren-song of social-lockin I'll recommend to study the fate of Ping, which exemplifies what happens when even the big guys try to go against the grain.

If you find a piece of formal "UX Research" claiming anything else then I'd be curious to see it.

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I really hope you see the irony at some point that you're complaining about social elements in an inherently social page element: the comments section.

And I didn't downvote your original comment, so I have no idea what you're talking about. Then again, I don't understand why people are sensitive about fake internet points to begin with.

And suddenly the formal "UX research" is out of the picture - now that was quick.

irony ... complaining about social elements in an inherently social page element: the comments section.

That statement makes no sense. So you wouldn't mind HN adding all sorts of widgets, because it was social to begin with?

Further if you read the thread again you'll notice that nowhere did I complain about social elements per se.

How is formal UX research out of the picture? I asked you for some, you refused. If you're not going to even bother backing up your claim I'm not going to bother discussing it any more.

I applied the gist of what I gathered from UX studies that I have seen, made plenty of claims based on that, and backed it with observations from the real world.

Since you started out so keen on science I would have expected you to effortlessly debunk my claims with hard facts or at least a coherent counter-argument. Too bad that fizzled out so quickly...

Now you're just jumping through hoops to avoid linking to anything concrete. It's a shame, I was looking forward to hearing real arguments from you, instead of a fabricated "common sense."

Sorry, I'm still not clear what exactly you want from me. A paper explaining why clutter is universally bad? Seriously?

You try so hard to come across as if you had a remote clue about the UX field, yet you want to debate one of the most basic premises?

May I suggest to review the standard works (you have them on your shelf, I know you do);

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-%20Usability/dp/032...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/156205810X/

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385267746/

Somehow you must have forgotten, well, everything, since you last read them.

That's okay, happens to the best of us. However, you might come across a little less unarmed if you could at least memorize the title of Krug's book.

Thanks for playing anyways.

And again, you're completely missing the point. One user's UI clutter is another user's essential UI component. Doing actual UX studies on your interface is essential (which I assume Disqus has done thoroughly).

Your original comments claimed that a mythical "the user" doesn't care about the Reactions, Community, or star buttons, citing "common sense." That's not a UX study. That's you trying to spin your personal opinion as fact. Which is cute, but is not useful criticism in the slightest.

which I assume Disqus has done thoroughly

And your assumption is based on what?

Just by looking at the result it's obvious they haven't.

That's not a UX study

Exactly. It's the common sense that you would possess if you had been involved with any similar project of significant size. And I'll proceed to criticize obvious violations of well established common sense without performing studies on other peoples sites, thank you very much.

"the user" doesn't care about the Reactions, Community, or star buttons

Yes, it's still common sense. And quoting what I said does still not make a counter-argument. If the user cares about "Reactions" then where did all those useful pingback-listings go that used to trail every blog post? If he cares about detached community-silos then why can't even Apple make one work? And when was the last time you've seen a useful star-rating on a comment-thread outside an established forum?

That's you trying to spin your personal opinion as fact.

My spin must be pretty good then since you still haven't even tried to dispute any of my claims or references. Oh wait, actually you have once. Turned out not so well...

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