
Facebook and How UIs Twist Your Words - leavjenn
https://medium.com/user-experience-design-1/facebook-and-how-uis-twist-your-words-4ceedc5fd93#.uyy3wr30p
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morgante
I think it's very important to note that the writer of this post deliberately
split the chat version into 4 separate messages instead of one, while it's
really only a single message (and you can send a single message with line
breaks on Facebook).

This changes the perception drastically and, more importantly, isn't a fair
comparison. The "control" wasn't presented as 4 different messages and it
makes total sense that sending more messages would appear more desperate.

Consider other mediums:

* Phone: someone leaving 4 voicemails in a row is perceived as _super_ desperate in comparison to someone who leaves a single voicemail of the same total length. This is literally a sitcom trope.

* Email: someone sending 4 different emails (1 per paragraph) would definitely create a different (negative) impression than someone sending a single email

The author pretends to be demonstrating a way that the Facebook UI twists a
message but is actually just affirming what is likely a universal trait of
messaging: sending more messages before a response signals social awkwardness
and desperation.

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eddd
It might look like this because new line in facebook chat is "shift+enter", I
believe only a few percent of facebook users know that shortcut. So if you
want to create a longer message on facebook than "sup? wanna hangout?" you
probably will compose a few messages and treat them as one.

~~~
amelius
> It might look like this because new line in facebook chat is "shift+enter"

Sadly, it depends on the exact input field used. I believe that in full-
conversation, "shift+enter" means "send", but in brief mode, "shift+enter"
means "newline".

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mattlutze
Shift+enter is new line in all the contexts, though. Are you quite certain
you've seen it elsewise?

~~~
wodenokoto
There used to be a difference between what shift+enter meant on facebook. I'm
glad to hear they corrected it.

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chatmasta
One of my friends includes line breaks in his iMessages, which I find strange
because it takes extra effort to accomplish the same effect of sending
multiple messages. But it also allows me only one chance to respond. I can't
respond to his first paragraph while he's typing the second, because he sent
them both at the same time.

This makes me think that the critical difference between the "Chat" and "Full"
case is the number of messages, not the UI. I would expect similar results if
the "Full" case was three separate messages as opposed to one message in
multiple paragraphs. A better "Control" case would have been a single message
in the chat UI, with line breaks (i.e. shift+enter while in FB chat), in order
to eliminate text density as a variable.

Dividing one message into multiple creates anxiety for the reader by obscuring
when the writer expects a response. Each individual message could stand on its
own, but the writer does not expect a response to each. When three messages
are condensed into one, the reader has an easier time inferring that the
writer expects only one response to the whole message, not one to each
individual paragraph.

This seems to relate to the feeling of sending two highly coupled messages in
quick succession, only to lose service just after the first one says
"Delivered."

~~~
lazaroclapp
Or worse: having only the second message delivered and being then asked to re-
send the first one, which will now show after what logically was supposed to
be the second part.

~~~
WaxProlix
Basically Hipchat.

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pilif
I really think that the message can be adjusted to the medium it is conveyed
over. Chat is meant for quick one line exchanges and I do believe that the
long message was not appropriate for a chat exchange.

The same way an email is way less formal than a written letter or those rare
SMSes from relatives that come full with salutation and signature.

Heck, even in a forum like this one: we don't add the salutation nor
signature, but in an email we would.

Context matters a lot and the ability to adjust the message to match the
context is also part of communication skill.

The reason why I believe that chat is different from mail or a forum post is
that chat messages cause your phone to make sounds and/or vibrate. They are
shown on your home screen where they also will share the screen estate with
other people's messages. Shorter messages are more useful.

~~~
2bitencryption
Which makes Facebook's case interesting, since you can't control through which
UI your recipient will view your message.

I once had to reconnect with someone whom I only know how to contact via
Facebook, and sent an email-style message broken into a few short paragraphs.
I did this in the "full screen" messages window, and later happened to view my
sent message in the tiny chat box.

If I had received that huge message in a tiny chat box I would have had a very
negative reaction: "Ugh, what does THIS guy want and what's he rambling
about?"

~~~
pilif
I haven't used facebook in s long time, but I would have said that messages
posted on people's walls (the more emails looking screenshot) are different
from Facebook messenger chat messages (the chat looking screenshot), so it's
totally up to the user to decide which one is posted where. At least that was
the case in 2011ish when I last used FB

~~~
underwater
The email style message view is the same chat content in a different UI. It's
a full screen view that looks vaguely like Outlook - message threads are
listed on the left and the majority of the screen is dedicated to reading the
messages.

It's much nicer to use for browsing your message history or writing something
more detailed without having to mess around with tiny chat windows.

There is also [https://www.messenger.com/](https://www.messenger.com/), which
is a similar UI but available as standalone site.

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theknarf
I don't agree that it's the UI that makes the difference here. I think it's
the context. In an "email" like context, it's not uncommon to write a few
sentences. However in a chat its usual only to write one or two sentences,
wait for a response, and then respond to that again. Its not an mail that your
sending and hoping to receive a response later, its instant chat. If you had
just said "Hey, what a show last night! Pretty sure my ears will be ringing
for the next week. lol", and then waited for a response before writing
anything more, then you probably wouldn't look that desperate. It's not about
the UI, it's about the expectations for the medium.

~~~
natdempk
I'm glad someone else realized this too. The author didn't try to tailor the
message to the medium and as a result his control is the medium that the
message is best targeted towards. Not a great control if you ask me. I think
tailoring the message to the medium is the main takeaway here rather than the
conclusions the author drew.

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jasonwen
So the takeaway is always send less words as you don't know on what device the
recipient will read it.

You can guess however where the user will read your message on. Business
related it's most probably an email client on a desktop. Sending personal
messages most likely on phone. So format accordingly.

In this sitation its better to format: "Hey! It was great meeting you! Pretty
sure my ears will be ringing for the next week haha"

And then wait for the girls reply. Regardless on the device she reads, it will
look good and doesn't come off as needy. Then your next message will be to ask
her out on Saturday. And if she doesn't reply, she's not into you and leave it
there ;)

Or we should invent responsive texts, depending on the device it adds or
removes words...

~~~
objectivistbrit
> So the takeaway is always send less words as you don't know on what device
> the recipient will read it.

The real takeaway is to learn to judge the character of the people you meet,
and not to waste time with vapid morons who are intimidated by four paragraph
messages. How are you going to have any kind of meaningful adult relationship
with such a creature? Even assuming that you don't want a relationship, and
merely want to navigate her arbitrary tests for long enough to score a quick
sexual fling -- what's the point? You jumped through some hoops and scored a
pointless hedonistic trophy. Whoop.

This is my problem with advice like yours. You change your behaviour to avoid
coming across as "needy" \-- _but you 're still making your primary goal
winning the approval of an irrational person_. Be more selective, know your
own value, understand what kind of person _you_ value -- then just be
straightforward and direct when you do meet that kind of person.

~~~
jasonwen
I wish the world was just like you described. Everyone be a rational
meaningful responsible adult. But it's far from perfect and to fit in you need
to adjust and then suddenly people call you "social".

This applies for interacting with people, businesses, be to the point, and
concise, so there's less noise for misinterpretation.

~~~
objectivistbrit
Most aren't, but some are. You give up something priceless if you adjust to
fit in -- and though it's hard not to, you don't need to.

~~~
jasonwen
I think age has to do something with this too. I'm in my twenties and I do
both have groups of friends who are working and who are student. Obviously
maturity and responsibility comes with age and experience.

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AznHisoka
It's not only UI's twist words. It's surveys and the questions they ask. The
fact they ask "How desperate is her?", makes me view them as some level of
desperate. But I never found her desperate in the first place until he asked
me.

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vjeux
Would be nice to have the charts start at 0. Otherwise the delta looks bigger
than it really is.

~~~
foota
Funny how an article about presentation skewing interpretation (most likely
unintentionally) does the same.

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im2w1l
One weird trick: Use "cliffhangers". They make it apparent that it is a
coherent whole

Hey! What a show last night! Pretty sure my ears will be ringing for the

next week. lol. It was great meeting you. I’m surprised we hadn’t met before;
we have

so many mutual friends. We should hangout. Free on Saturday? I know a great

coffee shop near Chinatown that has a killer view.

~~~
wingerlang
That would look really strange.

~~~
crottypeter
It might look strange but it would at least look like the original user
crafted the entire message at once.

I think the appearance of 'desperation' arises in the reader's head because it
looks like the author was hoping to receive a reply after each sentence (even
if they weren't).

i.e. when received as several messages it _looks_ like

Hello.

Are you there?

Why are you ignoring me?

Why is everyone ignoring me?

I have no life?

Waaaaaah?

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bhauer
An observation based on my own interpretation of the three: As someone who
doesn't use Facebook, I instinctively interpreted the _Facebook Chat_
screenshot as a mobile-to-mobile communication medium. I interpreted the
others as platforms that involve full-size keyboards.

That alone makes the Facebook Chat conversation appear more laborious. I
imagine the time that went into typing all of those words on a phone versus
the comparatively effortless scenario of typing the same paragraphs of text on
a regular computer. The different apparent expenditure of effort weighs
significantly on my own judgment of the three.

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vicbrooker
I don't think that there's enough to say here that anything is inherently due
to the UI until the context of it being on Facebook is removed.

I would bet that are broadly acceptable use cases for FB chat and ones that
are not. At best, this is saying that in the context of a chat, communicating
like this comes off differently than using the full conversation, or, say, an
email.

I'd love to see this repeated with white labeled mockups, and remove the
Facebook branding as a variable.

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tremguy
I've always thought about this when responding to emails in clients where the
text in the mail you are replying to is formatted differently than the text in
your input window. Sometimes the incoming mail may look like a huge wall of
text compared to the one you are typing due to fewer column count and you are
feeling this pressure to put more text into the response as your text looks so
pale because the input window is wider.

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js8
I find it fascinating how much people give into first impressions in dating,
given the fact that when you have a baby with someone, it's an affair for at
least 20 years.

It is an open question whether super-rational AI will spell doom for humanity,
but I am sure, it will be infinitely more boring. :-)

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ncallaway
But first impressions aren't used to make the decision for whether you should
have a baby with someone. They are used as an initial-filter to reduce the
number of people that one should invest more time in.

It's obviously impractical to put the same amount of effort into every
potential partner to determine if they're the person you want to spend 20
years with. You need a way to filter from an incredibly large number of
potential partners down to a shorter set that you can invest more time in and
get to know really well.

If there were a lot of people dating for a couple years and _then_ giving into
first impressions your point would have more traction for me. But I don't see
a way to manage the "top of the dating funnel" without giving into first
impressions.

~~~
js8
I understand they are used as filter, but isn't result just completely random,
since the first impressions are unlikely to yield very relevant information.
Since you cannot try all the potential partners anyway, why apply such a
filter at all? Why not just inspect more thoroughly anybody who randomly falls
your way?

It may be just that we want to have a feeling of being in control.

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pofjer
This is something I have been rambling about in front of others for quite some
time, but I haven't gone as far as to actually look into it more closely like
what you did with this survey. So definitely a good read and thanks for
putting the effort!

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HappyTypist
To add to what others have said, this isn't really testing uis. This is
testing different forms of media. A letter is obviously inappropriate in IM,
and text speak is inappropriate in a paper.

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philip1209
I wonder how this varies by country. Does this interface seem friendlier in
China?

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GBond
Sounds like Alex had no chance to start, regardless of the UI.

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soared
Interesting concept but the post was pretty weak. I keep finding this
happening on Medium: I'm intrigued by the subject, but the post ends
significantly too early. Optimal length is 7 minutes, you should use it.

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forgingahead
This probably has a little to do with UI (and it is an interesting post,
thanks for doing the research), and a lot to do with the general inability of
millenials today to socialize properly with other humans. "Eww, what a novel"
says more about the recipient than the person sending the message.

~~~
crottypeter
It _IS_ about UI! Users don't know how to insert line-breaks! (non-
discoverable).

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golergka
(1) Chat and email have different purposes and etiquette , people are aware of
that. Test message is definitely an email, and that's how it looks in full
text view. (2) You don't have to send each paragraph in it's own message. (3)
You usually switch to conversation view once you already heavily engaged in
conversation, which makes long messages more acceptable.

